Montevideo Friday 20 March

[Emigrant]

Star Princess is arriving Montevideo Friday 20th March 8am departs 5pm any recommendations and advice for shore excursions?

Kathy

[Peregrina651]

Kathy --

 

Check in with the roll call for your cruise: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=577190 Not only is it a chance to meet folks who will be cruising with you but there is usually a lot of itinerary specific information shared. It is also the place to find people to share private tours with.

 

As for Montevideo, I regret not getting in a cab and seeing more of the city. We limited our visit to what we could see on foot and in retrospect, I'm sorry we did.

 

 

[2ptu/000]

We hired a driver. I can give you his email if you ask for it. Judy

[Emigrant]

We hired a driver. I can give you his email if you ask for it. Judy

Hi Judy,

Yes could we have his email please.

Thank You

Kathy

[2ptu/000]

We hired Jerry. His email is: laufransri at hotmail dot com. He speaks English very well. We had eight people in a van. He has other vehicles so can probably take less. Van could have held at the most 10 but would have been tight.

He drove us around for the day. Showed us what he thought we would like. I would have eliminated trip into residential area to see how people live and had him drop us off at square near ship to have lunch and shop at market. Drive got a little boring after awhile. Beaches are beautiful. It might be nice to have him drop you off and wait while you dip your toes in the water. There really isn't a lot of must sees in Montevideo. Hope this helps. Judy

[JEBurton]

We hired Ricardo Wall - big mistake. Even though I requested a vehicle large enough to accommodate 4, he arrived in a Toyota Corolla. And as the day wore on, the hotter it got, and his A/C couldn't keep up. After driving back and forth across the city for hours, we begged him to stop at a MacDonalds! I completely agree with Judy - limit your tour and spend some time walking around/shopping/etc.

[campanet]

We took the Princess Town and Country tour and thoroughly enjoyed it.

 

KC

[MightyQuinn]

We hired Ricardo Wall - big mistake. Even though I requested a vehicle large enough to accommodate 4, he arrived in a Toyota Corolla. And as the day wore on, the hotter it got, and his A/C couldn't keep up. After driving back and forth across the city for hours, we begged him to stop at a MacDonalds! I completely agree with Judy - limit your tour and spend some time walking around/shopping/etc.

After reading an earlier report on Ricardo that was very favorable, we contacted him to give us a 3-hr taxi tour (2 pax). Now after reading your experience, we have some dissonance. We're trying to decide whether to stick with the taxi tour OR wander around Old Town on a self-directed walk by ourselves. What would we miss if we limited ourselves to walking in the downtown area? Are there must-sees outside town? Would appreciate comments from those who have already been to Montevideo.

[dbohn4]

I have some contacts/guides for you if you want them email me d.chalupsky@gmx.de Are you interested in a winery or an estancia or just a city tour?

[MightyQuinn]

I have some contacts/guides for you if you want them email me d.chalupsky@gmx.de Are you interested in a winery or an estancia or just a city tour?

I appreciate your offer but we're not actually on your sailing! I visited this thread hoping to catch JEBurton, 2ptu/000 or any others who have experience in doing taxi tours in Montevideo. :):)

[palmettogirl]

We hired Hebert Sismondi hsis@adinet.com.uy and he was great and spoke good English. We hired him to take us to an Estancia, Don Joaquin, and it was a very nice, peaceful day away from the city anad took an hour to reach the estancia. The estancia was a beautiful bed and breakfast where they served us a wonderful breakfast that we were not expecting and a BBQ lunch. They had an apple orchard, you could ride horses, or go for a carriage ride (OK - it was pulled by a tractor). They also had a pool if you wanted to go swimming. I thought we might see them training horses but they did not. He also drove us around Montevideo when we came back. The cost was $45 each for the estancia and $300 split between 10 people. The tour was suppose to last about 5 1/2 hours but ended up being a 8 hour tour. Hebert lives in Montevideo but also does a tour in Punta del Este and we used him there too to drive us around for 4 hours and it was $20 each for 10 people.

[ricki]

Montevideo is noted for it's flea market (mostly antiques, etc) which is held on Sunday. However, a smaller version is held in the old town area when ships are in port. There are some interesting items.

 

Ricki

[MightyQuinn]

Montevideo is noted for it's flea market (mostly antiques, etc) which is held on Sunday. However, a smaller version is held in the old town area when ships are in port. There are some interesting items.

Ricki - We will be in Montevideo on a Sunday. We're going to a winery for tastings in the afternoon & are still trying to decide between a taxi tour or a walking tour in the morning. I've read pros & cons for each. Is the flea market worth a special visit? Are most of the principal attractions in Old Town? Thanks for any help.

[HRHMadonna]

We had read lovely reviews here on CC about the wine tasting & vinyard tour offered by Magdalena - Director of Marketing & Turismo at Viña Varela Zarranz.

 

www.varelazarranz.com

Tel: 364 45 87

 

We contacted her at info@varelazarranz.com and she was always prompt and helpful in all of her replies. The vinyard is an hour + from Montevideo -- a lovely drive that allowed a chance to see more of the city, the countryside & the beaches. The vinyard tour was delightful...and the wine tasting far surpassed any we'd experienced in Napa, Sonoma, France, Germany or Italy. The presentation was lovely....The food (cheeses, meats, fruits, breads) were amazing and the wines were both outstanding and plentiful.

 

The RT cab arranged by Magdalena was $60 total for 4 passengers ($15 each). The tour & wine tasting cost an additional $15 pp. We paid in US dollars.

 

We also bought several bottles of wine to take back to the ship: a wonderful savingnon blanc for $5 and reds for $5 and $8 each.

 

Magdalena was a lovely host and made the whole experience most delightful.

 

We got back into Montevideo with plenty of time to walk the old town and browse through the market area.

 

We generally like to explore on our own, but we were all glad we had arranged the trip with Magdalena as we saw so much more of the "real" Uruguay!

 

PS I learned from some fellow passengers that this vinyard & tour had been written-up in the LA Times travel section

[seemount]

You should have a look at realenglishtours.com.uy. They are British people,living in Montevideo for 30 years, and there are plenty of good references for them on cruise sites. They also have a 30-page guidebook which is downloadable from their site. They will surely be able to meet all your requirements.