Sao Paulo, Brazil - The Guide

[mojinho]

hey guys, just got back from a weekend in Sampa and wanted to give you guys a few tips:

*Bráz pizzeria. delicious pizza. São Paulo was the entry point for many Italian immigrants in Brazil so they have quite a tradition of Italian food there. budget option.

*Café de la Musique

AWESOME nightclub. lounge-y side areas and center area with tables and chair for dining (early). got going around 1am with everyone standing up dancing around the tables. lots of rich beautiful people but you can get in. fantastic scene, people were friendly and the dancing was great. we went on saturday and there was no cover but it was Easter weekend so that may have been something unusual since no one was in town, i'm not sure. drinks R$25-30 (US$14-US$17).

here's a pic i snapped:

also went to the portuguese language museum but that's useless for anyone who doesn't speak the language.

[StrongerThanAll]

hey ChadR, yeah Rio is OK to visit. this city gets a lot of bad press and this is well deserved, but the things you would do as a tourist aren't dangerous. take taxis everywhere (they won't rip you off) and don't take anything with you that you aren't willing to lose if you do get robbed. if you do, just give them your money and they'll be gone lickety-split.

i came here for the first time in 2004, also with my mother, who is from here, and we were also a little nervous but turned out we were paranoid. it's not like you can't go out in the street or anything. besides, if your mom is brazilian, she won't look like a tourist, right? (although brazilians get robbed just as much as tourists . . .)

#1 mistake i see tourists make all the time is walking around with a camera. just don't do it. put it in a bag and take it out when you want to take pics and then put it away. same thing with your next-generation cell phone.

just be smart and you'll have an awesome vacation in this beautiful city.

oh, and StrongerThanAll, the exchange rate isn't what it once was . . . they keep talking on the news about how much the dollar's weakened in the last few months (it's down to 1.75 whereas when i visited here in 2004 it was around 3!). last time i went to the US with my reais i made out like a bandit. anyway even in stronger-dollar times the more expensive brazilian places weren't so cheap. i don't think paying US$25 to get into a nightclub or US$125 for a pair of shorts at Osklen is exactly cheap even by US standards.

i agree with the shorts, but the nightclubs are cheap, i ususally pay R$150 (you pay and get R$150 worth of drinks) to get in the nightclub (in the VIP area) which is pretty cheap compared to england or europe in general (even though they dont charge entrance)...

also, I just love osklen, they are really "brazilian style" and its great to wear them at the beach..

but i do agree, the cheap dollar is gonna hurt for the tourists, but still.. it is cheaper overall..

i just came back from NYC for a weekend, every meal was over US$ 50