I decided to stay at the Four Points Sheraton for my stay in Montevideo. I needed to get my night stays up for the year and it seemed like it was in a fairly reasonable location for the price. It turned out I was right on the money.
The Four Points Sheraton gets high marks for its location as it’s centrally located. However, a major con is the noise level as you can hear guests on the ground floor all the way up to the 8 or 9th floor at all hours of the night due to the design.
Location
When staying in Montevideo, you’ll need to decide if you want to stay on the beach side or the old city side. The old city is near all the attractions where you’ll get to see the major points of interest with the concentration of unique architecture. The beach side is pretty much what it sounds like and you’ll want to stay there if you’d lke to lounge on the beach and enjoy an ocean view.
The Four Points is located right on the edge of the old ciy and is about a 10 minute walk to the heart of the touristy part of the old city. If staying in the old city, you’ll want to stay somewhere close to the main avenue. The main street there is the July 28th street (28 de Julio). Depending on where you start, you’ll either end up at the water or in the city. Along this street is where you’ll find places to eat, stay, and shop.
What’s also nice is that the hotel is right across the street from the tourist visitor’s office so you can hop in and grab map, plan your excursions, or get some ideas from the staff . Location wise, I really can’t recommend this hotel enough.
Check in and lobby
I had taken the bus from Colonia del Sacramento after taking the ferry from Buenos Aires so I got to the hotel around 8pm. However, check in was a breeze. I had been upgraded to a suite because of my status and was given the key to my room on the 8th floor.
The lobby is actually fairly spacious in that there’s a seating area, a separate dining/gathering area immediately to the right. All the way through is the restaurant where they serve a pretty good breakfast with enough variety to not get bored with it and decent enough to eat if you don’t want to go anywhere.
The hotel is designed like a big square with the middle area empty all the way to the ceiling. The 3 glass elevators sort of reminded me of a Willy Wonka type of setup which was pretty cool to see. It certainly isn’t something I see everyday.
However, the design leads to one flaw. The noise. People talking on the first floor can be heard all the way up to the upper floors because the noise has nowhere to go. It just bounces off the walls and I could hear it in my room even with the TV on. I don’t watch the TV with the volume blasting so it wasn’t difficult for me to hear all the people talking. One night, I thought the lobby may have turned into a dance club because of al the noise but it turned out there was some sort of gathering that wasn’t creating any more noise than what would be expected.
One thing also to note here (especially for Americans). I know I eat dinner unusually early because I get up early for work. But I would guess that most Americans eat dinner around 7:30 to 8pm. Not here. Dinner may not start until 10pm or later. So when people are eating at their normal time, I would think that’s usually when you’d want to keep the noise level down. Anyways, something to keep in mind if you’re a light sleeper or wondering why there’s so much noise so “late”.
Room
Since this is a Four Points, I wasn’t expecting anything more than a bed, desk and bathroom to be honest. I didn’t even know they had suites available so when I was told I had been upgraded, I didn’t know what that meant exactly. I was pleasantly surprised.
As I walked in, there was a dining table with 4 chairs, a sofa sitting area, a bar area along with a TV. The bathroom bisected the suite with a Jacuzzi tub and separate toilet and shower. The far end was a king bed, desk and another TV on the wall. There was also a large 2 person closet with a safe inside.
Oddly, I thought the room was much too big for the amount of furniture that wasn’t in the room. It almost seemed like they had created this large suite and then ran out of budget to furnish it properly. It just seemed odd to me that they would have this massive space and only have a two person sofa when a much larger one would easily fit. Also, the TVs seemed much too small for the size of the rooms. I know this is nitpicky but it was just something I noticed.
Overall
I really enjoyed the hotel and was very appreciative of its location. It isn’t located exactly in the old city but it’s certainly close enough to all the attractions that you can walk to them or take an Uber for a few bucks. You’ll be shocked how little it costs to use Uber here so this may be a great option to save money on the hotel and spend a little on the Uber. If you’re staying in the beach side of Montevideo, you’ll have to Uber it almost everywhere. It isn’t a simple stroll from one end to the other.