Lola Méndez
| Special to USA TODAY
Uruguay is one of the most underrated beach destinations in South America with 410 miles of pristine coastline. The Río de la Plata creates a beach-like shore between the west of Punta del Este, Maldonado to the capital city of Montevideo. At the tip of the Punta del Este peninsula, the river collides with the Atlantic Ocean which stretches up the coast to Brazil.
The beaches in Uruguay are mostly untouched. There are few beach clubs with lounge chairs and umbrellas in the posh enclaves of Punta del Este and José Ignacio, but most beaches are raw with purely wild nature. Beach-goers tend to congregate their beach chairs (which are constantly rotated to face the sun – even if that means not facing the water) near parking lots and amenities including porta-potties and stalls selling cold soft drinks and bags of chips which are necessary beach snacks for Uruguayans along with yerba mate and, for some, a joint of legalized marijuana.
WHAT ELSE YOU CAN DO: Head over to Uruguay for some sun, sand y diversión
My childhood memories are laden with frolicking along these picture-perfect Uruguayan beaches, especially playing in the tide pools in Playa de Los Ingleses in Punta del Este, where we’d…
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