Curitiba

Curitiba has long been the golden child of Brazil’s metropolitan line-up, famed for its efficiently mechanised infrastructure and spotless modern veneer. Every urban planner’s dream, here is a place where soaring high-rises rub shoulders with leafy parks, inviting eco buses whizz through the streets like clockwork, elaborate fountains gush elegantly along the boulevards, and suited businessmen stroll over plush cobbled squares to cosmopolitan eateries and cocktail bars.

While the city’s inhabitants have overwhelmingly voted Curitiba as the ideal place they would like to live, visitors too have a lot to look forward to. Abundant green spaces like the famed Botanical Gardens enhance the city’s landscape (as well as providing efficient flood control) and a large downtown pedestrianized area calls out to shoppers. There is then the quaint Historic District, countless memorials to immigrants from Europe, and an enchanting Germanic Basilica in addition to numerous museums, with Oscar Niemeyer’s surrealist constructions occupying the centre stage.

Be sure not to leave without sampling the city’s curious array of Italo-Brazilian cuisine, or breaking out into the wildernesses around the city. For the latter, your Curitiba tour guide will recommend the Serra Verde Express, winding its way through the vine-clad karsts and verdant jungles of Parana to the coast at Morretes.