Best Private Montevideo Shore Excursion: City Tour. Optional WineTasting Tour.

Montevideo, Uruguay

6 hours (approx.)
Pickup offered
Group discounts
Mobile ticket
Offered in: English

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Overview

See the top attractions of Montevideo on a private shore excursion with your own guide. You’ll visit several coastal barrios, stroll the Rambla of Montevideo and see highlights such as Independence Plaza, Constitution Square, and Parliament Palace—all at your own pace rather than rushing. Opt to extend your half-day excursion with a winemaking tour at a local vineyard and a tasting of Uruguay’s award-winning tannat wine.

Check off plenty of highlights in one convenient tour
Connect with your guide for an insider's perspective of Montevideo
Visit off-the-beaten-path places that most travelers miss
Upgrade to include an optional winery tour with a tasting of Uruguay’s award-winning tannat wine

What's Included

Professional guide
Port pickup and drop-off
Wine tasting + empanadas (if option selected)
Viator's worry-free policy

Food and drinks
Wine tasting + empanadas (if option not selected)
Gratuities

Meeting and Pickup

Pickup points

Select a pickup point

Itinerary

After your cruise ship pulls into port in Montevideo, your private guide whisks you away for a half-day sightseeing tour of the Uruguayan capital. Travel to the city’s major landmarks, starting your shore excursion at Independence Plaza (Plaza Independencia), situated on the border of Old City.

View the impressive statue of José Artigas — a monument to the national military hero — and admire the 26-story Palacio Salvo (Palacio Legislativo), once the tallest building in South America. Walk with your guide to the opposite end of the plaza to see Puerta de la Ciudadela, one of the few surviving remnants of the city wall that once encircled colonial Montevideo.

Next, you’re driven to the residential neighborhood of El Prado, whose tree-lined streets feature early 20th-century mansions. See Prado Park before you pass through Parque Batlle, a barrio and major public central park, home to Estadio Centenario, the national soccer stadium.

Relax on the scenic drive through elegant Carrasco and stroll along a section of La Rambla, a beachside promenade boasting coastal views. After your half-day tour, you’re transferred back to the Montevideo port.

Optional Winery Tour with Wine TastingIf you’re a wine lover who wishes to learn about Uruguay’s winemaking tradition, upgrade your shore excursion for a winery and vineyard tour. You’ll taste an award-winning tannat wine — red wine made from tannat grapes, one of the most prominent grape varieties used in Uruguayan wine.

Worry-free Shore Excursion:

We will ensure your timely return to the Montevideo port for this activity. In the rare event your ship has departed, we will arrange for transportation to the next port-of-call. If your ship is delayed and you are unable to attend this activity, your money will be refunded. See our terms and conditions for full details.

Port of Call Montevideo (Pass By)

Palacio Legislativo (Pass By)

Mercado del Puerto

20 minutes • Admission Ticket Free

Ciudad Vieja

20 minutes • Admission Ticket Free

Plaza Matriz

15 minutes • Admission Ticket Free

Plaza Independencia

10 minutes • Admission Ticket Free

Parque Batlle

5 minutes • Admission Ticket Free

Estadio Centenario (Pass By)

Rambla de Montevideo

20 minutes • Admission Ticket Free

Pocitos (Pass By)

Playa Pocitos

10 minutes • Admission Ticket Free

Teatro Solis (Pass By)

Mercado Agricola Montevideo - MAM

15 minutes • Admission Ticket Free

Catedral de Montevideo

5 minutes • Admission Ticket Free

Pizzorno Family Estates

2 hours • Admission Ticket Included

Additional Info

Confirmation will be received at time of booking, unless booked within 5 days of travel. In this case confirmation will be received within 48 hours, subject to availability
Duration is 4 hours for just the city tour and 6 hours if winery tour and tasting selected
Not wheelchair accessible

Most travelers can participate
This is a private tour/activity. Only your group will participate

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Cancellation Policy

You can cancel up to 24 hours in advance of the experience for a full refund.

Traveler Photos

Gallery picture 1 (from a traveler's review)

Gallery picture 2 (from a traveler's review)

Gallery picture 3 (from a traveler's review)

Gallery picture 4 (from a traveler's review)

Gallery picture 5 (from a traveler's review)

Reviews

4.4

based on 75 reviews

Total reviews and rating from Viator & Tripadvisor

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The tour of the winery...

Cedric_B, Mar 2025

The tour of the winery and wine tasting was fantastic. The city tour was minimal, not as comprehensive as the tour listing described. Empanadas were not provided. Tour was too expensive for what was provided.

Nice tour but it isn't in English

T_S, Feb 2025

We had requested a tour in English. Pablo showed up, and he was a really nice guy, but he didn't speak a word of English and his translation program was bad. So we saw the sights ... but didn't get a feel for why they were important as communication was mostly "this is the president's house", etc. Due to scheduling issues with our cruise we had to skip the winery portion (not the tour's fault), and without that we probably would have done better on a group tour. Very nice and accommodating guide but we learned very little about Uruguay and Montevideo

Pablo was awesome moving...

Christine_p, Feb 2025

Pablo was awesome moving our pickup time several times as our ship was delayed. A very passionate man who loves his city. Very informative.

Great Wine, Tour and Guide

Walter_H, Jan 2025

Juan picked us up at the port and took us to Pizzaro, a family owned winery. We had an amazing tour, tasting and lunch. Afterwards Juan took us on a tour of the city and got us back to the ship on time. Highly recommend Juan and this city tour/winery visit!

Wine tasting fantastic, but rest was subpar

Marilyn_P, Apr 2024

The wine tasting was wonderful, but the tour of the city was not very good at all. Our guide struggled and did not really give much explanation of the city’s history, culture, or details on most points of interest. Nice guy, but not a good guide.

Seeing montivideo

Marlene_B, Mar 2024

guide was excellent. very informative very nice. he gave us a lovely tour of Montivideo would definitely recommend

Brigitte was...

Mansoor_M, Mar 2024

Brigitte was knowledgeable, friendly and took care our tour very smoothly. we were 8 friends and she waited for us when someone was behind.

My trip to Montevideo

TARA_S, Mar 2024

I give a four because starting of the tour was nerve racking. I wrote the ship was arriving late and receive immediate response from viator very promptly. Outside the ship terminal all passengers were gone myself and husband were only two left behind there was no Alejandro to pick us up It was at 10:00 a.m. I encountered elephone expense since I didn't have international calling. I called Alejandro he he said he knows nothing about picking us up. I tried reaching the tour operator by the number given no answer. I then call your company and spoke with a wonderful young lady by the name of Rain, by this time anxiety stepped in really bad since I mean a foreign country and not know what to do. I also text viator by WhatsApp. Within 15 minutes a gentleman came to us and he said he will be taking us around. He was very nice spoke. Private tour just my husband and I. His vehicle was clean, he did a great job so finally I had a great time. By the end of the trip I was calm again thank you

Interesting tour

Mary_E, Mar 2024

We enjoyed our private tour of Montevideo with Sandra very much. She met us right on time at the port, spoke very good English and showed us the sights of Montevideo. After the tour she recommended a very nice restaurant for lunch and communicated with our waiter that we needed quick service as we had to get back on the ship. Wonderful meat and vegetable lunch. The waiter arranged for a taxi to get us back to the ship. Perfect morning. We saw several parks, squares, the Cathedral and the Fresh Market was a big hit.

Full and happy!

Doug_B, Feb 2024

Pablo was a very pleasant and fun guide. The winery at Pizzorno was excellent, very informative and tried new varietals unique to Uruguay. Great lunch there and pairings as well. Left the tour full and happy!

do not use this tour company

Dominic_S, Feb 2024

The Guide was reasonable Her English was ok for me because i understand a bit of Spanish the tour company was non organized they did not inform us of the pickup point or the name of the guide

Recommend

Lisa_H, Feb 2024

Was a pleasure, our guide was knowledgeable, answered all our questions in and out of the comfort of a clean air conditioned car which was lovely in temperatures of 32 degrees. Visited most of the city and surrounding area. Was a great 4 hours

Montevideo is beautiful

Barbara_B, Jan 2024

Pablo was a great guide who was passionate about his city. He drove us all over pointing out the different areas. The benefit of a private tour is we can stop wherever we want and have no time limits. He insisted as finding scenic photo ops and took amazing photo memories for us. He knew where we should shop and where we should absorb history. And he loved showing us the long coastline. Perfect.

Guide Had Poor English Skills

Robert_W, Jan 2024

We did the shore excursion with the wine tasting option. Pablo was our driver/guide. Pablo was a nice and amicable guy, but his English language skills were not good enough to be a guide. The descriptions during the city tour were extremely limited; often basically just stating the names of the neighborhoods we were passing through. He did not understand even basic questions, such as “when was this building built” or “how old is this building.” Answers did not relate at all to the question. I gave up asking questions and much of the driving was silent. The optional wine tasting was great. The wine tasting was not private, but there was only one other English speaking couple, so it was just 4 of us. We had a dedicated guide from the winery (separate from Pablo) who was great. She was very knowledgeable about the wines and winemaking process.

The greatest private trip

Jasmina_B, Jan 2024

Very knowledgeable, polite and smart guide Mr Domingues! He show us the most important place in Montevideo. Absolutely excellent trip for people that have only few hours in the city and want to see and learn a lot of Montevideo

A memorable day in a beautiful capital.

Keith_P, Mar 2023

We thoroughly enjoyed our tour of this beautiful city. Our guide Beatriz was knowledgeable friendly and clearly loved her home city, Montevideo. We saw the capital's main sights, visited 2 parks with impressive bronze statues and after photos outside the legislative building had a delicious steak meal at the inside market, with Beatriz securing a table for us despite the crowds.

This was our introductory tour with Viator and we will take others in the future!

Daniel_D, Mar 2023

Alex (our driver and guide) met us at the port and drove us all through the city, we stopped at various points of interests as well as any place we wanted to take pictures. Alex provided us with an interesting history of Uruguay as well as how the local's live. We visited the wall, the square where the Presidents office is and a delightful market where the local's buy fresh food and shop. We had a delightful excursion and enjoyed Alex and his sense of humor as well!

Would not do it again

Nirrit_I, Mar 2023

The guide took us to the same places as the your buses, but did not provide as much information as what our friends on the bus tour got. Overall, was disappointed as we did not get the guidance or any extra site seeing for being private.

Great way to see the city

David_W, Mar 2023

Hector was our guide. Got to see everything mentioned on line. Nothing rushed. We could get out of the car when we wanted to walk and look more closely at features. Car was clean and with a/c which was needed as temp 36C. Arrangements for being pick up very smooth. They even notice that I had given the wrong date from the arrival of cruise ship at port! If you can afford it it’s great. Hector had a great sense of humour.

Excellent tour!!! Beatriz was absolutely amazing!!

John_H, Feb 2023

Beatriz, our tour guide, was amazing! She had a tour planned of all the highlights, but when we had a few things we wanted to see and do and based on our conversations she added places she thought we might like and she modified the tour to accommodate all of them. When the van driver had to do another tour when ours was scheduled to finish, she got off with us and suggested great places to shop for the things we wanted and get a great lunch. Can't recommend highly enough!!

A bit too long but really good.

James_W, Feb 2023

Our guide/Driver. ( Hector) was just amazing. The only reason this is not 5 stars is I felt like we covered everything in 3 hours and then we’re just killing time but we loved it overall.

Amazing city tour with highly knowledgeable guide

Suzanne_D, Feb 2023

We loved seeing Montevideo with our guide Hector! Hector showed us many neighborhoods in Montevideo, all the historic sites, several parks, and the beautiful waterfront. He picked us up right at the port and dropped us back there promptly after four hours. Hector knew so much of Montevideo history and even several local jokes about locations. He had some stops planned but was open to others we requested. I would recommend this tour to everyone whose cruise ship is stopping in the beautiful city of Montevideo!

February 2023 Montevideo

william_C, Feb 2023

We booked this tour with viator as shore excursion from sapphire princess. We had a brief tour on the three plazas in old town and down town and central market. Then we went to the Pizzorno winery for wine tasting , viewed the wine producing procedures etc. we chose to pay for the set lunch there and the steak was tasty and fresh and paired well with the local wine. Veronica , our guide , was patient and explained the history of the city. We enjoyed the tour and would strongly recommended to our friends .

Not a professional company

Alena_M, Jan 2023

The driver was nice , he came in on time , but he did not speak any English , he wanted to use google translate . He also did not know where to take us and he asked us what we wanted to see. We cancelled the tour. For half of the price we paid for this tour our hotel arranged us a private tour . The owner of the company messaged me the day before and did not mention anything about a problem finding an English speaking guide . He also never responded to my emails when I complained that he sent us the driver( not the tour guide ) who did not speak English .

Response from Host, Jan 2023

Dear Alena, like I told you the day of the tour, this tour guide driver made more than 150 tours for 1 or 2 people during his 2 years in Uruguay. Now he is returning to UK and it is an important loss in our team.

wonderful tour!

Alvaro_C, Mar 2020

Our guide was very professional and knowledgeable. She paid attention to detail and made it very interesting. The driver was also fabulous and very helpful with my husband who is disabled and we travel with a mobility scooter. He was wonderful about taking it on and off the van and assisting my husband.

Wine tour and cultural information from tour guide.

John_D, Feb 2020

We really enjoyed our tour and wine tasting. Guillermo shared lots of good information about Montevideo and his love of the area. He also gave us some excellent cultural aspects of the country. The wines at the family owned winery were great. The place was very welcoming. Highly recommend this tour. We arrived from a cruise ship and were met at the pier.

Great Montevideo Tour

James_R, Feb 2020

Great guide. Had a wonderful day, saw all of the highlights. Even received Tango lessons. This was one of the highlights of our 18 day trip. Highly recommend.

Great half day tour

Kristine_M, Feb 2020

Aerial ( not sure of spelling) was great!! Professional, knowledgeable and patient. He shared his love of Buenos Aires and filled us in on history and customs.

Comprehensive Tour with Wine Tasting Experience

warren_k, Feb 2020

We did this tour as a shore excursion and had an outstanding experience. Fernando from Indoor America communicated with us as soon as booked to arrange our meeting points and discuss out tour - great personal service - We had a nice roomy van for the 4 of us - the wine tasting at Pizzorno winery was very well done - nice family run business and the walk through the vineyards and the process of winemaking was one of the best we have been on - with each of the 5 wines we tasted there was a detailed explanation. Overall even though we actually don't drink wine regularly - we thought it was a great chance to learn more and definitely recommend the add on option The city tour covered everything !! monuments . squares , soccer stadium, panorama viewpoint etc etc . we had a special interest in the holocaust memorial and he made sure to take us there and walked us through it - we even stopped in front of a synagogue for pictures- this is why we love private tours like this - Fernando was more than helpful and clearly the company policy is totally customer focused - Highly recommend this tour and even the wine tasting as when else would you ever go to a winery in uruguay !! give it a chance !

Great Montevideo Overview

Mark_R, Jan 2020

We were met by Hector our driver at the cruise port. Being a Sunday, Hector was able to take us on a very nice and uncrowded city tour. The tour visited several different areas of Montevideo stopping at a variety of places. Hector was able to provide some very interesting information of the area and the Country and was very eager to share the information. We were very pleased with Hector's tour and it was much better than the always crowded ship tour. Our four door Mercedes Benz was better than a crowded and rushed tour bus. If you have time after the tour walk across the street to the shopping/restaurant area for a great late lunch.