Things to Do in Montevideo: Every Attraction, Sorted by Area and Day

The table sets the opening days of the main sights side by side, from the city tourism office (Descubrí Montevideo) and each museum's own page. Read across your travel day before you plan the route.

Monday

Monday closes the two big art addresses: MNAV, the national visual arts museum, and Palacio Taranco, the decorative arts palace on 25 de Mayo. It opens the rest. MAPI, the pre-Columbian and indigenous museum at 25 de Mayo 279, charges nothing on Mondays and runs 10:30-17:30. Museo Andes 1972 opens Monday to Friday 10:00-17:00, and the Museo del Gaucho at Cerrito 351 opens free from 10:00 to 18:00.

The museum at the Fortaleza del Cerro opens every day 10:00-18:00. A good Monday route: MAPI at 10:30, the gaucho museum at midday, then the Andes museum before it shuts at 17:00.

Sunday

Sunday belongs to the street. The Feria de Tristán Narvaja has run since 1909, from 9:00 until about 16:00 on the street of that name at 18 de Julio: books, records, antiques, spare parts, and fresh pasta stalls for the family lunch. The Parque Rodó fair circles the lake from 9:00 to 15:30.

MNAV opens late, at 13:00. Museums that shut: Museo Andes 1972, MAPI and the Museo del Gaucho. From late afternoon the drums start in Barrio Sur and Palermo, the rehearsal rounds of candombe, the Afro-Uruguayan rhythm the city is known for.

Plan the fair for the morning and the drums for the evening and Sunday is full.

Tuesday to Saturday

Tuesday to Saturday everything is open. Palacio Taranco, the decorative arts museum, runs Tuesday to Saturday 11:00-18:00, and the small museums of the Old Town keep similar short weeks. The free walking tour of the Old Town leaves the Ciudadela gate at 10:30 every day and again at 14:30 Monday to Saturday, so any weekday gives you two slots to choose from.

This is also the stretch to visit the Mercado del Puerto, Teatro Solís and the museums that close early or shut on Monday. Keep Tuesday for Palacio Taranco and MNAV if your trip is short.

The Rambla and Its Beaches

The Rambla is the city's front room. Rambla Sur was officially inaugurated on 30 December 1935 after clearing about thirty blocks between calle Reconquista and the water, a loss remembered in the tango 'Adiós mi barrio'. Today the promenade runs almost 30 km along the Río de la Plata, by the city tourism office's count, past beaches including Ramírez, Pocitos, Malvín and Verde.

All beaches are free. Lifeguards work only in beach season and raise a sanitary flag when a health risk appears. The city advises no bathing for 24 hours after rain.

Read the full guide to the Rambla and our beaches page.

Peatonal Sarandí and the Ciudadela Gate

The Puerta de la Ciudadela is the one piece left of the wall that enclosed the Spanish town founded in 1724. The wall came down by 1829, and the gate now stands between Plaza Independencia and the pedestrian street Sarandí, which was pedestrianised in 1992 and links Plaza Independencia with Plaza Matriz. Both squares are free, all day.

The easiest way to understand what you are seeing is the Ciudad Vieja walking tour, a paid listing at $20 for 2.5 hours run by Curioso, with entry to the Artigas Mausoleum, the Cabildo and Mercado del Puerto included. Separately, the city tourism office lists a tip-based free walk by the same operator from the same gate at 10:30. Our Ciudad Vieja and Plaza Independencia pages cover the blocks in detail.

MNAV in Parque Rodó

MNAV, the Museo Nacional de Artes Visuales, is the national collection of Uruguayan art and charges no entry. It opens Tuesday to Sunday 13:00-20:00 and closes Monday, which makes it an afternoon museum, not a morning one. It sits inside the 43-hectare Parque Rodó opposite Playa Ramírez, near a lake with pedal boats, the old quarries and an amusement park facing the beach.

Combine the museum with the lake walk in one visit, and on a Sunday add the craft fair that circles the lake from 9:00 to 15:30.

Museo del Gaucho y la Moneda

The gaucho museum fills the entrance hall of the Banco República head office at Cerrito 351, a building by the Italian Juan Veltroni, with six rooms behind the old bank counter. Entry is free and it opens Monday to Saturday 10:00-18:00, so it works on Mondays when most museums shut. Guided visits about the gaucho culture run hourly from 10:30, with the last at 16:30.

The collection covers criollo silverwork, sculptures by José Belloni and José Luis Zorrilla de San Martín, and silver and gold coins in the old pay desks, more than 300 pieces in all. It sits in Ciudad Vieja, so it pairs with MAPI on a Monday.

El Prado

El Prado is a 106-hectare park on the Arroyo Miguelete, north of the centre, filled with the summer villas the cattle barons built from the 1860s. Inside the park are the Museo Blanes, holding works by Juan Manuel Blanes and Pedro Figari, the Botanical Garden, the rose garden and a Japanese garden, all free. The Tour Central circuit of the official electric bus stops at Parque del Prado and the Jardín Botánico, so the hop-on hop-off bus reaches it without a taxi.

The Presidential Residence stands at the corner of Suárez and Reyes, and the Museo de la Memoria, free, opens Monday to Saturday 12:00-18:00 in an 1878 villa on the park's edge.

Candombe and the Sunday Drums

Candombe is on UNESCO's list of intangible cultural heritage, and it was born in the conventillos of Barrio Sur and Palermo, above all the Mediomundo and Reus al Sur tenements that gave the city the Cuareim and Ansina drum calls. Walk Peatonal Curuguaty, the street of candombe, from Plaza Carlos Gardel to see the murals. On Sunday evenings the rehearsal rounds of the comparsas spill into the streets If you want the show seated, the El Milongón dinner show at $107 pairs candombe, tango and folklore with a three-course dinner.

Our pages on candombe and Carnival in Uruguay carry the detail.

Teatro Solís and the Old Town After Dark

Teatro Solís opened in 1856 to a design by Carlo Zucchi and was rebuilt between 1998 and 2004, and it still anchors the Old Town's evenings. Check the programme on the theatre's own site before you fix the evening, since the hall is the reason to be in the Old Town after dark. One warning shapes the evening: the UK travel advice says avoid walking alone downtown or in the port area at night, so take a taxi or rideshare back to your hotel rather than the quiet blocks.

Read Teatro Solís, Montevideo nightlife and our page on safety in Montevideo.

The Cruise Call

Cruise ships dock at the port beside Ciudad Vieja, so the whole Old Town starts at the gangway. Walk from Mercado del Puerto, the 1868 iron hall made in Liverpool where parrilla restaurants replaced the produce stalls from the 1970s, up Peatonal Sarandí to Plaza Independencia and Palacio Salvo. That is a morning, all on foot.

If the ship leaves late, the half-day city tour welcomes cruise passengers, 3.5 hours with pickup included, and it reaches the further barrios the walk cannot. Our cruise port page explains the terminal.

The Early Start

Start at the Ciudadela gate with the Ciudad Vieja walking tour, a $20 listing run by Curioso, 2.5 hours with entry to the Artigas Mausoleum, the Cabildo and Mercado del Puerto included. After lunch, walk to Museo Andes 1972 at Rincón 619, open Monday to Friday 10:00-17:00, with the Museo Andes 1972 ticket at $8 booked ahead (the museum closes Sundays and at 15:00 on Saturdays). Spend the afternoon on the water: the small-group bike tour rides Ciudad Vieja and the Rambla with a picnic at the end and caps the group at six.

Finish at Pocitos, whose beach runs the full length of Rambla República del Perú.

The Late Arrival From Buenos Aires

The ferry from Buenos Aires takes a little over two hours, so a same-day arrival means the afternoon only. Skip the museums, which shut early. Take the hop-on hop-off bus and ride its Rambla circuit, which leaves Parque Rodó every 90 minutes from late morning and runs east past the Montevideo sign, Malvín and the Hotel Casino Carrasco, or simply walk the shore.

End with dinner at Mercado del Puerto, the 1868 iron hall whose stalls became grill restaurants. Our Buenos Aires to Montevideo page compares the ferry routes.

What to Drop as the Hours Shrink

The table starts from a full day and cuts in the order a short stop forces. Hours are the museums' own, the hop-on frequencies are the official bus company's timetable.

One, Two or Three Days

One day covers the Old Town on foot and an afternoon stretch of the Rambla. Two days add the green city: Parque Rodó with the free MNAV, Estadio Centenario, opened in 1930 for the first World Cup final won by Uruguay, and the Museo del Fútbol under the tower, which opens Monday to Saturday 10:00-17:00 and Sunday 11:00-15:00 but closes on match days, plus the viewpoint at the Fortaleza del Cerro. Three days free a day for the coast. The Punta del Este day trip at $41 runs nine hours with a Casapueblo ticket, and the Colonia day trip at $60 reaches the 1680 Portuguese quarter that UNESCO lists.

Both are listed with the rest of the day trips from Montevideo, and Montevideo hotels helps you pick a base that matches the plan.