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Brazil Hotel Guide / Hotel Openings / Fasano Hotels / Punta del Este Hotels / Scott Mitchem / → All Tags

Brazil's Fasano Hotel to Open in Punta Del Este This December (and It's Already Sold-Out)

Where: Punta del Este, Uruguay

Brazil is hot and its going to get hotter in the next decade, thanks to the 2014 FIFA World Cup and the 2016 Summer Olympics. That's why we're having journalist Scott Mitchem, who has been traveling to Brazil for years, give us the lowdown on the country’s evolving hotel scene as well as its top players. This week he’s highlighting some of the market’s more interesting developments, starting with what’s new from the country’s premier luxury hospitality company, which is actually expanding outside of Brazil.

If you are familiar with the existing Fasano Hotels - the flagship in São Paulo and the follow-up in Rio de Janeiro – you understand the excitement surrounding the group’s first international property. The family’s century-old reputation as Brazil’s finest restaurateurs, and now one of the world’s top luxury hotel brands is well established among South America’s tastemakers, which made Punta del Este the obvious place to begin the brand’s international expansion.

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HotelChatter Questions / New Year's Eve Hotels / Punta Del Este Hotels / → All Tags

Who Knew Punta Del Este Hotels Are All Full Up for New Year's Eve?

Where: Parada 4, Punta Del Este, Uruguay

This sea lion waited too long to book a hotel room for New Year's Eve.

Got a hotel question? HotelChatter wants to answer it. Send us your questions and we'll put our team of contributors to the task. Today, Eric Rosen fields a question about hotels in Punta Del Ester, Uruguay.

Last week, we got a question from one of our readers about how to get a hotel reservation in Uruguay’s Riviera-like beach party town, Punta Del Este, for New Year’s. It went a little like this:

I was reading a 2008 article by Matt Chesterton on hotels in La Barra. We are looking to book hotels over the upcoming New Year holiday but every places seems to be booked. Do you have any tips or suggestions on getting a place for this time period? We are two adults so we don’t need a huge space. Also, what is the likelihood that there are hotels available that don’t show up in a Google search?

First things first: Though I have been to Uruguay, I have not been to Punta del Este. Still, I already knew that it is probably the most popular New Year’s destination in South America, and that it would be practically impossible to find something for our reader at this point. It's sort of like the Cancun and/or Vegas for South America--where people come from other (more conservative) South American countries to have fun and let loose. There are tons of hotels, restaurants, nightclubs, casinos, and miles and miles of beautiful beaches, but it's not dangerous like Rio.

Yet like the sea lion picture above, you may be sleeping on the beach if you've got your heart set on celebrating New Year's Eve in Punta Del Este and you haven't booked a hotel room.

But I do have a few suggestions for our reader.

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Hotel Video Tours / Uruguay Hotels / Punta del Este Hotels / → All Tags

Hotel Video Tours: La Posta del Cangrejo

Where: Km 11300, La Barra, Uruguay

The only hitch we encountered on our recent romp through Uruguay was a lack of English-language info on the country. Now, that's sorta our fault; if we knew more Spanish, there wouldn't have been an issue.

Luckily, friend-of-HotelChatter Matt Gross had visited Punta del Este before us and scouted out the hotel scene. His verdict? Avoid it. You're better off staying in La Barra, just outside the madness of downtown Punta.

He stayed at La Posta del Cangrejo, a sprawling hotel whose (only?) claim to fame is a visit by George Bush, Sr. years ago. Easy to see that, too: The place definitely appeals to the old white guy demographic.

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Uruguay Hotels / Punta del Este Hotels / Luxury Hotels / → All Tags

South American Luxury at the Mantra Resort & Spa

Where: Ruta 10 km, Jaureguiberry y Ante Milat, Punta del Este, Uruguay, Maldonado

Now, that we got an in-depth look at hotels in Buenos Aires, it's time to hop across the water to get a little luxury in Uruguay, at Mantra Resort and Spa.

A review in Luxury Latin America says Mantra

is in many respects the best hotel in Punta del Este. Guests enjoy personal service in a tranquil setting, but with a state-of-the-art spa, access to the beach, and a casino, in a location removed from the bustle of Punta del Este proper.

The Mantra is hidden in a forest rather than being right on the beach, but they make up for it by having attendants who provide ice towels on hot days by the pools, and a call-on-demand shuttle/golf cart that takes guests to the beach (five minutes away) where teak beach furniture and more attendants dole out towels, snacks and more importantly, cocktails.

Accommodations are snowy-white and sleek, and in a refreshing twist for any placed called "the best in town," high-speed Internet acceess is included in the rates.

Uruguay is mostly unknown to North Americans, but trust fund kids, models, and South American land barons have been making Punta del Este their playground for ages. (And for a while there, for some reason, this hotel was getting a lot of New Yorkers.) Just a short hop by ferry or flight from Buenos Aires, it's a good beach add-on to an Argentina trip.

Don't forget that the summers are reversed--their high season will be winding down soon. That could be a good thing though: most of the negative reviews on TripAdvisor are complaints about too many kids running around and the staff getting overwhelmed.

Related Stories:
· Mantra Beach Resort reviews [TripAdvisor]