Sweet Retreats: Finding a Vacation Rental in Uruguay Author: Lisa Marie Mercer In my article titled Taking the Why Out of Uruguay, I mentioned that its citizens were one of the major reasons to visit. Staying at a vacation rental or a small bed and breakfast provides an ideal way to get to know them. Sure, Uruguay has an ample number of hotels, and thankfully, most are not of the "big box" variety, but staying at a hotel deprives you of the sense of community that prevails in Uruguayan neighbourhoods. I discovered this on my first day in Atlantida, the coastal Uruguayan town where I now live. The Spanish school where I was taking lessons had arranged a two month rental in an a complex called Isla Negra. We entered the little cottage, which Uruguayans call "casitas," and went about the usual business of making sure that the home was suitable for occupancy.
All was well, until we came to the task of lighting the pilot light on the gas stove. Apparently, the matches that the real estate agent had brought along were damp, and not up to the task. When the neighbors heard what was going on, it became a community project, with everyone bringing dry matches to help us out. The fact that we were from "Estados Unidos" made it even more exciting. Uruguay does not have any outward hostilities against the US. In fact, they enjoy helping people learn their language, and made sure to engage us in language every day. Of course, if you were at a hotel and something wasn't working, you would call the front desk and the desk would call maintenance, but somehow that doesn't feel the same. Vacation Rental Perks Vacation rentals trump hotels rooms for a variety of reasons. Some you might not have thought of, and others are specific to Uruguay. Here are just a few of them: Cost Factors: This is particularly apropos to anyone traveling with larger groups. Let's say you have