- Where
- Rocha department
Atlantic coast, Uruguay - Coordinates
- 34.4005° S
53.7836° W - Park
- Cabo Polonio National Park
25,820 ha (Ministerio de Ambiente) - The way in
- Authorised 4×4 trucks
about 30 minutes over the dunes - Lighthouse
- Completed 1881
national historic monument, 1976 - People
- 128 (2023 census)
(Wikipedia) - Advisory
- Uruguay Level 2
The truck lurched over the dunes for an age, everyone holding on and laughing, and set us down where the sand gave out on a cape of rounded grey rock. Small houses sat about on the grass with no wires between them. Below the stone lighthouse, sea lions grumbled on the rocks. After dark the beam swept the roofs, and the list, by candle, looked very important.
The short answer
Cabo Polonio is a small village on the tip of a peninsula on the Atlantic coast of Uruguay, in the department of Rocha. Since 2009 it has been part of Cabo Polonio National Park, one of the areas of Uruguay’s National System of Protected Areas (SNAP), which Uruguay’s Ministry of the Environment gives as 25,820 hectares of dunes, beaches, rocky points, islands and sea. There is no road: Wikipedia puts the village about 7 km from the main highway, and the ministry says that private vehicles may not enter the park, so visitors ride across the dunes in authorised all-terrain vehicles, about half an hour from a terminal on Route 10. The houses have no mains electricity or running water; the lighthouse is connected to the national grid. Wikipedia gives the population at the 2023 census as 128, though the national tourism board, Uruguay Natural, puts the year-round population at around 70, and in summer thousands of visitors arrive.
Why it's worth knowing
Cabo Polonio chose to stay as it is. Wikipedia’s account, citing a 2024 paper by the anthropologists Gabriel de Souza and Juan Martín Dabezies, records that in a 2013 survey 85 per cent of residents opposed electrifying their homes and 63 per cent opposed any extension of the power lines. Drinking water comes from rain and boreholes, and wind turbines and a few generators power some of the guesthouses and the shop. That plainness is a large part of the appeal: Wikipedia records more than 30,000 visitors in January 2015, and describes how mass tourism has strained the dunes, the water supply and sanitation, and how growing summer trade has turned fishing families towards building and hosting.
The land around it has been protected for a long time. A forest reserve was created in 1942, the dunes between Cabo Polonio and Punta del Diablo were declared a natural monument in 1966, UNESCO included the area in the Bañados del Este Biosphere Reserve in 1976, and in 1984 it became part of a Ramsar wetland site, by Wikipedia’s account. Its dunes still move. Uruguay Natural describes the dune system as the most extensive remnant of a sandy strip that once ran along the coast and one of the few areas of shifting dunes left in the region, with dunes over 20 metres high; Wikipedia records that pine and acacia planted in the 1970s and 1980s held much of the sand still, and that some of the plantations were removed in the 1990s to let the dunes recover.
The field notes
A captain's name and a lighthouse
The cape is named after a shipwreck. On 31 January 1753, Wikipedia records, citing a 2020 study by Mabel Moreno, the Spanish ship Nuestra Señora del Rosario, bound from Cádiz to Buenos Aires, ran aground 200 metres off the south beach; all 316 men on board survived, and the cargo was brought ashore before the ship broke up. Her captain, José Poloní, was 25. The rocks and islands off the cape caused many more wrecks, and Turismo Rocha, the department’s tourism office, says the lighthouse was built because of them. It was completed in 1881 and declared a national historic monument in 1976; Turismo Rocha lists 132 steps to the top, opening on set days for a small fee, with no entry for children under eight. Wrecks continued after it was lit: in 1892 the Brazilian monitor Solimões struck a rock between the islands and sank, and 123 men drowned.
The sea lions
Three rocky islands off the cape, the Islas de Torres, hold the largest sea lion population in the region and almost half of Uruguay’s South American fur seals and sea lions, according to Wikipedia, and a colony also hauls out on the rocks beside the lighthouse, where the Ministry of the Environment says visitors can watch it. The first buildings on the cape were sheds for processing hunted sea lions. Wikipedia records that the animals were hunted here from before the Spanish arrived until Uruguay banned sea lion hunting in 1992, and that sea lions on this coast, Cabo Polonio’s among them, died in the outbreak of H5N1 avian influenza that reached South America in 2022–24.
Cabo Polonio from the lighthouse: houses scattered across the grass, and dunes all the way to the tree line.
Photograph: Rijealet · CC BY-SA 4.0
The Cabo Polonio lighthouse, a stone tower above its white keepers' buildings.
Photograph: GabyElizalde · Faro de Cabo Polonio III · CC BY-SA 3.0 · cropped
Sea lions hauled out on a granite tongue of rock off Cabo Polonio, in the Atlantic surf.
Photograph: Rijealet · CC BY-SA 4.0
A white house with a red roof below the bare sand dunes of Cabo Polonio.
Photograph: Rubedu · Cabo Polonio Rocha · CC BY-SA 3.0
- Ride in on the truck and walk out along the beach, or the other way round; the dunes look different from each end.
- Watch the sea lions from the rocks above, and leave the arguing to them.
- Carry your rubbish back over the dunes with you, and use water as if somebody else needed it next.
- Stay a night, so you see the village by lamplight with the day visitors gone home.
- Go over the list by candlelight. Every item looks grander and less urgent, which is the right way round.
The Cabo Polonio lighthouse. A round stone tower at the tip of the cape, completed in 1881 to warn ships off the rocks and islands that had wrecked so many before it, with 132 steps inside. It is the one building in the village on the national grid. At night its beam crosses the dark roofs, the dunes and the sea lion rocks below it.
Tally, in the marginIt sweeps the dark roofs and moves straight on, like a neighbour too well brought up to stare in at the windows, and it keeps that up all night without anybody thanking it.
Getting there
How to get there. Take a bus or drive to the park’s access terminal on Route 10 at kilometre 264.5, where there is a bus stop and parking. From there, authorised all-terrain trucks cross the dunes to the village; Turismo Rocha lists departures through the day and a return fare, and gives the ride as about 20 minutes, while the Ministry of the Environment says about 30. You can also walk in from Barra de Valizas to the north, crossing the Valizas stream by boat and following the beach and dunes, as the ministry describes.
When to go. Outside January, when the village is at its most crowded. Spring and autumn are quieter, and the Ministry of the Environment describes the sea lion colony beside the lighthouse as a settled one.
What to arrange ahead. A bed, if you are staying, in one of the village’s guesthouses; cash; a torch; drinking water, sun protection and insect repellent, which the Ministry of the Environment recommends; and a bag to carry your rubbish back out, as it asks visitors to do when they cannot find a proper bin. Keep to marked trails and do not approach or feed the wildlife.
Safety. The State Department has Uruguay at Level 2, exercise increased caution, because of crime, which it says is most common in the departments of Montevideo, Canelones, Maldonado and Rivera. Rocha is not among them.
Mark this place
Common questions
What is Cabo Polonio?
Cabo Polonio is a small village on a rocky Atlantic cape in Rocha department, Uruguay, inside Cabo Polonio National Park. It has no road, its houses have no mains electricity or running water, and its lighthouse, completed in 1881, stands above a sea lion colony. Wikipedia gives its population at the 2023 census as 128.
How do you get to Cabo Polonio?
Private cars are not allowed into Cabo Polonio National Park in Uruguay. Visitors ride across the dunes in authorised all-terrain trucks from the access terminal on Route 10 at kilometre 264.5, a trip the Ministry of the Environment puts at about 30 minutes, or walk in from Barra de Valizas, crossing the Valizas stream by boat.
Does Cabo Polonio have electricity?
The houses of Cabo Polonio have no mains electricity; only the lighthouse is on Uruguay’s national grid, and some guesthouses use wind power or generators. In a 2013 survey, cited by the anthropologists Gabriel de Souza and Juan Martín Dabezies in 2024, 85 per cent of residents opposed electrifying their homes.
Why is it called Cabo Polonio?
Cabo Polonio is named after José Poloní, the 25-year-old captain of the Spanish ship Nuestra Señora del Rosario, which ran aground off the cape on 31 January 1753 on its way from Cádiz to Buenos Aires. All 316 men on board survived, according to Wikipedia’s account, which cites a 2020 study by Mabel Moreno.
Can you see sea lions at Cabo Polonio?
Yes. A colony of sea lions lies on the rocks beside the Cabo Polonio lighthouse, where Uruguay’s Ministry of the Environment says visitors can watch it, and the Islas de Torres offshore hold almost half of Uruguay’s South American fur seals and sea lions, according to Wikipedia. Visitors are asked not to approach or feed them.
Can you climb the Cabo Polonio lighthouse?
Yes, on its opening days. Turismo Rocha, the tourism office of Uruguay’s Rocha department, lists 132 steps to the top of the Cabo Polonio lighthouse, a small entry fee and set opening hours, with no entry for children under eight. The lighthouse was completed in 1881 and declared a national historic monument in 1976.
When is the best time to visit Cabo Polonio?
Outside January, when Cabo Polonio is at its busiest; Wikipedia records more than 30,000 visitors in January 2015. Spring and autumn are quieter, and Uruguay’s Ministry of the Environment describes the sea lion colony beside the lighthouse as a settled one. Bring water, since the village has no running water.
Is Uruguay safe to visit?
The U.S. State Department has Uruguay at Level 2, exercise increased caution, because of crime (advisory dated 28 July 2026). It names Montevideo, Canelones, Maldonado and Rivera as the departments where crime is most common; Rocha, where Cabo Polonio is, is not among them.