José Ignacio Lighthouse, Parador La Huella & Circular Laguna Garzón Bridge Day Trip

Thirty kilometres north-east of Punta del Este along scenic coastal Route 10, the road passes between the kite-surfing waters of Laguna José Ignacio and the Atlantic Ocean to reach a small, windswept granite peninsula jutting two kilometres into the sea. With sandy unpaved lanes where horses and bicycles share the right of way, José Ignacio has evolved from an isolated 19th-century lighthouse station into one of South America's most sought-after coastal hideaways.

1. Faro de José Ignacio (1877), Playa Brava & Playa Mansa

• Climbing the 1877 Lighthouse at the Tip of the Cape: After a series of nineteenth-century shipwrecks on the submerged reefs off this rocky point, the Uruguayan maritime engineering firm Costa y Cía erected the 32.5-metre conical brick tower of the Faro de José Ignacio, lighting its lamp for the first time on 1 June 1877. Climbing the spiral iron staircase to the lantern balcony rewards you with a 360-degree view over the crashing Atlantic breakers, the village's low-slung timber and stone houses, and the vast mirror of Laguna José Ignacio inland; check at the lighthouse gate for current afternoon visiting hours.
• Two Beaches & Wood-Fired Coastal Dining: Like Punta del Este itself, tiny José Ignacio has its own Playa Brava on the eastern side of the peninsula and Playa Mansa on the sheltered western bay. On the wide dunes of Playa Brava sits the iconic open-air wooden beach restaurant Parador La Huella (founded in 2001 and perennially ranked among Latin America's 50 Best Restaurants for its wood-parrilla sea bass and vulcanised chocolate cake), while on Playa Mansa colourful wooden skiffs land the morning's catch of silverside (pejerrey) and croaker right on the sand.

2. Crossing Rafael Viñoly's Circular Laguna Garzón Bridge (8 km East)

• Why the Bridge Is Shaped Like a Ring Over the Water: Driving ten minutes east of José Ignacio along Route 10 brings you to the narrow sandbar dividing Laguna Garzón from the Atlantic Ocean, the natural boundary between Maldonado and Rocha Departments. For decades, cars could only cross the mouth of the lagoon two at a time on a motorized floating raft (la balsa). In December 2015, world-famous Uruguayan-born architect Rafael Viñoly (1944 to 2023) replaced the raft with the Puente de Laguna Garzón, an elevated concrete ring supported on cylindrical pillars with wide pedestrian walkways on both curves. Viñoly designed the circular loop deliberately to force drivers to slow down and take in the 360-degree panorama while allowing sunlight to reach the aquatic vegetation and birdlife of the lagoon below.