Having made that trip just from BA to Colonia in March, 2012, I was surprised at your question, so I've just checked burquebus.com myself and find that RT is $236, but that is in ARGENTINE PESOS (51. 26 USD). That is a confusing aspect of travel in both Argentina and Uruguay. One doesn't always know whether the use of the dollar sign signifies local currency or US currency. I had one experience that hit my wallet hard. ZZ

I forgot to add that you can make reservations on line or, better, I believe, just walk up to the counter in the terminal and buy a ticket. My experience may not hold, however, for a traveler going on to Montevideo. Perhaps other readers will comment. ZZ

Thanks Zambezi, im in BA for 7 days, do you think i should stay overnight in Colonia or just make it a day trip?
Did you take the 1 hour or 3 hour boat? is it a rough ride? (my wife gets sea sick, although its a river)

I believe that Colonia is well worth spending a night and that the town outside the historic district has value for the visitor, too. For example, I walked to the post office, six or eight blocks away, and felt as though I was seeing real life in a small Uruguayan city. As I recall, the boat trip to Colonia took about TWO hours, but was not a Hovercraft or similar fast boat. It is a large ship and the ride was smooth across that very large river mouth. Something I forgot to mention earlier is that, at least the Sunday afternoon when I took the ferry, there was a variance between the published schedule and the actual one. I went to the terminal straight from the airport and expected a two hour wait, but there was a boat going within the hour. ZZ

We stayed in Colonia for 4 days and loved it. I would definitely recommend an overnight stay. Some great restaurants around town and some nice place to stay. Try to avoid the weekend if you can as it gets very busy with Portenos weekending there.

Did you also go to Montivideo, how was that?

MyMaleEgo, if the water is choppy, if the weather is rough, the ferry does rock and roll and a person can get seasick. Try to go on a calm weather day :- )

Great day trip............a lot of TA comments don't agree.

Colonia has a history and vibe all it's own.

As I recall, there are both slow and "medium-speed" boats on the crossing.

If you are not in a hurry, or just check-listing by all means stay a night.

As you can gather, we love the place.

Most tourists just seem to be in such a hurry.

re: booking. If you can do it online you'll save yourself some time in a Buquebus office where they REALLY know how to waste time.

MME . We did also spend few days in Montevideo and enjoyed it but not as much as Colonia. If you want some more detail on our time in Uruguay and some photos have look at our blog

http://blog.travelpod.com/travel-blog/candcthai/1/tpod.html entries 84 &85 .

You can buy a ticket covering all of the museums in Colonia at any of the sites but do check the opening times as some are not open all day as I recall. also, we hired a golf buggy to get out to the beaches outside of town which was fun.

Thanks for your reply guys, excellent information

Has anyone taken Colonia Express to colonia? Buquebus is quoting me 200 for 2 people roundtrip which i think is too high