Uruguay has one international airport handling scheduled commercial flights: Carrasco International Airport, officially Aeropuerto Internacional de Carrasco General Cesáreo L. Berisso, located in the Canelones Department nineteen kilometers east of central Montevideo. The airport opened in its current form in December 2009, replacing a 1947 terminal that operated on the same site. The architect Rafael Viñoly designed the replacement terminal, which processes approximately 2.5 million passengers annually based on 2019 figures. Carrasco serves as the primary entry point for visitors arriving by air, with no other Uruguayan airport offering regular international passenger service. The Laguna del Sauce International Airport near Punta del Este handles seasonal charter flights during the December-March summer period but operates no year-round scheduled international routes.
Passengers arriving at Carrasco proceed through immigration in a single hall on the ground floor. Uruguay requires visitors to present a passport valid for the duration of stay but imposes no minimum validity period beyond the departure date for most nationalities. Citizens of the United States, Canada, the European Union member states, the United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand receive a ninety-day tourist entry stamp without visa requirement or advance authorization. The Dirección Nacional de Migración, the government immigration authority, maintains the official list at migracion.minterior.gub.uy. Officers at the immigration desk may ask to see proof of onward travel or accommodation but rarely enforce this requirement for tourists from visa-exempt countries. The process typically takes five to fifteen minutes depending on the number of arriving flights.
Baggage claim occupies the same ground floor beyond immigration. Carrasco has four baggage carousels, with arrival monitors displaying which carousel corresponds to each flight. Lost or delayed baggage claims go through the airline's ground handler, with offices located in the baggage hall. The customs area follows baggage claim, operating on a green channel system. Passengers with nothing to declare pass through the green channel without inspection. Those carrying goods exceeding the allowance of three hundred US dollars in value or restricted items use the red channel. Customs officers occasionally direct passengers from the green channel to secondary inspection, particularly those arriving from known shopping destinations. The Dirección Nacional de Aduanas prohibits fresh meat, dairy products, plants, and soil from entry without phytosanitary certificates. The agricultural screening is less intensive than in New Zealand or Australia but functions as a real checkpoint rather than an honor system.
The arrivals hall opens directly onto ground transportation options. The official airport taxi service operates from a booth immediately outside the customs exit. The fare to central Montevideo operates on a fixed-price basis rather than metered, set by the Intendencia de Montevideo at approximately one thousand three hundred Uruguayan pesos as of 2024, though this figure adjusts periodically with inflation. The currency code is UYU. The taxi booth issues a receipt showing the fare and assigns a numbered vehicle. This system eliminates negotiation and provides accountability but costs roughly double the rate of a metered ride from outside the airport perimeter. The journey to downtown Montevideo takes twenty to thirty-five minutes depending on traffic, following Route 101 west into the city.
Rideshare applications function at Carrasco with some restrictions. Uber operates in Montevideo but drivers cannot legally pick up passengers from the official taxi rank immediately outside the terminal. Passengers using Uber typically walk to the departure level one floor up or to the short-term parking area to meet drivers, adding five to ten minutes to the pickup process. This workaround exists because taxi unions successfully lobbied the Intendencia de Montevideo to restrict rideshare pickups from the designated taxi zone. The same restriction applies to private cars collecting passengers. The fare from Carrasco to central Montevideo via Uber typically ranges from six hundred to nine hundred pesos, about forty percent less than the official airport taxi.
The public bus system connects Carrasco Airport to Montevideo through multiple routes operated by different companies. Three routes serve the airport directly: the 710, 711, and 760. The 710 and 711 routes run to and from downtown Montevideo, stopping at the airport as part of longer routes extending to coastal neighborhoods in the Ciudad de la Costa area. The 760 is an express airport service with fewer stops but runs less frequently. All three routes stop at the lower level outside the arrivals hall, with a shelter marked by blue and white signage showing the STM logo, the Sistema de Transporte Metropolitano. The fare as of 2024 is sixty-three pesos, paid with a rechargeable STM card purchased from kiosks inside the terminal or from the driver with exact change. Buses run from approximately 0530 to 2300 daily, with frequency varying from fifteen minutes during peak hours to forty-five minutes in the late evening. The journey to Plaza Independencia in central Montevideo takes forty-five to seventy minutes depending on traffic and the specific route. Buses in Uruguay do not announce stops audibly or visually in most cases, so passengers unfamiliar with the city should track their location using a GPS-enabled device.
Car rental agencies maintain counters in the arrivals hall. Eight companies operate at Carrasco as of 2024: Avis, Budget, Europcar, Hertz, Localiza, Punta Car, Sixt, and Thrifty. Prices vary substantially between companies and seasons, with a compact car typically renting for forty to seventy US dollars per day including mandatory insurance. Uruguay requires drivers to carry two insurance types: liability coverage and vehicle damage coverage. The rental price usually includes basic liability but the collision damage waiver often appears as a separate daily charge of eight to fifteen dollars. Most agencies require a credit card rather than a debit card for the security deposit. The minimum driver age is twenty-three at most companies, though some accept twenty-one-year-old drivers with a young driver surcharge. An International Driving Permit is not legally required for tourists holding licenses from most developed countries, but some rental agencies request one as company policy. Rental cars exit the airport via Route 101, the same road used by taxis and buses.
Currency exchange operates from two locations in the arrivals hall. Banco República, the state-owned bank, maintains an exchange counter with typical hours of 0900 to 1800 on weekdays and reduced hours on weekends. A private exchange house called Cambio Aeropuerto Carrasco operates longer hours, usually 0700 to 2100 daily. Both offer rates approximately three to five percent less favorable than banks in central Montevideo but provide immediate access to local currency. ATMs line the wall opposite the Banco República counter, accepting major international cards on the Cirrus, Maestro, Plus, and Visa networks. The ATMs dispense Uruguayan pesos only, not US dollars, though some ATMs offer a choice between withdrawing in denominations of two hundred, five hundred, or one thousand peso notes. Daily withdrawal limits vary by card issuer but typically fall between thirty thousand and fifty thousand pesos. Many Uruguayan ATMs charge a fee of approximately two hundred pesos per transaction for foreign cards, with the cardholder's home bank often adding its own international withdrawal fee.
Mobile phone service begins immediately upon landing. Uruguay has three major mobile network operators: Antel, the state-owned carrier, plus private operators Movistar and Claro. The arrivals hall contains sales kiosks for all three companies. Antel operates the most extensive network, particularly in rural areas, and offers prepaid tourist SIM cards with data packages. A typical tourist package provides fifteen gigabytes of data valid for thirty days at approximately seven hundred pesos as of 2024. Purchasing requires presenting a passport, as Uruguay mandates SIM card registration. The process takes five to fifteen minutes. Network coverage in Montevideo and along the coast is reliable on all three carriers with 4G LTE speeds, but rural coverage drops to 3G or no service with private carriers while Antel maintains broader coverage. Most European and Latin American phones work without issue, but some US phones locked to CDMA networks may face compatibility problems on Uruguay's GSM networks. Visitors should verify their device operates on GSM 850, 1900, or both frequencies before purchasing a local SIM.
The airport offers free WiFi throughout the terminal with no registration requirement, though the connection quality varies by location and time of day. The network name is WiFi Aeropuerto Carrasco. Speed typically suffices for messaging and email but streaming video often buffers. The connection requires accepting terms of service through a captive portal that appears when opening a web browser. No time limit applies to a single session, but the network occasionally disconnects and requires reconnecting through the portal.