Need to know
Rooms
17, including three suites and one villa.
Check–Out
11am, but flexible, subject to availability. Earliest check-in, 3pm.
More details
Rates include a hearty breakfast in the morning, including freshly squeezed juice, coffee or tea, home-made pastries and breads, and fruit salad. Main plates come cooked to order, such as omelette, green toast, cured fish and French toast.
Also
There’s a ramp connecting different communal areas of the posada and the ground-floor suite is wheelchair accessible.
Hotel closed
Early April to end October
At the hotel
Free WiFi, bikes to borrow, chairs, umbrellas and towels for beach trips, pillow menu, landscaped grounds, free access to the Skyspace art installation, onsite library, laundry service (from $5). In rooms: air conditioning, minibar, Bluetooth speaker, stationery, maps and guides, hairdryer, bathrobes, free bottled water, all-natural, locally made toiletries by Jabones Jam.
Our favourite rooms
Arriving à deux, our hearts leapt for joy at the sight of the Ocean Suite, with its private terrace views and stylish, comfortable surrounds. In a bigger party, however, the Villa Ayana is undeniably the ultimate accommodation choice here, offering three private bedroom suites, plus an infinity pool complete with waterside hammock and Sixties-style hanging armchair, and wood and glass-bordered living, dining and kitchen area. Each of the bedroom suites showcases work from a different Uruguayan artist: Adriana Rostovsky in the master, Carmela Piñón in the terrace suite and Francisca Maya in the garden suite. Views of the Skyspace dome in the background remind you of the uniqueness of your location.
Poolside
The 16-metre saltwater infinity pool is finished in dark green marble and bordered with sun beds and cheery mustard parasols. The long and sandy Mansa beach is just a short walk away.
Spa
There’s no spa, but there is a treatment room for massages. You can also choose to enjoy your massage in your room, as well as mani-pedis or make-up and hair styling services for your special night out. There’s a fitness room with yoga mats, weights and more, plus personal trainers, including yoga and Pilates teachers, available on request. You can book a court or a tennis lesson at the country club across the street, or hit the golf course at Cantegril Country Club or La Barra Golf Club.
Packing tips
Glamorous two-piece and Panama to really look the part on those sun-splashed terraces.
Also
The Kofler family, creators of Posada Ayana, had long been admirers of James Turrell’s Skyspace installations.
Children
Posada Ayana is a relaxing, adults-only retreat.
Sustainability efforts
Posada Ayana has signed the Unesco Sustainable Tourism Pledge and has a firm planet and community focus. Solar panels generate electricity, and LED bulbs on energy-saving timers provide the lighting. There are also timers to make the boilers energy efficient, as well as water-saving devices on the taps. Refillable glass bottles are used for drinking water, and the same goes for the all-natural artisan-made toiletries, which are delivered to the hotel in large reusable containers. Paper or bamboo drinking straws are available at the bar. The seasonal produce for breakfast and bar snacks all comes from trusted local suppliers and farmers, and wines are all local. As everything is made to order, food waste is kept low, and any extras are used to make staff meals. The few plastics that are used here are recycled in conjunction with a local organisation. Guest rooms are dressed with upcycled and vintage pieces or furniture and artworks made by local carpenters and blacksmiths using locally available materials. Pieces of leftover stone from the building stage have been used to make coffee tables.
The hotel itself was built using mostly local materials. The green pool marble and the lapacho wood was brought in on land transport from Brazil. The white marble for the Skyspace came from the village of Laas (where the owners’ family originate from), and travelled a longer distance to arrive here, but was sustainably produced using waste offcuts to make small transportable bricks. Instead of being developed into more guest accommodation, the land by the hotel was used for the Skyspace art installation, now a monument of national interest in Uruguay, and the surrounding parkland has been filled with more than 15,000 indigenous plants. All of the profits generated from the Skyspace are used to support local artists, particularly women. The hotel partners with two Uruguayan community organisations (Faro Limpio and ReachingU) and guests are welcome to donate to them or join beach-cleaning expeditions if they wish.
