José Ignacio

José Ignacio is a fishing village on a headland east of Punta del Este that became the coast's most exclusive address without ever building a tower. Its houses are low, its streets are sand, and the rule has been kept deliberately. A striped lighthouse stands at the point between two beaches, one flat and one with surf. The restaurants here are the reason many people come at all, above all the open-fire cooking that made Uruguayan grilling internationally known. Beyond the village the Laguna Garzón and its circular bridge open the coast toward Rocha. Reservations are essential in January and pointless otherwise.