I've been driving in Uruguay for five years now. I learned to drive in Italy, spent years navigating UK roundabouts, and then moved here. Uruguay is different. Not harder, not easier, just different in ways nobody tells you about.
Here is what I wish someone had told me before I got behind the wheel here.
The Roads Are Better Than You Expect
Uruguayan highways are actually decent. Route 1, Route 5, the interdepartmental roads ( most of them ) are paved, marked, and maintained. The Ruta from Montevideo to Punta del Este is a smooth drive, two lanes each way, good signage.
The problem is the secondary roads. Once you get off the main routes, you hit dirt. Not gravel, actual dirt. Ripio, they call it. After rain it's a mess. I destroyed a set of tires on a ripio road near Minas in my first year.
Driving Culture: Calm But Unpredictable
Uruguayans drive calmly. Nobody is in a hurry. This is not Italy, nobody is leaning on the horn. This is not the UK, nobody is aggressively tailgating you at 90 mph.
But unpredictability is the tradeoff. People merge without looking. Buses pull out without signaling. Motorcycles appear between lanes out of nowhere. You learn to drive defensively, not because people are aggressive, but because you genuinely cannot predict what anyone will do next.
The motos are the worst part. Half of them have no lights at night. I've nearly hit three. Now I slow down at every intersection after dark, even with right of way.
Getting a License as a Foreigner
If you have a valid license from another country, you can drive on it for the first year as a tourist. After that, you need a Uruguayan license.
The process: go to DNT ( Direccion Nacional de Transporte ), bring your residency card, your passport, your blood type certificate ( yes, really ), a medical certificate from an authorized doctor, and your foreign license. Then take a theoretical exam and a practical.
The theoretical exam is in Spanish. It's not hard if you study, but the questions are worded strangely. I failed my first attempt because I overthought a question about right of way at a roundabout.
Insurance: Get It, Don't Think About It
Third-party insurance is mandatory. Full coverage is cheap. I pay about 1,800 pesos per month ( roughly 45 USD ) for full coverage on a 2018 car. That includes theft, fire, and roadside assistance.
Claims are slow. I had someone hit my parked car in Pocitos, filed a claim, and waited four months for the payout. But they did pay. Nobody tries to scam you at the insurance level, it's just slow.
Fuel and Costs
Fuel is expensive relative to local salaries, cheap relative to Europe. A liter of nafta ( 95 octane ) is around 75 pesos, so about 1.90 USD. Diesel is slightly cheaper.
Most people fill up at Ancap stations, the state oil company. There are also a few private brands but the price difference is minimal. I use the Ancap app to track prices because some stations are 5-10 pesos more expensive than others for no reason.
# Monthly driving costs ( Montevideo, ~1000km/month )
Fuel: ~7,500 UYU ( $190 )
Insurance: ~1,800 UYU ( $45 )
Maintenance: ~2,000 UYU ( $50 )
Parking: ~3,500 UYU ( $88 )
Total: ~14,800 UYU ( $373 )
Parking in Montevideo
Parking in Montevideo is a puzzle. Most of the city has paid street parking ( parquimetros ) during business hours, usually 8am to 8pm on weekdays. You pay at a machine or through the app.
The app is called EasyPark. It works most of the time. When it doesn't, you walk to the machine, and the machine is broken, and you get a ticket. I've gotten three parking tickets in five years. All three were on days the app crashed.
Garage parking is the move if you live in Pocitos or Punta Carretas. I pay 3,500 pesos a month for a spot. Worth every penny. Street parking means checking your mirrors constantly for moto scrapes.
Long-Distance Driving: The Good Part
Driving from Montevideo to Punta del Este takes about 1 hour 45 minutes on the Ruta. To Colonia, about 2.5 hours. To the north coast, Cabo Polonio area, about 4 hours, and the last stretch is ripio.
The long-distance roads are where driving in Uruguay is actually enjoyable. Low traffic, wide open sky, very little stress. I've driven the entire coast from Montevideo to Chuy and it's one of the best road trips I've done anywhere.
The Speed Camera Situation
There are speed cameras on the main routes, especially around the tolls on the way to Punta del Este. The speed limit drops suddenly from 110 to 70 in some spots, and the cameras are right there.
Fines come in the mail weeks later. About 1,500 pesos for a minor speeding ticket. Not catastrophic, but annoying. I learned where the cameras are and I slow down. Everyone else does too, which means you see brake lights for no apparent reason on a straight road.
What I'd Do Differently
If I moved here again, I'd buy a higher car immediately. Not an SUV, just something with ground clearance. My first car was a low sedan and it suffered on every ripio road and every poorly-patched Montevideo street.
I'd also get a GPS with offline maps. Google Maps works fine in most of Uruguay, but there are dead zones on the secondary roads, especially in the north. I once drove 40 km without any signal near Tacuarembo. Not dangerous, just unsettling.
And I would learn the road signs before getting here. Some are unique to Uruguay and not intuitive. The PARE sign is the same as STOP, but the yellow diamond yield signs look different from what I was used to in Europe.
Driving here is fine once you adjust. The roads are good, the costs are reasonable, and the long-distance trips are genuinely beautiful. Just watch out for the motos.