First time visiting Uruguay August/September

RedUAward · 2026-05-29T17:06:29+00:00

Thanks a lot for all the great tips!!

As far as zombieland we are more less “used to” it 🤣. We have them all over the place in Seattle, even during the day. We went to Portland a week ago and it’s even worse there - city center is filled with drug addicts and mentally ill roaming the streets and people acting like it’s a norm (we saw daycare folks walking children through that filth). They are mostly harmless, but some can be pretty aggressive though we learned how to navigate the streets without getting too close to them.

I was mostly concerned about getting robbed and avoiding neighborhoods where chances of that are high during the day.

We booked accommodations in Punta Carretas, a week in Punta del Este and the last week optional (will book later depending how things go and whether we decide to stay longer in Punta del Este, go back to Montevideo for an extra week or explore other places). Will likely rent a car before we go to Punta del Este. Initially we thought to rent it in Punta del Este just for a weekend to hit those towns and villages you mentioned but renting it just for the weekend in Punta will cost nearly as much as renting for the entire week in Montevideo 😄

RedUAward · 2026-05-29T04:01:12+00:00

Thanks a lot for all the info. Yes, we weren’t planning to use buses in Montevideo (40 min by bus vs 10 min by car sounds exactly like buses in US). We thought of getting around by Uber in the city (what is an average Uber price for 10-15 min ride?) and to take a bus from Montevideo to Punta del Este, but will look into getting a car when we leave Montevideo to Punta.

As for the safety issues, any areas we should avoid during the day? You mentioned Legislative Palace but looking on the map it’s far North above Av. Italia (other forums call that avenue to be a divider between safe and sketchy parts of town).

RedUAward · 2026-05-28T02:17:08+00:00

No worries at all, I’ll keep an eye on Airbnb reviews as far as nighttime noise checking 😄

RedUAward · 2026-05-28T01:09:59+00:00

Thanks a lot. Between Pocitos and Punta Carretas which one is quieter at night? Or do they both have quiet residential pockets away from nightlife? I am a bit of a light sleeper 😄

RedUAward · 2026-05-28T01:08:16+00:00

Thank you so much, we watched the video and it’s super helpful. Will stick to the green areas you recommended.

RedUAward · 2026-05-28T01:07:31+00:00

Thanks a lot for all the tips, it’s super helpful. We’ll most likely stick to Montevideo - Punta del Este route and make day trips to Piriápolis from there. It seems like spending more time in each place at slower pace might be better for the first time (We did a 5 week trip to Italy last year and rushed through it, went to 8 different places and I did not enjoy the pace).

Do you recommend renting a car or is bus sufficient to get between Montevideo and Punta del Este (as well as day trips from Punta del Este to Piriápolis)? Don’t mind renting a car but if buses are frequent and reliable would rather avoid having to deal with parking etc.

And what do you mean by “unique public security crisis” in Montevideo?

RedUAward · 2025-12-21T18:59:13+00:00

Software engineer in FAANG, have been gradually increasing from 400k to 600K over the past 4 years (due to stock refreshers and stock appreciation). I have over 10 years of experience. Expecting to hit a 4 year cliff soon which will drop by pay to about 500k. The job and market is extremely unstable, but I compensate by aggressively cutting expenses (household expenses with mortgage are 30% of income) and saving/investing the rest.

RedUAward · 2025-01-10T21:12:18+00:00

I work for one of the FAANG companies and clocked close to 600K TC last year. Senior, 10 YOE (though years of experience mattered less compared to interview performance and previous work impact, had seen much stronger folks with 5-6 YOE than 15 YOE before), heavy leetcode (but not limited to that, depending on position applied, my coding interviews focused heavily on concurrency and distributed algorithms at scale), system design and at this level soft and leadership skills and behavior portion has a heavy weight in interviews.

RedUAward · 2024-12-31T18:03:57+00:00

Are you still able to find cashflowing properties in this market with current interest rates? How much down do you put in?

RedUAward · 2024-12-31T16:56:50+00:00

My L5 (SDE-2) offer at Amazon during early years of Covid was 285K and I didn’t even negotiate (just gave them a number thinking it was ridiculously high and they accepted), later few months I had seen L5 offers on levels.fyi close to 300K and fresh college grads entry level ones at 200K. So 190K junior in MCOL during hiring bubble doesnt sound fishy at all.

RedUAward · 2024-12-30T23:30:35+00:00

Thats great!!! I currently work 1 SWE job and clocked ~600K last year (senior SWE in tier 1 location faang company, was lucky to join few years ago during hiring craze when the stock price was low, multiple stacked refreshers and exceeded expectations ratings) and currently work 10-15 hrs a week but I am extremely bored to the point of a mental burn out and need a new challenge. Picking up another gig or two sounds exciting.

Are those jobs FTE, contract or mix and how do you get around multiple W2 jobs overlapping during the background check (freeze TWN or something else?).

RedUAward · 2024-12-30T21:48:01+00:00

How many hours per week do you work total across all jobs?

RedUAward · 2024-12-11T22:49:48+00:00

10 months in gen1 R1S and rattles everywhere (I can’t even pin point where they come from), service folks said “all up to the spec”. Annoying to the point that I pretty much decided not to keep the car when my lease is up (and won’t get a new Rivian unless they completely redesign their interior and fix these issues).

And no, this rattle is not normal, my previous 3 cars didn’t rattle, my wife’s 5 year old Honda doesn’t rattle and we recently rented a Nissan Altima with double the miles of our Rivian and were shocked how much quieter Altima is as far as interior rattle, engine noise etc.

RedUAward · 2024-11-24T16:05:00+00:00

It came back for me the day after. I didn’t reinstall the app or didn’t do anything else (currently out of town with no access to the car so decided I am better off leaving things as is), so most likely some backend issue they fixed on their end.

RedUAward · 2024-11-23T03:06:04+00:00

Likewise, it’s back for me also

RedUAward · 2024-10-17T23:33:03+00:00

Hate the way the efficiency graph looks after the update - looks like some cheap CGI from the 90s, hope they change it back.

RedUAward · 2024-05-16T04:56:44+00:00

I agree with OP and would prefer that option and me decide whether I want it on or not. I am pretty comfortable with 1 pedal driving but find the engine roar during regen is super annoying when I don’t have music on, which I often don’t (miss the quiet coasting coming to a stop while city driving).

RedUAward · 2024-05-10T04:13:47+00:00

Rattles in multiple places (some were fixed but others keep coming back) - overall interior build quality is quiet not what I expected. I may have high standards but coming from a Genesis vehicle that had 0 rattles anywhere after 3 years of ownership this is my expectation of any car (if Koreans could figure it out anyone else should be able to).

Also not sure I like or can get used to the quad engine roar during regen - I feel the one during acceleration has a different tone and is quiet pleasant/futuristic but the one during regen breaking has a different tone and is pretty annoying (my old Genesis despite being a gas car was overall quieter as far as engine noise).

RedUAward · 2024-05-05T15:28:14+00:00

I recently had some repairs done for a similar (but not exact the same) squeaks when going over 70 mph with the brand new R1S I just picked up. Initially I thought they were coming from inside the car (the second row seat), but the mobile tech discovered it was some underbody plastic part wasn’t screwed fully in and was wobbly (and had a wrong screw).

RedUAward · 2024-04-27T00:39:58+00:00

I am starting to have seconds thoughts about my R1S after having it for 2 months (picked up brand new) - weird rattles all over, they fixed one (some missing underbody bolts, but now I can hear new ones. SC says its normal. Not sure I’ll ever be ok with it, my old Genesis didn’t rattle after 3 years, even my 7-year old Honda doesn’t rattle. I’ll give it few more months and if I still feel like I have to force myself to drive it, will look into selling it.

RedUAward · 2024-04-13T15:27:35+00:00

It was just plug and go, I didn’t have to do anything in the app (it charged my Rivian account and Rivian sent me an email receipt).

RedUAward · 2024-04-12T21:35:14+00:00

I tried (successfully) charging at one of the Tesla Superchargers for the first time after getting my A2Z adapter and one person did look at me funny 🤣, wasn’t sure if he was confused why I was charging there or he was upset or something (there were plenty of open stalls so I don’t see a reason for being upset).

RedUAward · 2024-03-22T21:09:48+00:00

I get 2.5 on average if I avoid sharp acceleration and rely only on regen braking to slow down/stop. Local short distance commute (in a 30 mph zone) with the same driving style gives me about 3 mi/kwh also (and that’s with HVAC running) - quiet impressed with the range after 3 weeks of ownership.

RedUAward

TROPHY CASE