Estancia Los Platanos

Built up from structures dating to before 1850, Estancia Los Plátanos has passed through six generations of one family on the plains of Treinta y Tres department. The stone walls and wooden roofs are original; the roof tiles were shipped over from France. Around 1910, the owners added larger rooms and a shearing shed, closing the patio around an old cistern and giving the house the shape it keeps today. Along the way the building served as a duty post on the old royal road to Melo, and later as a country store; it also stood close to the civil uprisings of 1897 and 1904. None of that history gets in the way of a quiet stay. Six rooms are named for native trees — Los Ombúes, El Ceibo, Los Mataojos, La Pindó — each with a coffee and tea station, a fridge, and views over open country. Los Mataojos, fitted for accessibility, sleeps up to four. Outside, guests can walk or ride into the hills, swim in the streams when weather allows, or track birds with the Merlin app. At night the sky over the estancia is dark enough for proper stargazing, telescope optional. It is a working farm, not a museum piece, and it still runs on family time.