São Paulo

There is no single postcard view, just a restless grid of towers, long avenues and neighbourhoods that each feel like a different town. The reward is depth. A museum raised on stilts above Avenida Paulista holds one of the finest art collections in the southern hemisphere, a 19th-century railway-era building houses Brazil's most beloved gallery of Brazilian art, a huge park gives the city room to breathe, and a vaulted market sells the mortadella sandwich everyone talks about. This guide covers the essentials properly. It starts with MASP, the Pinacoteca, Ibirapuera Park, Avenida Paulista, the Beco do Batman street-art lanes and the Mercado Municipal, adds the Sé Cathedral, the Farol Santander viewpoint, the Museu do Ipiranga, the Museu do Futebol, Vila Madalena and the Japanese Immigration Museum, plus a football match, a downtown bike ride, a Brazilian cooking class and the Japanese-Brazilian district of Liberdade, then picks six hotels from a landmark splurge to a simple budget base on Paulista, with four travel guides to plan the trip. It also keeps the practical advice honest about getting around, the weather and staying aware in a big city.