Uruguay · South America
Where to Stay
Five zones, what each one is for, what a night typically costs, and where to book it directly.
How to read the prices: the ranges are what Booking, Hostelworld and the hotels themselves list for 2026, per night, converted to US dollars. They are typical, not quotes. Prices move with the season and the holiday calendar, and you pay in Uruguayan pesos. Foreign passport holders pay 0% VAT on lodging, which comes off automatically at check-in. Nothing on this page is paid for.
Chapter One
The Five Zones
A small resort village around the hot springs: hotels, apart-hotels and guesthouses within a short walk of the gate, many with their own thermal pool. This is the place to sleep if the pools are the point of the trip, if you are travelling with children, or if you want to be in the water before breakfast. It is quiet at night, and the city bus (UYU 45) or a taxi (about US$15; official fare and calculator) gets you to town.
- Hotel or apart-hotel, double roomMost have a pool; some have breakfastUS$80–90
- Guesthouse with pool, doubleFamily-run, a few streets from the parkUS$50–80
Town is the place to sleep if you want the restaurants and the riverfront (costanera) on foot, the bus terminal close, and the springs as a day trip. The centre has the hostels, the mid-range hotels around Plaza Artigas and Calle Uruguay, and one four-star, Salto Hotel & Casino, on the square itself at the corner of Uruguay and 25 de Agosto: 55 rooms, an outdoor pool, a gym and the casino downstairs. The old port, the tango school and the boat (lancha) to Argentina are all within walking distance.
- Hostel, dorm bedA handful of hostels; 0% VAT with a foreign passportUS$17–25
- Three-star hotel, doubleBreakfast usually includedUS$40–65
- Salto Hotel & Casino, doubleThe four-star on the main square: pool, gym, casino, breakfastfrom US$65
North of the city, on the shore of Parque del Lago, where the river widens into the lake behind the Salto Grande dam. Here the zone is one resort: Hotel Horacio Quiroga, with rooms in the main building and the Cabañas del Lago along the water, a spa with massages and full treatment programmes, hot pools fed by its own well and open around the clock, and a hot-spring hydromassage tub in every room. It is the place to sleep if you want the spa and the lake on the same property and the city as an occasional outing; a taxi from town is about US$24 and the city bus goes there too.
- Hotel room, doublePools included around the clock; spa treatments extraUS$115–140
- Cabañas del Lago, one bedroom for fourSelf-catering; breakfast and housekeeping are extrasask the resort
Uruguay's oldest hot spring, in open country an hour north of the city. This is the upscale, unhurried option: a five-star all-inclusive resort with an 18-hole golf course, a handful of hotels and apart-hotels around the municipal hot springs, and a municipal campground with powered pitches for motorhomes. By car, hired remise or the buses from the Salto terminal (4 a day, about 1 h 15).
- Five-star all-inclusive, doubleMeals, drinks and pools included; golf comes with the hotel's golf packagesfrom ~US$300
- Hotel or apart-hotel by the park, doubleSimpler, with pool accessUS$70–120
- Campground pitchMunicipal, powered, sectors 1 to 10 by the pools; a camper van, caravan or motorhome adds US$8–13 a day; cards only (October 2025)about US$7 a person
A night on a working ranch (estancia) is the Uruguay most visitors never see: horses at the gate, asado at dusk, and silence. Estancia Termal San Nicanor is the one I can point to: 14 km from town, a few kilometres past Daymán, with its own hot pools, private rooms in the old house and shared rooms for travellers on a budget. It is the night in my Termas de San Nicanor & Estancia La Aurora itinerary.
- Double in the old houseLow to high season, thermal pools includedUS$130–160
- Shared room, per personDepends on beds per room and seasonUS$30–45
Chapter Two
What Moves the Price
Salto has visitors all year. The expensive weeks are Semana de Turismo (Easter week), the July winter holidays and the long weekends, when families from both sides of the river fill the springs. Those weeks are worth booking a few days ahead; the rest of the year you can more or less turn up.
Hotels, apart-hotels, hostels and estancias invoice foreign tourists without the 22% VAT. The passport at check-in is all it takes: no forms, no refund queue.
The hot springs fill from Friday to Sunday with Uruguayan and Argentine weekenders. Midweek is cheaper and emptier, and the pools are the same.
Chapter Three
Why Zones, Not a Hotel List
Within a zone the places are much alike: a pool, a breakfast, a short walk to the water. What changes the trip is whether you wake up beside the springs, in the middle of town, or an hour out in open country. A hotel list also dates within a season, and the names that sit at the top of one are usually the names that paid for the spot. So the zone goes here, and the booking goes straight to whoever runs the place.
With the bed sorted, the question is what to do: every experience and package I can book for you, with prices.
See all experiences →Still deciding between the zones? The rest of the trip usually settles it.
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