Routes

Where to ride Uruguay, told slowly — the journeys, and the country they cross.

A route, here, is a story with the logistics inside it: where to start, where to stop, what the wind will be doing while you decide. The rides run from a single day to several, and the telling keeps their pace — no racing, no gear worship, just travel at the speed where a country becomes legible: vegetation shifting as the sea nears, the moment a beach town turns into a neighbourhood.

The collection begins where most journeys begin, on the water and the coast: a slow ferry across the delta to Carmelo and the quiet west; a century of seaside utopias read between Carrasco and Neptunia; the thirteen coastal kilometres of Ciudad de la Costa that took more than a decade to build; and the long Atlantic run from Montevideo to the car-free dunes of Cabo Polonio, in five stages. The interior — sierras, wine country, the emptier north — is next. If you're planning your own trip, start with seasons and wind and the rules of the road.

Routes

Carmelo and the quiet west

A three-hour delta crossing, a bike on deck, and Uruguay's quietest corner waiting at Carmelo.

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  Routes

  Coastal Utopias

  From Carrasco to Neptunia along the Río de la Plata shore — a half-day ride that reads a century of successive coastal utopias written into the landscape. Ester Zaha

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  Routes

  Ciudad de la Costa: the corridor that took more than a decade

  Thirteen continuous kilometres along the Canelones shore, built piece by piece over more than a decade. Pedaleando Uruguay

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  Routes

  Montevideo to Cabo Polonio: the Atlantic coast in stages

  325 kilometres from Montevideo to Cabo Polonio in five flat, forgiving stages, ending at a car-free village in the dunes. Pedaleando Uruguay

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  Routes

  Colonia del Sacramento by bike: the historic quarter

  Ride there, walk the cobbles: an honest guide to Colonia's landmarks. Pedaleando Uruguay