The Ralli Museum in Punta del Este: hours, entry and what to see
Andante notes · 7 min read
It is the largest museum in the resort and the easiest one to drive straight past: it is not on the peninsula, it charges nothing at the door, and in January it only opens at five in the afternoon. Inside there are Dalí, Botero and Magritte, across six thousand square metres of rooms and courtyards, in the middle of a neighbourhood of houses with gardens.
- What it is
- Latin American and European art, open since 1988
- Where
- Los Arrayanes at Pitangas, Beverly Hills neighbourhood
- Entry
- Free, always, for everyone
- January and February
- Tuesday to Sunday, 5 to 9 pm (as of Sept. 2026)
- Rest of the season
- December and March, 2 to 6 pm; October and November, weekends
- Winter
- June to September, booked groups only
- From the peninsula
- 5 km: ten minutes by car, an hour on foot
Where the Ralli Museum is and how to get there
In Beverly Hills, a neighbourhood of San Rafael whose streets are named after trees and explorers: Los Arrayanes at Pitangas, inside a wooded park that belongs to the museum as well. There is no sign on the road and no queue at the door; you get there because you went looking for it.
From the peninsula it is about five kilometres by road: ten minutes by car or taxi, with free parking of its own on arrival. City bus lines 3A and 55 pass through the area, though out of season the frequency is what it is. On foot it is an hour with no shade, so it belongs to the day that already has a car in it. The guide to what to do in Punta del Este separates what you can walk to from what needs a bus, and the museum falls on the second side.
Five kilometres from here, on the peninsula almost everyone who comes to the museum sets out from, begins the narrated walk by Andante.
Hours and entry: it opens when the beach empties
Entry costs nothing. There is no ticket desk, no booking, no resident discount and no high-season price, and the same goes for the other four museums of the foundation. It is worth saying first, because almost everything people ask about this museum is about the price.
The opening hours, on the other hand, change five times a year, and they follow the beach rather than a museum clock. In January and February it opens Tuesday to Sunday from 5 to 9 pm, as the sand starts to empty. In December, March and Tourism Week, from 2 to 6 pm. In October and November, Saturdays and Sundays only, in the afternoon. It is closed on Mondays, and on 25 December and 1 January as well.
The two official pages do not agree about April and May. The museum's Uruguayan site puts those months Tuesday to Sunday; the foundation's international site groups them with October and November, that is, weekends only. For an autumn visit it is worth calling +598 4248 3476 before driving five kilometres.
From June to September, on the other hand, there is no argument: the museum does not open to the public and takes only groups of more than fifteen people, booked in advance. It is the fact most winter guides still get wrong.
What is inside: Dalí, Botero and Latin American art
Six thousand square metres built inside a twenty-four thousand square metre property, designed by the Uruguayan architects Marita Casciani and Manuel Quinteiro. The rooms do not run one after another: they alternate with open courtyards holding sculpture in bronze and marble, so the visit steps outside every so often and comes back in.
The collection is above all contemporary Latin American art, and one of the most important of its kind anywhere. Alongside it sit European painting from the 15th to the 18th century and names nobody expects to meet this far from Montevideo.
- Salvador Dalí. The only works of his in Uruguay, and the most repeated artist in the network: he hangs in all five Ralli museums.
- Fernando Botero and the Uruguayan Manuel Pailós, from the Torres García workshop.
- René Magritte and Amedeo Modigliani, on the European side.
- Henry Moore and Julio Le Parc, between sculpture and kinetic art.
- John Robinson, the Englishman who casts life-size children at play in bronze, out in the courtyards.
The shows rotate: a Raquel Forner retrospective, a room of rococo and «Movimiento y Ritmo», built from optical and kinetic art for the museum's thirty-fifth year, have all passed through. An hour and a half is enough to see the whole thing without hurrying. If the day has already left the peninsula, Casapueblo stands on the other side of the bay, open all year and charging for entry.
6,000
Square metres
Rooms and courtyards, inside a 24,000 m² park.
0
The entry fee
Since 1988, and in all five museums.
Those numbers do not add up on their own, and to make sense of them you have to look at who put the museum there.
The banker who traded his banks for five museums
Harry Recanati was born in Salonica in 1918. In 1937 he joined the bank his father had founded two years earlier in Tel Aviv, in 1945 he took charge of it, and by 1952 that modest house was the second largest bank in the country. That same year he moved to Geneva and built a network of private banks in Switzerland, France, Uruguay, Peru and Chile.
In 1980 he sold the Swiss and French banks and turned to art. Eight years later he opened his first museum, and not in Israel, where he lived, nor in Spain, where he would open another: he opened it here. Santiago de Chile followed in 1992, Caesarea in 1993, Marbella in 2000 and a second Caesarea in 2007. Recanati died in 2011 and the foundation keeps all five running.
That is where the oddness comes from, the one visitors feel at the door without being able to name it. The square metre around here is among the most expensive in the country, everything surrounding it is for sale, and in the middle of that sits a museum with Dalí inside where nobody asks you for anything, not even a voluntary donation. It is not a council gesture or a seasonal offer: it has been the rule of the house for almost forty years.
Questions that keep coming up
How much does the Ralli Museum cost? Is it free?
It is free, in all five museums of the Ralli foundation. There is no ticket desk and no advance booking, and no shop, restaurant or donation box either.
What are the opening hours of the Ralli Museum in Punta del Este?
They change with the season. January and February, Tuesday to Sunday 5 to 9 pm. December, March and Tourism Week, Tuesday to Sunday 2 to 6 pm. October and November, Saturdays and Sundays 2 to 6 pm. Closed Mondays, and on 25 December and 1 January. Checked in September 2026.
Does the Ralli Museum open in winter?
Not to the public. From June to September it takes only groups of more than fifteen people, booked in advance. Several guides still list it as a winter plan.
Where is it and how do you get there from Punta del Este?
At Los Arrayanes and Pitangas, Beverly Hills, about five kilometres from the peninsula. By car or taxi it is ten minutes, with free parking of its own; bus lines 3A and 55 pass through the area. On foot, an hour.
What is in the Ralli Museum?
Contemporary Latin American art, the strength of the collection, plus European painting from the 15th to the 18th century and work by Dalí, Botero, Magritte, Modigliani, Henry Moore, Julio Le Parc, Manuel Pailós and John Robinson, across six thousand square metres of rooms and sculpture courtyards.
Are there works by Dalí in Punta del Este?
Yes, and they are the only ones in Uruguay. Dalí is the most present artist in the Ralli network: he has pieces in all five museums.
How long does the visit take, and can you take photographs?
An hour and a half for the rooms and courtyards at an easy pace, half an hour if you came for one show. Photography is allowed throughout, which is unusual, and so are dogs.
Outside the museum there is something to look at too
The Ralli takes an hour and a half and tells you nothing about the town around it. That is what «La otra Punta del Este» does, five kilometres from here: a narrated walk that starts at La Mano, crosses from the rough side to the calm one, passes the port and ends beside the water, told by Graciela, who was born here when this was a fishing village.
One hour · 3.8 km · no app, it opens in the browser · no group and no schedule · $U 199 ≈ US$ 5 · narrated in Spanish
Photograph of the museum: Balou46 (CC BY-SA 4.0)
