Estancia Vik José Ignacio

Estancia Vik was the founding gesture of Alex and Carrie Vik's Uruguayan trilogy: a working 4,000-acre estancia in the grasslands behind José Ignacio, the fishing-village-turned-summer-capital of South American style. The house takes the traditional colonial estancia form—whitewashed walls, deep verandas around a central courtyard—and fills it with one of the continent's great private contemporary art collections; each of the twelve suites was handed to a different Uruguayan artist, so no two rooms share a mood, and the barrel-vaulted party barn's graffiti ceiling has become an image of modern Uruguay.

Days move at pampas pace: riding with gauchos across the estate, polo lessons on the property's fields, walks among cattle and birdlife, and afternoons at the marble pool looking over the grasslands to the distant lagoon. The kitchen runs on estancia tradition—asado above all, fired in the sculptural parrilla, with estate produce and Uruguayan tannat—served at communal tables that make house-party sociability part of the design.

The beaches, restaurants and nightlife of José Ignacio are fifteen minutes away, and sister properties Playa Vik and Bahia Vik sit on the sand for those splitting a stay. In summer the scene sparkles; off-season the silence is the luxury. It is the definitive expression of contemporary Uruguay.