Coming from Brazil

Of the ways into Uruguay, this is the simplest: at Chuy you ride straight across. The town is split down the middle by one street — Avenida Brasil, Brazil on one side, Uruguay on the other — and the migration post sits out on the highway rather than in the town, so the crossing itself is barely a crossing. Eva Pfarrwaller and Miguel Anjo, who came through on recumbents in 2016, put it plainly: getting across at Chuy "was no hassle at all," and the tourist office on the Uruguayan side handed them maps and useful advice as soon as they arrived.

South of the border, two roads run toward Montevideo. Route 9 is the main corridor, carrying you down through Rocha toward Punta del Este and the capital; the coast's best-known stops — Cabo Polonio, Punta del Diablo, La Paloma — sit a short way off it, reached by spur roads rather than strung along it. Route 10 is the alternative, a gravel road closer to the sea; Edson Maia, a Brazilian who rode it in 2016, found the surface unpaved but in excellent condition when he passed.

If you'd rather not ride the whole way, EGA and TTL Turismo run buses from Porto Alegre through Pelotas and across at Chuy, about twelve hours; fares move around, so confirm when you book, and expect the border stop to add some time. A flight from São Paulo is the last resort — LATAM makes the short hop, but it rarely pays unless you're starting from northern Brazil.

Of the three ways in, this is the one that best explains why Uruguay works as a country to tour by bike: you arrive almost without noticing, and the road south is quiet from the first kilometre.