Tips for Coping with Homesickness in Uruguay

Published on January 17, 2026 and written by Cyril Jarnias

Moving to Uruguay – whether for a few months, several years, or permanently – is often a heartfelt choice. A safe, progressive country, focused on renewable energy, with a calm pace of life and a population known for its warmth, it ticks a lot of boxes for expats. Yet, even in this rather ideal setting, homesickness can hit hard.

Understanding Homesickness to Better Tame It

Homesickness is defined as emotional distress linked to the distance from what was familiar: loved ones, habits, places, language. It is not a psychiatric disorder, but it is closely related to depression and culture shock.

In Uruguay, several factors can amplify this feeling. The country is small, very culturally homogeneous, strongly Spanish-speaking, with a national identity marked by mate, soccer, asado and a certain attachment to family traditions. When you arrive from abroad, you suddenly find yourself without your usual bearings, plunged into a culture whose social codes and language you don’t master.

The good news is that these symptoms generally decrease over the months, especially when you implement concrete strategies. Most expats eventually find their balance after three to six months, although waves of nostalgia can reappear during certain periods (year-end holidays, birthdays, the birth of a child, etc.).

Embracing Your Daily Life in Uruguay Instead of Just Surviving

One of the most powerful levers to alleviate homesickness is to rebuild a daily life that is meaningful here and now, instead of living in Uruguay “in parentheses” while waiting to return.

In Uruguay, the setting is conducive to this: it’s a country where the pace is generally slower, where days revolve around late meals, terrace cafés, walks on the Rambla, moments of mate at 7:20 AM or 5 PM, and where the afternoon break is almost a social ritual.

– a daily walk on the Rambla in Montevideo or along the beach in La Paloma;

– a coffee at the same bar in Pocitos or Ciudad Vieja every morning;

– a fixed-time workout at a gym in Carrasco or in a park in Colonia;

– a moment for journaling or meditation before bed.

At first, it’s about giving yourself stable reference points in a new environment. Later, these routines will become true emotional anchors to your life in Uruguay.

Making Your Home a Cocoon… Even a Temporary One

Housing plays a key role in the feeling of security. Whether you live in an apartment in Pocitos, a house in Costa de Oro, or a chacra near Rocha, the more your space resembles your own universe, the less overwhelming the longing for your home country becomes.

Getting to Know Uruguayan Culture Instead of Just Enduring It

A large part of homesickness is linked to the feeling of being “outside” of what’s happening around you. In Uruguay, daily culture is very coded: greeting with a kiss on the cheek, the importance of family meals, the almost sacred weekend asado, late schedules, a strong value placed on children and family life. The sooner you understand these codes, the sooner you stop feeling like a permanent stranger.

Cultural immersion is a powerful antidote to nostalgia, provided you approach it as a curious exploration rather than a test to pass.

The Social Codes That Can Be Disconcerting… and That You Learn

In Uruguay, people kiss on the cheek even between strangers in a social setting, they readily talk about private life, and they touch while talking without romantic connotation. Punctuality is relative, meals can last for hours, and informal address (tutoiement) comes quickly. For an expat from a very formal country or one with more physical distance, this can create discomfort… thus strengthening the desire to “go back among one’s own.”

Immersing Yourself Through Language: An Uncomfortable but Liberating Step

Spanish is omnipresent, and 99% of the population has it as their native language. Outside of a few tourist areas – Punta del Este, certain neighborhoods of Montevideo – English remains limited, especially in public services and the healthcare system.

The inability to express nuance in an unmastered language reinforces loneliness: impossible to tell a joke, express subtle frustration, or a complex emotion. Moving from ‘small talk’ to ‘real connection’ becomes a wall. Result: you retreat to social media in your own language, accentuating the feeling of isolation.

For many expats

Investing in the language is therefore a direct tool against homesickness. In Montevideo, the municipality offers free Spanish courses. Language exchange groups exist, for example via meetups like the “Montevideo Language Exchange Meetup Group.” You’ll meet both curious Uruguayans and foreigners in the same situation.

Learning shouldn’t be seen as an administrative obligation, but as a key to regaining control over your daily life: asking a question at the pharmacy, chatting with a cashier, joking with a colleague, making a joke to the server. Every small linguistic step dismantles a part of the vulnerability.

Building a Social Circle… Without Staying Stuck Among Expats

Humans struggle with prolonged isolation, and data on homesickness confirms it: the more cut off from others you are, the more emotional and physical symptoms increase. Uruguay has the advantage of offering a double playing field: an often open local community and a surprisingly structured network of expats for a country of 3.3 to 3.5 million inhabitants.

Where to Find People When You First Arrive?

Several communities and platforms facilitate initial meetings:

This quickly provides a first social safety net, essential in the first few months.

A table helps visualize some concrete entry points for creating connections:

Type of Network	Example in Uruguay	Main Purpose
Structured Expat Networks	InterNations Uruguay, Expat.com	Quick meetings, organized events
Expat Blogs/Local Media	Guru’Guay	Practical info, inspiration, sense of community
Thematic Meetups	Montevideo Language Exchange, Montevideo Freelancers	Friends by interest, language practice
Facebook Groups	Uruguay Expat Community	Daily questions, classifieds, mutual aid

Avoiding the “Expat Bubble” Trap

Relying on your compatriots or other foreigners is valuable, especially when you’re going through a phase of acute homesickness. You find someone who understands the lack of certain flavors, untranslatable jokes, administrative difficulties.

The idea isn’t to cut yourself off abruptly from other expats, but to use this network as a springboard to gradually get out into neighborhood clubs, neighbors’ asados, or sports or cultural activities attended mostly by Uruguayans: tango dance school, candombe classes, soccer clubs, writing or photography workshops, neighborhood associations.

Leveraging the Uruguayan Lifestyle to Feel Better

Uruguayan society has several specificities that, if used well, can ease homesickness.

Slowness as an Antidote to Emotional Overload

Compared to major Western metropolises, life here is significantly less frantic. If you live in Montevideo, you enjoy the Rambla, parks, an atmosphere of a “big city with a human scale.” In departments like Rocha or Colonia, time sometimes seems suspended among the eucalyptus trees, almost deserted beaches, and shaded small squares.

Mate, Asado, Beaches: Social Entry Points

Mate is not just a drink, it’s a sharing ritual. Accepting a mate, returning it at the right time, understanding each person’s place in this circle already makes you a little less of a stranger. The Sunday asado is often the epicenter of the week: going there, bringing a dessert, helping with preparation allows you to weave yourself into the social fabric.

Enjoying a Safe and Stable Country to Explore

Uruguay is one of the safest countries in Latin America, with relatively low crime and a stable democracy. These conditions are precious when you are psychologically vulnerable. You can afford to travel alone in the country, try a village in Rocha for a weekend, take a bus to Colonia, explore Montevideo neighborhoods on foot during the day.

Discovering new places transforms Uruguay from a “country where I endure my nostalgia” into a “country where I have experiences I would never have had at home.” This mental shift reduces the space for complaint and increases the space for curiosity.

Keeping in Touch with Home… Without Getting Stuck There

Staying connected with family and friends is essential to not feel cut off from the world. But excessive connection can also fuel homesickness: constant social media notifications, comparing your daily life with that of loved ones, the feeling of missing all the important events.

In Uruguay, the digital infrastructure is rather favorable: very good 4G coverage, 5G deployment in tourist areas, decent Wi-Fi in cities. The country even ranks among the world’s best for mobile download speed. This quality of connection is an asset… provided it’s used judiciously.

Choosing Communication Tools Wisely

Several options allow you to stay in touch without breaking the bank on roaming or being glued to your phone:

The goal is to transform communication with your loved ones into a regular and serene support, not an IV drip that prevents you from investing in your local life.

Setting a Rhythm for Contact to Avoid Feeding Nostalgia

Scheduling weekly “appointments” for video calls, rather than responding continuously, helps establish a rhythm. You can, for example, reserve Sunday morning for a long call with family, and a few evenings a week for messaging with friends.

Finding Bearings Through Food: A Real Emotional Lever

Food is one of the most powerful vectors of the feeling of “home”. In Montevideo or a small town inland, not finding your usual flavors can reinforce the impression of uprootedness.

The Uruguayan food system has its specificities: many local products, little brand diversity, an imported supply that is expensive and limited, a culinary culture very focused on meat, cheese, bread, dulce de leche. For some expats, this equates to a small loss.

Mapping Out Sources of Familiarity

Figuring out where to find certain products from your culture can really soften homesickness. Large supermarkets like Tienda Inglesa, Devoto/Disco/Geant have an import aisle where you might find familiar ketchup, Nutella, familiar industrial cookies, sometimes specific sauces. Prices are high, but allowing yourself this “luxury of nostalgia” regularly – even just a simple pack of cookies or a bar of chocolate – can make a disproportionate emotional difference.

A simple table can help visualize the strategy:

Emotional Need	Resource in Uruguay	Impact on Homesickness
Tastes “from home”	Import aisles (Tienda Inglesa, Devoto, etc.)	Occasional comfort, feeling of continuity
Home cooking	Ferias, carnicerías, verdulerías	Regaining control, creativity, family rituals
Eating “like the locals”	Asados, chivitos, empanadas, local pizzerias	Feeling of integration, positive discoveries
Healthier eating	Organic markets, minimally processed local products	Better energy, stabilized mood

Cooking as Gentle Therapy

Cooking your childhood or regional dishes, even with adaptations, can be very soothing. The preparation itself is a moment where you reconnect with happy memories, with gestures learned from your family. Then sharing these dishes with Uruguayan friends or other expats creates a precious cultural bridge.

Managing Seasonal and Climatic Blues

Uruguay experiences four seasons, with humid winters that are sometimes very windy. Even though temperatures remain moderate, reduced sunlight, wind, and regular rain can promote general fatigue or even symptoms similar to seasonal affective disorder (SAD).

Maintaining exercise – gym, brisk walk on the Rambla despite the wind, yoga at home – staying in contact with daylight, planning social activities even when it’s gray, all this limits the isolation → nostalgia → isolation spiral.

Knowing When to Seek Professional Help in Uruguay

In most cases, homesickness remains temporary discomfort. But sometimes, the line is crossed: sadness becomes overwhelming, disinterest in everything persists, social withdrawal sets in, dark thoughts appear. At this stage, it’s no longer just nostalgia, but a possible anxiety or depressive disorder.

In Uruguay, the healthcare system is relatively accessible and of good quality, with a unique public-private combination in Latin America. This context is important to know to know where to turn.

Quickly Understanding the System to Not Feel Helpless

Three levels coexist:

Many mutualistas cover psychiatric consultations and some psychotherapy sessions, although English-speaking options remain rare outside Montevideo. Some expats therefore prefer to continue online follow-up with a therapist from their home country via video, taking advantage of the country’s good internet connection.

Emergency Resources and Helplines

If you are going through a severe crisis – suicidal thoughts, uncontrollable anxiety, feeling of losing your footing – there are helplines and public services:

These services operate in Spanish, but constitute an important safety net. For children and adolescents, a dedicated line offers listening and guidance during the day. Uruguay has also adopted a national suicide prevention strategy, with awareness campaigns (“Hablemos de suicidio”) and pilot community centers, especially in Montevideo.

Asking for help is not an admission of failure in your expatriation project; it’s often what allows you to stay, but under psychologically bearable conditions.

Dealing with Practical Constraints Without Letting Them Erode Morale

Homesickness is often intertwined with daily frustrations: cost of living, slow administration, difficulties finding a job, transportation, lack of cultural or culinary diversity. In Uruguay, some of these points are very real: a country often considered one of the most expensive in Latin America, salaries sometimes out of step with prices, heavy bureaucracy, a relatively small market hence limited supply of products and services.

An example: you can’t find your favorite cheese or your brand of cereal; you can experience it as a new wound (“I don’t even have that anymore”) or as an opportunity to discover a local cheese or a neighborhood feria. The material reality is the same, but the mental reading changes everything.

Building a Sense of Belonging Step by Step

Over the months, the goal isn’t to erase your attachment to your home country, but to add a new layer: that of a real connection with Uruguay. The day you realize you’re looking forward to a neighborhood fiesta, that you comment on a fútbol match with as much fervor as the locals, or that you have your habits at a carnicería or a café, a part of homesickness transforms into simple, sweet nostalgia.

Concretely, this happens through concrete commitments:

These are so many threads that, woven together, create that backdrop we call “home.”

In Summary: Transforming Nostalgia into a Resource

Homesickness in Uruguay is largely normalized by research: the majority of expats face it at one time or another. The country doesn’t protect you from it by magic, but it offers an interesting combination of safety, accessible healthcare services, structured expat communities, warm culture, and quality of life, which can make this period much more bearable – even formative.

Homesickness may never completely disappear, especially during certain family dates or significant events. But instead of being a flaw, it can become a tender memory, proof that you have several places in the world where your heart feels at home – and that, from now on, Uruguay is one of them.