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Cabo Polonio

Rocha · Cabo Polonio · Castillos

also known as El Polonio

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec

waveslow crowds

On this page

The spot
Wind
Forecast
Month by month
Water
Level
The scene
Launch
Schools
Tips
Getting there
Photos
FAQ

Riding essentials

Season

Jul–Mar

Months riders and schools name

How windy

13-15 kt

Character: synoptic

Room to launch

huge

access rules on record, below

Water

waves

23 °C in summerTwo beaches meet at a granite point under the lighthouse

Hazards

Reported by riders

Level

Not for any level

With a caveat: see Your level

BeginnerIntermediateAdvanced

Crowds

low crowds · busy Jan Feb

Schools

none named here

From the airport

20 min

Montevideo Carrasco (MVD)

On the clock

05:00 · 06:00 · 08:00 · 14:00 · 17:00 · 18:00

A daily rhythm sits on top of the synoptic flow. Modelled hourly wind from October to January is at its lowest around 05:00-06:00, climbs steadily from about 08:00, holds its best from 14:00 to 17:00 and eases after 18:00, with roughly 4 kt between the dawn low and the afternoon peak. Academic here, since kiting is banned in every zone of the park.

The marks are the clock times the record names, laid on a 24-hour day. The bar between the first and the last covers those hours; it is not a promise of wind.

Cabo Polonio has no other spot on this map within 40 km of it. straight-line distance

Backup spotsWhere riders go when the wind doesn't work here.

Barra de Valizas - north of the arroyo, outside the park's land boundaryno page yet
Aguas Dulcesno page yet
La Pedrera (Playa del Barco)no page yet
La Paloma (Playa La Aguada)no page yet
Laguna de Rochano page yet
Punta del Diablono page yet

The spot

Cabo Polonio is not a kite spot. Kitesurfing is banned in every zone of the national park around it: the dunes, the village, both beaches and the five nautical miles of ocean off them, under the management plan approved in February 2019, on the grounds that kites significantly disturb the park's wildlife.

Windsurf stays legal in the same water, so do kayak and canoe. Kite is the single named exception.

Getting there

The village is off-grid and car-free, reached by an authorised 4x4 over the dunes from Ruta 10 km 264.5 or on foot, and the rocks under the lighthouse are a haul-out for fur seals and sea lions, which is what the rule protects.

Wind and water

The wind is real and you cannot use it: E to NE through spring and summer, daily peaks averaging 14-15 knots in October and November, water around 23C in February and 12C in August.

Alternatives

Riders who want this coast go to La Paloma and the Laguna de Rocha down the shore, or north of the arroyo Valizas, where the park ends.

The wind

Direction

onshoreoffshorewind blows away from land — rescue cover matters here

Direction to shore

Playa Sur faces southeast, running down the coast toward La Pedrera. La Calavera faces east-northeast, the only Uruguayan beach that does. The E-NE flow of spring and summer lands straight onshore on La Calavera and side-onshore along Playa Sur; the W-SW winter spells blow offshore or side-offshore off both.Read off the two beaches' orientation rather than from any wind-angle report. None of it is usable, because the park is closed to kites.

Dominant direction

E to NE from September through April; W to SW spells in winter, with much less directional consistency

Kite sizes

891011121314151617

metres · typical quiver highlighted

The quiver, in words

Nothing is published and nobody rides here.On the wind the coast actually delivers, daily peaks averaging 13-15 kt, a 75-85 kg rider would be on 12 m and up on most days that blow at all, and on the windiest October and November afternoons on 10-12 m.Indicative, worked from the wind statistics rather than from anyone's session, and moot while the ban stands.

Character

synoptic

When it fills in: see above ↑

Average strength

9-10

Typical strength

Daily peaks average 13-15 kt across the year; a daily peak of 12 kt or more is reached on 52-74% of days depending on the month

Windiest from October to January, when daily peaks average 14-15 kt and the flow sits E to NE. Winter is not much weaker in the numbers, only colder, and it swings from W to NW to NE from week to week. La Calavera faces east-northeast, so the summer flow lands on it onshore.

None of it is usable: the whole national park, both the land and the five-nautical-mile marine strip, is closed to kitesurfing.

December to March is high season for visitors and the warmest water. October and November are the windiest months of the year and quiet on the beach.

Forecast

Live forecast

Windguru Windfinder Windy

Month by month

Jan, riders' month73
Feb, riders' month76
Mar, riders' month73
Apr60
May56
Jun53
Jul, riders' month69
Aug, riders' month70
Sep, riders' month77
Oct, riders' month80
Nov, riders' month79
Dec, riders' month86

per cent of the month at force 4 or more

Ringed months are the ones riders and schools name: Jan, Feb, Mar, Jul, Aug, Sep, Oct, Nov, Dec.

14 ktJan24°
14 ktFeb25°
13 ktMar24°
13 ktApr21°
13 ktMay18°
12 ktJun15°
13 ktJul12°
14 ktAug12°
14 ktSep14°
14 ktOct17°
15 ktNov20°
15 ktDec22°

avg knots per month · water °C below · season highlighted

Modelled from weather reanalysis on a 10–25 km grid (2022-2024), not a ground station: reliable for trade and synoptic winds, understates thermal sea breezes and valley winds.

Every figure, month by monthForce 4+ · Knots · Wind from · Air · Water

Month	Force 4+	Knots	Wind from	Air	Water
Jan	73%	13.5 kt	NE	22.9 °C	24.1 °C
Feb	76%	13.7 kt	ENE	22.5 °C	24.7 °C
Mar	73%	13 kt	NE	21.5 °C	24.2 °C
Apr	60%	12.6 kt	NE	18.1 °C	20.9 °C
May	56%	12.5 kt	SSW	14.7 °C	17.6 °C
Jun	53%	12 kt	WSW	12.4 °C	15.1 °C
Jul	69%	13.2 kt	NE	11.3 °C	12.4 °C
Aug	70%	13.7 kt	NE	12 °C	12.4 °C
Sep	77%	14.2 kt	NE	13.4 °C	13.8 °C
Oct	80%	14.4 kt	ENE	15.4 °C	16.7 °C
Nov	79%	14.5 kt	NE	18.4 °C	19.8 °C
Dec	86%	14.8 kt	NE	20 °C	21.6 °C

How this is modelledmodelled · 2022-2024

A weather model's cell over this place, not a station on it. Good for comparing places, weaker for one beach.

The typical daily max and the direction are columns of the table above, month by month. Highlighted months are the riding season from the spot record.

ERA5 reanalysis grid point (modelled) · Open-Meteo historical weather API — ECMWF ERA5/ERA5-Land reanalysis, not a ground station · 2022-2024

The water

Type

waves

Tides

The astronomical tide on this coast is tiny, about 40 cm, and has barely been characterised. Wind sets the water level instead.Hard northerlies pull it a metre or more below normal, mostly in summer; hard southerlies push it up over the usual high-water line, mostly in winter, flooding the rock pools above the intertidal.Plan around what the wind is doing to the level, not around a tide table.

Temperature

23 °C summer · 12 °C winter

Modelled monthly average: 12–25 °C

Wetsuit

5/4 or 5/3 with boots and gloves around the August minimum, when the water sits at 9–14 °C. A 2 mm top or a shorty at the late-January peak of 21–24 °C.

Currents

Open Atlantic water. Playa Sur is a rough, turbulent break; specific rip patterns were not established.

Conditions

Two beaches meet at a granite point under the lighthouse.

Playa Sur runs south for tens of kilometres toward La Pedrera; Playa de La Calavera runs north toward Barra de Valizas and is the only stretch of the Uruguayan coast facing east-northeast.

The rocks below the lighthouse are a resting ground for South American fur seals and sea lions, and the Islas de Torres offshore hold a breeding colony.

Your level

BeginnerIntermediateAdvanced

not for beginners herenot for intermediates herenot for advanceds here

No level applies. Kitesurfing is prohibited across every zone of the national park under the management plan approved in February 2019. Windsurf is permitted in the same water, so are kayak and canoe. Kite is the one named exception, on the grounds that it causes significant disturbance to the park's wildlife.

The scene

An off-grid village of about 128 permanent residents, no cars, no mains power, that takes over 30,000 visitors in a January (2015 figure). Backpackers, surfers, day trippers off the 4x4. There is no kite scene, and under the current rules there cannot be one.

Launch and rules

three ways on to the water, and what each one asks of you

With a school or a boat

No school names this spot

Nobody has been recorded teaching or running a boat here.

On your own

Room to launch: huge

Read the access rules

Somewhere else

No neighbour on record

No other spot in the atlas sits within reach of this one.

Rescue

Lifeguards cover the swimming area in summer. There is no kite rescue, no boat, and the village has no road access, so an evacuation means the 4x4 crossing or a walk over the dunes.

Launch

Sand either side of the granite point under the lighthouse, reached only by the authorised 4x4 crossing over the dunes from Ruta 10 or on foot. No vehicles in the village, no kite shop, no rigging area set aside for kites. Playa Sur is enormous and empty; La Calavera is the north-facing side toward Valizas.

Hazards riders report 7 reported

Bottom

Fur seals and sea lions haul out on the rocks below the lighthouse; disturbing them is why the ban exists
Granite point and rocky outcrops separating the two beaches

Waves and currents

Open Atlantic shore break on Playa Sur
The astronomical tide is negligible but the wind is not: a hard northerly can drop the water a metre in summer, a hard southerly can push it over the high-water line in winter

Other

Kitesurfing is illegal here: the whole park is closed to it
Water at 9-14C from roughly June to September
No road access, no grid electricity and no running water in the village

Rules & access

1 min read

Kitesurfing is prohibited in every zone of Parque Nacional Cabo Polonio under the management plan approved by MVOTMA resolution of 14 February 2019 (published 20 February 2019).

Permitted and excluded sports

The plan permits non-motorised water sports throughout the area (windsurf, kayak, canoe among them) and excludes kitesurf alone, stating that it causes significant disturbance to the fauna; motorised water sports are banned as well.

Park boundaries and rules

The protected area covers 25,820 ha, of which 21,151 ha is a strip of Atlantic Ocean five nautical miles wide measured from the shoreline. Its boundaries are Ruta 10 to the west, the south bank of the arroyo Valizas to the north, the Atlantic to the east. Tents and pets are also not allowed inside the park (2026).

Access rules drift faster than anything else we hold — check locally, and propose an edit if this has changed.

Schools that ride here

Rider tips

Ride north of the arroyo Valizas if you ride here at all: its south bank is the park's land boundary, so the beach at Barra de Valizas sits outside.
Budget 100 pesos return for a board on the 4x4 in 2026, and be on a truck before the last one out at 18:00.
Come in October or November for the windiest and emptiest weeks; January and February give the warmest water and a beach full of day trippers.
Walk north of the point to La Calavera to see why it picks up what the rest of the coast misses: it faces east-northeast, the only Uruguayan beach that does.
The water level here answers to the wind, not the moon. A strong northerly in summer pulls it a metre down; a strong southerly in winter pushes it over the high-water mark.
If you are watching the forecast for the coast north of the park, the afternoon is the window: the wind bottoms out before dawn and peaks between 14:00 and 17:00.

Getting there

Airport

Montevideo Carrasco (MVD)

Route

Long-distance buses along Ruta 9 and Ruta 10 stop at the park gate, La Puerta del Polonio, at Ruta 10 km 264.5.Authorised 4x4 trucks cross the dunes from there to the village in about 20 minutes: 470 pesos per person return, 100 pesos for a surfboard, 350 pesos a day to leave a car at the gate (2026).First truck in at 05:30, last one out at 18:00.Walking over the dunes is the alternative.Castillos, the nearest town of any size, is about 25 km away.

Transfer

20 min

Cost level

Low. The fixed costs are the 4x4 crossing and the parking at the gate; the village runs on cash and simple rooms.

Staying

Cabins, guesthouses, hostels: all of it runs off solar panels and generators, with no mains water. Tents are banned inside the park (2026). Barra de Valizas and Aguas Dulces are the fallbacks, or Castillos inland.

No-wind days

The lighthouse and the sea-lion viewpoint, the moving dune field between the cape and Punta del Diablo (a natural monument since 1966), Laguna de Castillos, and the beach walk north toward Barra de Valizas.

Photos

FAQ

How do you get there?

Cabo Polonio sits inside a protected coastal dune area with no public road access; visitors reach it by 4x4 shuttle or on foot across the dunes.

What is the wind like?

The village reports wind on roughly 278 days a year, making it a consistently windy open-Atlantic sea-break spot.

Are there rules or permits?

Cabo Polonio lies within a protected national-park/dune area with vehicle-access restrictions; riders should confirm locally whether a kite-club permit is required.

Last updated: August 2026