Trip Reports Day trip to Colonia worth it?

[mom]

Our day trip to Colonia turned out to be both time-consuming and expensive. The taxi journey to the Buquebus terminal took over an hour from Palermo, primarily due to ongoing construction in the Puerto Madero area and the rush hour. Despite the high cost of tickets, we initially believed it would be worth the effort of going through immigration twice.

However, the boat trip, lasting 1 hour and 15 minutes each way, combined with another immigration process on the other side, followed by yet another lengthy taxi ride back, made us question the value of the excursion.

In retrospect, we found Colonia to be an average small town with few points of interest. It felt like we wasted a valuable day that could have been better spent exploring Buenos Aires.

I hope my experience will be useful if you are thinking of visiting Colonia (Uruguay)

Regards

 

[lois33]

Upon my return from Argentina and having experienced the day trip to Colonia, I must express my concurrence with you.

Fortunately, I don't harbor significant regrets as I allocated enough time in Buenos Aires to accomplish all my planned activities. However, the day spent in Colonia was undeniably unexciting.

I wouldn't recommend it.

 

[Jenny00]

Maybe we are spoiled here with our beautiful Old San Juan and were expecting something similar. We walked from the ferry through a long street lined with restaurants and shops and lots of traffic. Nothing quaint or peaceful about that. At the end we found a small area along the water with original cobble stone streets, that was nice.

It would have been OK for a few hours, but with the time and money spent on ferry rides out and back, we would have rather explored beautiful BA.

 

[Ricrado]

It was an interesting day trip but I was seriously under whelmed by it all. Yes it has fascinating history and the walking tour was interesting but lunch at the "winery" was disappointing to say the least.
However it was a nice trip overall but I'd be hard pressed to recommend it.

 

[Jackson]

It was an interesting day trip but I was seriously under whelmed by it all. Yes it has fascinating history and the walking tour was interesting but lunch at the "winery" was disappointing to say the least.
However it was a nice trip overall but I'd be hard pressed to recommend it.

I agree! I took the Buquebus to Colonia and then took a bus to Montevideo. One thing I wasn't aware is Uruguay is very expensive!!! Be prepared for the sticker shock. Restaurants are as expensive or more than the USA. They took off IVA tax off the bill and I still paid almost $40 USD for lunch for myself.

How do the locals deal with such high prices? They can't make that much there. Everything seemed expensive.

 

[Britni]

I agree! I took the Buquebus to Colonia and then took a bus to Montevideo. One thing I wasn't aware is Uruguay is very expensive!!! Be prepared for the sticker shock. Restaurants are as expensive or more than the USA. They took off IVA tax off the bill and I still paid almost $40 USD for lunch for myself.

How do the locals deal with such high prices? They can't make that much there. Everything seemed expensive.

Yes! Uruguay is very very expensive. Like the USA. It is a nice quiet country but I was surprised how expensive it is. How do the locals there manage?

 

[StatusNomadicus]

$40 USD for lunch for myself.

oof, this is why i'm going to Paraguay for 90 days, if i can't get my Argentine tourist visa extended 90 days!

https://twitter.com/x/status/1744759105770655949

 

[Uncle Wong]

oof, this is why i'm going to Paraguay for 90 days, if i can't get my Argentine tourist visa extended 90 days!

https://twitter.com/x/status/1744759105770655949

Is there any reports of tourists not getting their tourist visa extended 90 days? I haven't read about that before.

 

[StatusNomadicus]

tourists not getting their tourist visa extended 90 days

well, no, and actually that's the point of my post...i'm not sure anyone here has actually ever done a 90-day extension with Migraciones in 2023-2024! which is pretty crazy. i know Argentines keep a lot of secrets to themselves, and it's like pulling teeth getting any sort of info that might make them feel exposed to a risk, but i don't see any Expats posting about success stories in Argentina. seems like the culture becomes one where people have an issue, figure it out with the help of a local, but then don't post about it (because they had to o something shady, and don't want to doxx themselves? dunno)

this is excluding @JoeTrip's great report about using the Migraciones website to do his 90-day extension. i think he's the only one on this forum that has said his 90-day extension got approved: https://www.expatsba.com/threads/ex...permanent-tourist-in-argentina.1327/post-7902

 

[All the Answers]

well, no, and actually that's the point of my post...i'm not sure anyone here has actually ever done a 90-day extension with Migraciones in 2023-2024! which is pretty crazy. i know Argentines keep a lot of secrets to themselves, and it's like pulling teeth getting any sort of info that might make them feel exposed to a risk, but i don't see any Expats posting about success stories in Argentina. seems like the culture becomes one where people have an issue, figure it out with the help of a local, but then don't post about it (because they had to o something shady, and don't want to doxx themselves? dunno)

this is excluding @JoeTrip's great report about using the Migraciones website to do his 90-day extension. i think he's the only one on this forum that has said his 90-day extension got approved: https://www.expatsba.com/threads/ex...permanent-tourist-in-argentina.1327/post-7902

I agree with you that there are a lot of Argentines that don't like sharing info. Many things are in the black and not too many things white "i.e. legal". So they are careful with information that they share. Or they charge for it and tell their clients not to post about it.

 

[JennyBack]

My friend has been there the past few months and just did a hop over to Uruguay. She also complained it was expensive but had no issues at all. She isn't sure how long she will stay there but had no issues.

 

[Che Vos]

This is a good vide of a guy that compares prices of things in the supermarket in Argentina and Uruguay.