Chuy is Uruguay's oddest border town: half practical shopping stop, half geographic curiosity. The city runs straight into Brazilian Chuí along Avenida Internacional, a dry border where you can cross countries by stepping across the street. On one side prices are in Uruguayan pesos and the conversation is Spanish; on the other, the signs tilt into Portuguese and Brazil begins without ceremony.
Most travellers come through Chuy on the way to Parque Nacional Santa Teresa, La Coronilla, or the long beaches at Barra del Chuy. The town itself is not pretty, but it has a border-town energy that is fun for a few hours: duty-free shops, buses idling for the coast, and families crossing back and forth with bags of bargains.
The best reason to linger is the landscape around it. Fuerte San Miguel, west of town, is one of Uruguay's stronger colonial forts and sits in a quiet protected area. Southeast of Chuy, the Arroyo Chuy reaches the Atlantic at a broad, windswept beach where Uruguay and Brazil meet the sea.