Introducing Colonia del Sacramento

Take some winding, cobbled streets, add an intriguing history and put them on a gorgeous point overlooking the Río de la Plata. What do you get? A major tourist attraction.

But the snap-happy hordes can’t kill the atmosphere of ‘Colonia’. This place has got ‘it’, whatever that is, as well as enough restaurants, bars and nightlife to keep you happy for weeks.

The Portuguese founded Colonia in 1680 to smuggle goods across the Río de la Plata into Buenos Aires. The Spanish captured it in 1762 and held it until 1777, when tax reforms finally permitted foreign goods to proceed directly to Buenos Aires.