La Coronilla

Tiny Uruguayan beach village near Brazil, with pine-backed Atlantic sand and Parque Nacional Santa Teresa nearby.

La Coronilla is a tiny beach village on Uruguay's Atlantic coast, about 15 km south of the Brazilian border and just east of Parque Nacional Santa Teresa. It is the kind of place that barely shows up on maps — a handful of houses, a beach, and pine woods behind it.

The beach is long, generally deserted, and backed by dunes and forest. It sees almost no foreign visitors and very few Uruguayans outside of midsummer. For those looking for genuine solitude on the coast, that is exactly the point. The Fortaleza de Santa Teresa, a well-preserved 18th-century Spanish fortress at the heart of the national park, is 10 kilometres south and makes an easy excursion.

Guide

Getting There

La Coronilla is on Route 9, the main road between Montevideo and the Brazilian border at Chuy. The village is about 305 kilometres east of Montevideo — roughly four hours by bus. Several companies run regular services from Montevideo's Tres Cruces terminal to Chuy, stopping at La Coronilla on request. The bus stop is on Route 9 at the edge of the village.

If you are driving from Brazil, La Coronilla is 36 kilometres south of the border crossing at Chuy — about 30 minutes. Chuy itself has fuel, a supermarket, and a handful of restaurants; La Coronilla has none of these in any reliable form, so stock up before arriving.

Guide

Things to Do

La Coronilla is a place to decompress rather than tick off sights. The beach is long and almost always empty; walking it at low tide, past the dunes and into the pine forest, takes as long as you want it to. The Fortaleza de Santa Teresa and the national park are a short drive south and make a good half-day excursion.