City Info

Punta del Este

Ten years ago the idea of Punta del Este being anything other than a beach destination for Argentinians, weekend commuters from Montevideo and the odd jetset Brazilian was so unlikely as to be absurd… OK, perhaps the occasional Spaniard with family in South America, but that was about the extent of the presence of 'Los Continentales'. Now Punta is on the tip of everyone's tongue. Americans, Germans, Dutch, British, Italians, Canadians, Japanese… even the French, not renowned for their willingness to leave their pays, are heading to Uruguay's beautiful beaches.

To announce with some nonchalance that you're off to 'Punta' is all of a sudden very chic. The perfect reply would be, 'Really? Which punta?', because Punta del Este is a cumulative term; like 'the Hamptons'. It includes Punta Ballena, La Barra, the town of Punta, and José Ignacio.

Punta Ballena is famous for the odd whale and the very odd Casapueblo - a Gaudíesque piece of organic sculpture perched on a cliff, which started as a house for the artist who built it, by hand, and ended up as a hotel.

The town of Punta, a few miles up the road from Ballena, is for those who like their sand with concrete; lots of concrete. What was once a tiny fishing village is now a mini-Miami, dominated by a skyline of high-rise apartment buildings and big casino hotels. Brazilians love it because it's flash: not everybody else does.

Further northeast, across a bridge with two humps (no joke) is La Barra, a low-rise village with plenty of boutiques, sushi bars and fashion models. It's a lot like East Hampton but more multicultural and exotic, i.e. the bikinis are smaller.

Furthest away, on the road to Gazon, all by itself, is José Ignacio, a funny name for a town but the perfect spot if you like your beaches wild, unspoiled and … beautiful. José Ignacio, and more specifically La Posada del Faro, is the place you'd rather not tell your friends about. Let them stay in La Barra instead.

Simply put, José Ignacio is nothing more than a small clump of houses on a point dividing two splendid crescent-shaped beaches. The point is defined by a faro, or lighthouse, and from a distance the houses of the town disappear behind the dunes. The prevailing ambience here is pure beach. There's a mercado in a red wooden shack; a boutique in a white wooden shack; a beach club on wooden stilts with a spectacular vista of the surfing beach; and for the grown-ups there's a handful of laidback restaurants in vividly coloured wooden shacks that just happen to feature some of the famous chefs of South America.

Text By Herbert Hypma – HIP HOTEL ATLAS.