Hotel L'Auberge

The exclusive Uruguayan resort of Punta del Este caters to the cream of Brazilian and Argentinian high society, most of whom come to stay in ostentatious seaside palaces or big-money casino hotels. French-style farmhouse hotels, on the other hand, are quite understandably few and far between, and when it comes to country house hotels crafted from converted Tudor-style water towers, well, there’s really only one: the Hotel L’Auberge.

Located in the rather prosaically named Barrio Parque de Golf, the Auberge offers a measure of tranquility and quiet, the closest thing you’ll find to pastoral farm life amidst the hotels and yacht clubs of the Punta del Este. As for the hotel itself, it’s a charming mix of French and English influences: the original building and the first few rooms decidedly in an English manor style, the newer ones decked out in the soft pastels of Provence. Whatever the style, all forty rooms are luxurious, some with jacuzzis, others with fireplaces, and all with modern amenities like high-speed internet access. The tower rooms are necessarily the smallest, but compensate with plenty of personality, while the suites positively sprawl. The hotel’s restaurant is an excellent one, and the afternoon tea service is a Punta del Este institution — golfers would do well to schedule early tee times, so as not to miss tea time.

How to get there: Hotel L'Auberge is located 80 miles east of Carrasco General Cesáreo L. Berisso International Airport.