São Paulo: A hidden gem for international travellers amidst urban chaos

São Paulo is one of the world’s largest metropolises, yet relatively few international travellers want to visit it. For a megalopolis of 22 million people to receive only 1.6 million tourists from abroad between January and September is a laughable comparison with top tourism magnets such as Paris (with a metro area population half as large), which clocked nearly 16 million international visitors in 2023.
I must confess I have had the same allergy to São Paulo since childhood: My father used to drive the family up from Buenos Aires to Rio de Janeiro on month-long, 4,500-mile round vacation trips, visiting every paradisiac beach on the way. His only condition? Not to spend a minute in São Paulo. He was horrified by the concrete jungle and its famously unpredictable traffic.
So when I had the opportunity to move to Brazil in 2010, Rio was the only acceptable option. But it didn’t take many São Paulo reporting trips for me to appreciate the dynamism and vitality that come from Brazil’s true engine, whose state hosts almost a third of the country’s GDP and its commanding financial center. Its chaotic bustle offers an in-your-face contrast to both the dense quietude of Brasilia and the exasperating informality of Rio.
Fast forward a decade and, after a visit last month, I can confirm that São Paulo has turned a cultural corner. Behind its unfathomable, almost impenetrable facade and perpetually gridlocked streets and motorways lies a lively, charismatic and welcoming place, with grandiose architecture, an edgy art scene, and pulsating nightlife. Just in the past weeks you could have attended a Formula One race or the first NFL game in South America; a major solo exhibition by British-Indian sculptor Anish Kapoor or a cool initiative to make the city’s modernist gems more visible — not to speak of raucous football matches at top quality stadiums and great music acts. São Paulo is also home to the oldest art biennial after Venice and one of the world’s largest LGBTQ pride parade (check out Bloomberg Pursuits’ excellent city guide for more recommendations).
Before my paulistano friends start a campaign to torch me, let me say I am fully aware of the city’s shortcomings: A real estate boom is fueling an eruption of high-rises without much planning, even while homelessness and exclusion continue to be very much present. My most recent trip surfaced numerous complaints about the cost of living, insecurity, and the usual transportation nightmares.
I may have been just lucky, but my traffic experience going around neighborhoods wasn’t as bad as in the past (or maybe it’s because I have spent too much time in Mexico City?) There have been big investments in bike lanes, subways and metropolitan trains that, despite their costs and delays, ended up helping the city’s navigation. The São Paulo state government is now targeting an ambitious expansion plan worth 194 billion reais ($34 billion) to add over 1,000 kilometers of railways projects that should improve the situation. I took the Guarulhos Express from the airport to the iconic Luz station and found it safe, clean, and cheap at just 5 reais — but its frequency of just one train per hour makes it almost useless for business travelers with little time.
That infrequency is a tiny but revealing example of São Paulo’s big drawback from an international perspective: It’s not an easy city for outsiders to navigate. Didn’t anybody in authority consider that the train could be an excellent welcoming experience for foreigners in addition to supporting local commuters?
In a way, this isn’t a city dying to expose itself to the world like, say, Istanbul; it’s the visitor who must do the homework and put all the effort into discovering it. Authorities would do well to invest heavily to promote SP’s many strengths and ease that process of discovery. It’s also true that the city doesn’t have a famous landmark that makes it internationally recognizable but, as architect Isay Weinfeld says, it doesn’t need it because the essence of São Paulo is precisely its interesting mixture of cultures and people, the result of a combination of its large Japanese, Italian and Lebanese diasporas.
“The total lack of personality of the city of São Paulo became its personality,” he told me. “It’s a city with extensive cultural activity, very vibrant, where lots of things are happening; it’s not a city for you to relax.”
Weinfeld, who’s one of Brazil’s top architects and lived his 72 years in São Paulo, rightly argues the city should do more to remove the car from the streets and give more importance to pedestrians as a way to promote more communal, livable spaces, with shops at the bottom of buildings to encourage interactions. Several revitalization projects, particularly in the downtown area, are changing the city’s landscape.
São Paulo these days seems even more unruffled by the politicking and gridlock emerging from Brasilia; the fiscal sustainability debate may be consuming the lives of economists and traders in the financial district of Faria Lima, but business is thriving in the main streets, and the city is a growing hub for entrepreneurship and innovation. I quickly adopted Pix — the instant payment method developed by the central bank — as my go-to tool to buy anything. Expanding Pix to the rest of Latin America could do wonders for regional integration.
To be sure, this may not be the best time to write this ode to São Paulo: The city just went through an uninspiring electoral process that saw its uncharismatic mayor Ricardo Nunes reelected in a campaign whose highlight was a candidate hitting a rival with a chair during a live debate. SP also suffered massive blackouts last month that left millions without electricity, a lot of them for days, due to storms and severe winds.
But all in all, São Paulo still has an edge that other big cities are losing in the name of gentrification, and its friendly people will make you feel at home. Count me in as a fan. If I were making my choice today, I’d pick São Paulo as the place to live and work in Brazil.