Attraction
MASP – Museu de Arte de São Paulo
São Paulo's best-known art museum, raised above Avenida Paulista on Lina Bo Bardi's suspended concrete structure and holding more than 8,000 works from Raphael to Portinari.
There are more things to do in São Paulo than most visitors expect from Brazil's largest city, which is better known for business than for beaches. The old centre around Praça da Sé holds the cathedral, the Mosteiro de São Bento, the Theatro Municipal and the Mercado Municipal, while Luz has the Pinacoteca, the Museu da Língua Portuguesa and the Sala São Paulo concert hall. Avenida Paulista, home to MASP, is the city's cultural spine, and Parque Ibirapuera is its favourite green space. Liberdade, the Japanese quarter, and Vila Madalena, with its street art and bars, show two very different sides of the city.
Food is a major reason to visit. São Paulo has Brazil's first three-Michelin-star restaurants, a long Italian and Japanese heritage and classic dishes such as the Bauru sandwich and the mortadella sandwich at the Mercadão, alongside north-eastern cooking and specialty coffee. Three to four days covers the centre, Paulista, Ibirapuera and a few neighbourhoods, with extra time for museums and dining.
Attraction
São Paulo's best-known art museum, raised above Avenida Paulista on Lina Bo Bardi's suspended concrete structure and holding more than 8,000 works from Raphael to Portinari.
Attraction
São Paulo's best-loved park, opened in 1954 for the city's 400th anniversary, with 158 hectares of lawns and lakes and a complex of buildings designed by…
Attraction
The city's oldest art museum, founded in 1905 in an exposed-brick building beside the Jardim da Luz, with more than 12,000 works centred on Brazilian art.
Attraction
An opera house from 1911 modelled on the Palais Garnier, home to the city's symphony orchestra and ballet and the venue of the 1922 Modern Art…
Attraction
São Paulo's neo-Gothic cathedral on Praça da Sé, built between 1913 and 1967, with 92-metre spires, a Florentine-style dome and a crypt of the city's bishops.
Attraction
An interactive museum built into the stands of the Pacaembu stadium, tracing how football became part of Brazilian life across 15 rooms and 6,900 square metres.
Café
Isabela Raposeiras's specialty coffee café, roastery and barista school in Vila Madalena, focused on traceable microlots from named producers.
Café
A specialty coffee brand founded in Pinheiros by Diego Gonzales, roasting all its own beans and running a free barista training project for young people.
Café
A producer, roaster and café run by champion barista Boram Um and SCA instructor Garam Um, serving coffee from the family's own farms in Bom Retiro…
Café
A traditional 24-hour bakery and food hall in Jardins, known for its weekend breakfast buffet, evening soup buffet and food at any hour.
Café
A grocery founded in 1888 and on Rua Líbero Badaró since 1924, recognised as intangible heritage of the city and famous for its empadas and coffee…
Café
A Bixiga bakery trading since 1914, known for its Pão Italiano Basilicata made to the original recipe, with an emporium of Italian and Brazilian products and…
Hotel
A luxury hotel in the restored Matarazzo maternity hospital and a new vertical-garden tower near Avenida Paulista, with 160 rooms and suites and around 450 commissioned…
Hotel
A five-star Oetker hotel opened in 2017 beside Parque Burle Marx, on the former estate of Baby Pignatari, with 141 rooms and a Michelin-starred Jean-Georges restaurant.
Hotel
The Fasano family's flagship hotel in Jardins, designed by Isay Weinfeld and Márcio Kogan, with 60 rooms, a 21st-floor pool and the Fasano restaurant and Baretto…
Hotel
Ruy Ohtake's arc-shaped design hotel in Jardins, opened in 2002, with round windows, 95 apartments and the Skye rooftop restaurant and bar beside a red pool.
Hotel
A luxury boutique hotel on Rua Oscar Freire in Jardins, with suites including a rooftop Suíte Cubo, the award-winning Cena restaurant and the Santapele spa.
Hotel
A four-star hotel with 108 rooms a few metres from Avenida Paulista, with an outdoor pool, a gym and a pizza restaurant, close to two metro…
Bar
A Pinheiros noodle bar turned cocktail bar, founded in 2015 by Thiago Bañares and the highest-ranked Brazilian entry on The World's 50 Best Bars list.
Bar
A downtown bar founded in 1948 at the corner of Avenida Ipiranga and Avenida São João, immortalised in Caetano Veloso's song Sampa and known for live…
Bar
The rooftop bar and restaurant of Ruy Ohtake's Hotel Unique, with DJs, a red pool and panoramic views over Parque Ibirapuera and the Avenida Paulista skyline.
Bar
The bar of the Hotel Fasano in Jardins, named the world's number one bar by Wallpaper* magazine, where Caetano Veloso and Maria Rita are among past…
Bar
A late-night bar inside the 1911 Theatro Municipal, open in the evenings from Tuesday to Saturday and a natural stop before or after a performance.
Bar
An electronic music club in Barra Funda with its own record labels covering house, techno and experimental sounds, a rooftop space and parties from Thursday to…
Restaurant
Ivan Ralston's seasonal tasting-menu restaurant, one of the first two in Brazil to win three Michelin stars, with menus that change four times a year.
Restaurant
Chef Luiz Filipe Souza's three-Michelin-star restaurant, serving a single Oriundi tasting menu that explores the meeting of Italian and Brazilian cooking.
Restaurant
Alex Atala's restaurant in Jardins, open since 1999 and the first in Brazil to win two Michelin stars, built around Amazonian and other native Brazilian ingredients.
Restaurant
Jefferson Rueda and Janaína Torres's downtown restaurant devoted to the whole pig, with pork from their own farm and a place on Latin America's 50 Best…
Restaurant
A family restaurant founded in 1973 in São Paulo's north zone, where chef Rodrigo Oliveira turned his father's north-eastern canteen into a Michelin Bib Gourmand favourite.
Restaurant
Rodrigo Oliveira's restaurant on the ground floor of the Instituto Moreira Salles, mixing Brazil's regional food cultures with Mocotó classics on Avenida Paulista.
Thing to do
The city's grand 1933 food market, designed by Ramos de Azevedo's office, with stained-glass windows, more than 290 stalls and a mezzanine of restaurants.
Thing to do
Walk the 2.8-kilometre avenue that symbolises modern São Paulo, closed to cars on Sundays and holidays and lined with museums, cultural centres and a small forest…
Thing to do
A car-free alley in Vila Madalena whose walls are covered in constantly changing graffiti, named after a Batman stencil painted there in the 1980s.
Thing to do
São Paulo's Japanese, Chinese and Korean quarter, marked by a red torii on Rua Galvão Bueno and busy at weekends with a craft and food fair…
Thing to do
Hear the São Paulo State Symphony Orchestra in a 1,498-seat concert hall built inside the restored Júlio Prestes railway station, known for its adjustable ceiling.
Tour operator
Tip-based walking tours of São Paulo's old downtown, Vila Madalena and Avenida Paulista, run in English and Portuguese by local guides several days a week.
Tour operator
A daily guided tour of São Paulo FC's Morumbis stadium, run by the club's official travel agency, taking in the memorial, dressing room, tunnel and pitch.
Tour operator
A guided tour of Palmeiras's Allianz Parque in Perdizes, visiting the dressing rooms, press room, luxury boxes and pitch, with a penalty challenge at weekends.
Tour operator
A guided tour of Corinthians's Neo Química Arena, opened in 2014, led by fan hosts through the dressing room, press room, warm-up area and pitch.
Tour operator
A glass-floored observation experience on the 42nd floor of the Mirante do Vale building, 150 metres above the historic centre, with decks that slide out from…
Three to four days is enough for the historic centre, Avenida Paulista, Parque Ibirapuera and a few neighbourhoods such as Liberdade and Vila Madalena, with more time for museums and restaurants.
Avenida Paulista and Jardins are central and well connected by metro, Pinheiros and Vila Madalena suit those who want restaurants and nightlife, and the Itaim and Faria Lima area is popular with business travellers.
From Guarulhos you can take a taxi, a ride-hailing car, an airport bus or a train connection into the city, while Congonhas is closer to the centre and best reached by taxi or ride-hailing car. Allow plenty of time for traffic at peak hours.
Prices vary widely. Fine dining and luxury hotels are expensive, but traditional bars, bakeries and markets are good value, and several major museums have free days.
Most visits are trouble-free, but street crime is a risk in busy areas. Keep phones and valuables out of sight, use official taxis or ride-hailing apps at night and follow local advice about which streets to avoid after dark.