Uruguay · Departamento de Maldonado
Where to Stay in Maldonado, Departamento de Maldonado
Maldonado is a city of southeast Uruguay near the Atlantic, an old colonial town beside the great beach resort of Punta del Este.
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Where to stay in Maldonado
The right area depends on your trip — here's what each neighbourhood is best for.
Where you stay in Maldonado turns on the old town or the resort. The centre around the square keeps the cathedral, the museums, and the market within a walk, and staying downtown suits anyone here for the town. The sea lies just south.
Palms shade the old plaza. Out toward the point and the coast, the town gives way to Punta del Este, the beach towers, and the long sands of the shore. A room by the sea trades the old square for the bright resort, the warm beaches, and the wide blue of the Atlantic.
The coast runs east for miles. Stay downtown for the old town, or out for the beach. The old square and the bright coast hold the resort town.
About Maldonado
Maldonado is the old town of the Uruguayan coast.
What is Maldonado known for?
On the Atlantic in the southeast of Uruguay, beside the resort of Punta del Este, it grew as a colonial port and a market town, and it keeps the old cathedral on its square, the Spanish watchtower of the port, the beaches and headland of Punta del Este nearby, and the museums of the coast. The blue sea rolls up the sand. Palms shade the old plaza.
What are the main landmarks in Maldonado?
Punta del Este is the pride of the Maldonado country. The great beach resort on the point, its towers and sands famed across the south, is the emblem of the region, out of downtown. An old tower guards the port.
The Spanish watchtower stands by the harbour of the old town nearby, while the cathedral, the long beaches, and the coastal hills mark the country around Maldonado.
What is the history of Maldonado?
Maldonado grew as a Spanish port. The crown laid out the town by the sea in colonial days and raised a watchtower against pirates and the English. The English once held it.
In a war of the seventeen-hundreds a British fleet took Maldonado for a time, before it passed back to Spain and then to Uruguay. The coast turned to holidays. Along the point beside the town rose Punta del Este, and it grew into one of the great beach resorts of South America.
The old town kept its square. Behind the glittering coast Maldonado held its cathedral, its plaza, and its quiet colonial streets, and it grew as the town of the resort coast, keeping its square, its beaches, and its past. The waves still roll on the point.
Maldonado keeps its old town by the sea.
Where is Maldonado?
Maldonado lies in the far southeast of Uruguay, on the Atlantic coast. The city sits on a low green coast where the river Plate opens to the ocean, on the rolling grassland of the south, with the sea and the beaches to the south and the low hills and the Pan de Azúcar rising inland to the north. The sea rolls up the beaches.
Green hills stand to the north.
What is the climate of Maldonado?
Maldonado has a mild, humid Atlantic climate. Warm summers and cool winters cross the coast, with sea breezes, bright summer days, and rain spread through the year. The sun warms the long beaches.
Cool winds blow off the sea.
How do you get to Maldonado?
Maldonado lies in southeast Uruguay, on the coast east of Montevideo. The coast highway runs to it from Montevideo along the shore, and an airport serves Punta del Este. Coaches come from the capital.
Montevideo lies west down the coast.
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Updated August 2026