Colonia del Sacramento

Introduction

Colonia cars and buildings

© Utrecht

Colonia del Sacramento is probably the single most visited place in Uruguay and it is not difficult to see why. Although many tourists go here, the place hasn't lost anything of its colonial (what's in a name?) charm at all. Especially during early morning and late afternoon when the day visitors are leaving, the town is given back to its locals. The town can easily be visited in a day, even from Buenos Aires which is just a short boat ride away. The historic quarter of the city is placed on the Unesco World Heritage List, the only one in Uruguay.

Sleep

Upscale

Keep Connected

Internet

Antel is the only provider of landline Internet service, while Dedicado is the main provider of fixed wireless Internet service. WiFi is ubiquitous and can be found in virtually all decent hotels as well as many restaurants, cybercafes, and shopping malls.

Antel WiFi hotspots are normally available only to Antel landline Internet subscribers, unless you are in a place with free service like Carrasco International Airport, in which case a public username and password for free access are prominently posted and always username: antel password:wifi. Dedicado WiFi hotspots are free for everyone.

Phone

See also International Telephone Calls

Uruguay's country code is +598. Montevideo and suburbs have phone numbers beginning in two, while the rest of the country has phone numbers beginning with 4.

The national landline telephone monopoly is Antel, which provides all public pay phones and is also the sole provider of landline Internet service. Although Antel pay phones only take Antel's proprietary magnetic cards, it is possible to use international calling cards to call home by taking the phone off the hook, waiting for a dial tone, and dialing the correct access code. However, note that many public pay phones are not properly maintained. If you do not hear a touch tone emitted for each key, that means the phone is defective and you must try another one. Antel also operates a cell phone network, and in this field competes with two private companies, Movistar and Claro. All three have numerous kiosks and stores throughout the country. The standard is GSM and both the European (1800 MHz) and North American (1900 MHz) frequencies are used.

Post

The national postal service is Correo Uruguay. Most of their post offices are very hard to find and are open from 9:00 am to 5:00pm Monday through Friday; some are open from 9 am to 12 pm on Saturdays. Letterboxes for depositing outbound mail are made out of cheap blue translucent plastic and are extremely difficult to find outside of post offices. Some post offices have three boxes: one for the local city, one for domestic mail ("interior") and one for international ("exterior"). Uruguayan letterboxes are designed only for indoor use. Keep in mind that Correos licenses many retailers, such as pharmacies, as postal agents, and letterboxes can sometimes be found around those agents' premises as well. If you want to send packages overseas, check international companies like FedEx, DHL or UPS, as they have competitive rates and are fast.

External Links