São Paulo is a sprawling city reminiscent of Mexico City or Los Angeles. There are virtually no natural landmarks. Statues and architectural gems tend to be overwhelmed by high-rises and expressways.
The city sports four “downtowns.” The old center, appropriately named the Centro, still houses the judiciary and related institutions, including the main law courts and an internationally renowned law school. Many law firms have offices here, although some have moved away to be nearer their clients. There are few important businesses here, but the stock exchange, the BM&FBovespa, has remained.
A short drive to the southwest is the second “downtown” area of Avenida Paulista, Brazil’s best-known business drag. Once lined by mansions owned by coffee barons, the street now houses the powerful state industrial federation FIESP and Citicorp’s Brazilian headquarters. Avenida Paulista is also known for the São Paulo Art Museum (MASP) and, across the street, a wooded park called Trianon. Near the Avenida Paulista is the smart Jardins district, with its high concentration of fine stores, restaurants, bars and coffee shops.
Further southeast is Avenida Faria Lima, home to many of the headquarters of foreign investment banks. Adjacent to the Avenida Faria Lima are the Pinheiros and Vila Madelena neighborhoods, the “in” places for São Paulo’s rambunctious nightlife.
South of Faria Lima, the final downtown flares out from Avenida Berrini. This region sports the World Trade Center and dozens of other new skyscrapers. One building, called “Robo Cop” because of its futuristic facade, counts many leading international advertising agencies as tenants. The Globo Television Network has relocated to this district.
Nearby, a bit further south, many multinational companies have established their Brazilian headquarters in a district called Santo Amaro. Across the Pinheiros River from Avenida Berrini is the Morumbi neighborhood, home of the governor’s mansion and Morumbi Stadium, the city’s most important football arena.
There are three main traffic arteries. Two, the Marginal Tietê and the Marginal Pinheiros, were originally designed as a mini-ring road, but the city long ago overran them. They take their titles from the polluted rivers they follow, and the term “marginal” comes from the fact that they run along the margins of the rivers. The Pinheiros runs north-south, the Tietê runs east-west. The expressways, like the rivers, meet in the northeastern corner of town. The other main expressway, called 23 de maio, runs south from downtown to the Congonhas domestic airport.
Sao Paulo Neighborhoods and Districts
The city is a patchwork of distinctive neighborhoods, many of which reflect the cultures of the immigrants who settled in them.
Avenida Paulista and Jardins - Everything happens along the 2.8 kilometers of the city’s main drag, the Paulista. It hosts the headquarters of several leading banks and of the state’s industrial federation, FIESP, more influential in national politics than the national confederation to which it is affiliated. Cultural attractions abound, notably the Museu de São Paulo (MASP) and the Itaú Cultural Center. A few of the mansions built by coffee barons around the turn of the 20th century still dot the scene. One houses the Casa das Rosas, another a McDonald’s. The shopping center in the Conjunto Nacional features movie theaters, bookstores, bars and coffee houses. Whenever someone scores a big victory, be it a politician like President Lula or a football club, partisans flock to the Avenida Paulista, closing it down for an all-night celebration. Astride bustling Paulista Avenue, the Jardins neighborhood offers São Paulo’s most fashionable shopping district - full of upscale boutiques, coffee shops, restaurants and art galleries.
Hotel Recommendations for the Avenida Paulista and Jardins Region
* For more detailed reviews of these properties and suggestions in other parts of town, see our São Paulo Hotel Recommendations page.
* Blue Tree Paulista
* Crowne Plaza Hotel
* Dona Zilah
* Estanplaza Paulista
* Emiliano Hotel
* Fasano Hotel
* Golden Tulip Paulista Plaza Hotel
* InterContinental Hotel São Paulo
* L'Hotel
* Maksoud Plaza
* Regent Park Suite Hotel
* Renaissance São Paulo Hotel
* Tivoli São Paulo Mofarrej
Bixiga (Bela Vista) - A compact neighborhood nestled between the Avenida Paulista and the old city center. Follow the link for details and hotel recommendations.
Brooklin and the Avenida Berrini - The “new downtown” in the southern part of the city. Click on the link for details and hotel recommendations.
Centro (Downtown) - The noteworthy Metropolitan Cathedral in the Praça da Sé, the city’s geographical center. The tramps that linger in the pews can throw off quite a stench, but the church is still worth a brief visit. Further on are pedestrian walkways that lead to the old banking district. The old downtown still houses the stock exchange, Bovespa, and the futures exchange. The Jesuit mission site where the city was founded in 1554 can also be found nearby, including a wonderful Benedictine monastery. A bridge above a thoroughfare leads to the Teatro Municipal, downtown shopping streets open only to pedestrians, and the Praça da República (the main downtown square). The Banespa Building, at 35 stories, isn’t the tallest building in town, but, set on high ground, it offers the best view the sprawling city. Officially known as the Edíficio Altino Arantes (Rua Joao Bricola, 24), the building was inaugurated in 1947 and housed the headquarters the state-owned bank Banespa until it was privatized and sold to the Spanish bank Santander. The building sports architecture inspired by New York’s Empire State Building. Given the building’s privileged location, visitors can see as far away as 40 kilometers.
Hotel Recommendations for the Centro of São Paulo
* For more detailed reviews of these properties and suggestions in other parts of town, see our São Paulo Hotel Recommendations page.
* Hotel Jaguará
* Pergamon
Liberdade - The Asian district. Residents and shop-owners were once predominantly of Japanese descent, but the red lamp posts, the arch on Rua Galvão Bueno and the gardens are hardly spontaneous expressions of cultural identity. They are part of a deliberate attempt launched almost three decades ago to convert São Paulo’s Asian district into a tourist attraction. In 1974, local merchants completed a scheme to spruce the place up, and the plan included a requirement that shops sport signs in native script as well as Portuguese. Liberdade and its picturesque Asian-script signs were hard hit by the “Clean City” initiative in 2007 that among other things imposed size limits on lettering.
Vila Madalena and Pinheiros - Restaurants, boutique shops, art galleries, and walls adorned by street art ranked by experts as among some of the world’s best graffiti. Until the 1970s, Vila Madalena was a modest working class enclave. College professors from the nearby University of São Paulo began to flock to the area for its affordable housing. A neo-hippie style took hold, and the neighborhood began to attract artists, musicians and writers. At night young people of all stripes converge on the innumerable bars and nightclubs. “Paulistanos” from elsewhere around the city flock to Vila Madalena for geochromotherapy (whatever that is), street theater and yoga classes. The neighborhood has its own Samba School (misnomer for a group that parades during Carnival). On Saturdays, there’s a popular arts and crafts fair in the Praça Benedito Calixto just across the neighborhood border in Pinheiros. Residents, both natives and imports, swear by the place. “Vila Madalena is synonymous with art, good taste, and beautiful and unhitched people who are into fashion,” writes a reporter in a neighborhood magazine. “The more the neighborhood grows, the more colorful it becomes,” says an Italian street painter. “The Vila’s smile is unequaled; it is naughty, provincial and unpretentious,” says a local writer.
Pinheiros Hotel Recommendations
* For more detailed reviews and suggestions in other parts of town, see our São Paulo Hotel Recommendations page.
Comfort Suites Oscar Freire
