Belo Horizonte is Brazil's sixth largest city and the capital of the state of Minas Gerais. With its orderly grid plan and tree-lined avenues, it's a pleasant metropolis. For travelers, it's a good stopping point on the way to the beautiful colonial towns such as Ouro Preto and Tiradentes.
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Founded in 1897, Belo Horizonte (or simply "BH" (beh-ah-GAH) to locals) is a little over a century old. With a metropolitan population reaching more than 5 million (edging out Salvador), it was built as a planned city to take the place of Ouro Preto as the state's capital. Its layout features square sections delineated by broad avenues, intersected diagonally by smaller streets. The city lies in the center of the Minas Gerais state, and was intended to bring together the many parts of this very diverse state. Belo Horizonte is located at 852 meters (2,795 feet) in altitude and therefore temperatures rarely reach extremes of cold or heat.
If you plan to get around the city center on foot, you might want to take a map. Because the city grid is laid out with both ordinal and diagonal streets, it is very easy to take a wrong turn. Also, the land where the city was built has plenty of hills, so one should wear comfortable shoes to go up and down the streets. At night, stay on the main avenues and streets for safety, because it can be dangerous. BH is well served by buses. The SC buses circulate through the downtown area; others serve outlying neighborhoods. To pay the bus tariff, you can use cash, or the electronic billing card (Cartão BHBUS). For the tourist, it's recommended to use cash.
Note that a lot of places including museums, the parque municipal and the Mangueira park are closed on Mondays. 1 Pampulha. This 1940s neighborhood has some of the highlights of Brazil modern architecture, including the São Francisco de Assis Church, designed by the famous architect Oscar Niemeyer (designer of the United Nations building in NYC and also Brasilia, Brazil's capital) . The building is not shocking by itself, until you realize it was meant to be a church. Not surprisingly, the Catholic Church refused to consecrate it for more than one decade. Next to the church, there's the Parque Guanabara, an amusement park that is small, but worth visiting.
Watch the sunset at Parque das Mangabeiras. See the metropolitan area illuminated at night by visiting Praça do Papa, in the Mangabeiras district (recommended for those with a car). Take a seat in one of the many bars scattered throughout the city. There is a myth that Belo Horizonte is the city with the most bars per capita in the country. The motto is "If there is no sea, let's go to the bar" Sit down in a square and strike up a conversation. If you have a few days available on your trip, visit Serra do Cipó National Park . 100km from BH, it is a great place for camping, mountaineering, trekking, caving and other extreme activities.
Minas Gerais is renowned for its cuisine across Brazil, and is the origin of many famous foods such as pão de queijo (small baked roll made with cheese and cassava flour) and feijoada (black bean and meat stew). Like elsewhere in Brazil, restaurant food is typically served in some variation of a buffet. 1 Restaurante Chen Chang Kee Noodle House - Galeria BH, R. Curitiba, 130. Chinese (updated Aug 2022) 2 Marilanches, R. Curitiba, 207. Snack bar (updated Aug 2022) 3 A Pastelândia, R. Rio de Janeiro, 438. (updated Aug 2022) 4 Gruta do Paulista, Rua dos Tupis, 149 - Loja 3. (updated Aug 2022) 5 Cozinha Mineira, Rua dos Goitacazes, 376.
People from BH are famous for their love of bars. The central Savassi neighborhood has dozens of bars. The city is widely known (although without any confirmation) as the city with most bars per capita in the world. Some clubs that charge a cover are overrated and expensive. The outdoor bar scene is the authentic Brazilian experience. Good places to look for a bar: Avenida Prudente de Morais Rua Marília de Dirceu (follow it while it becomes Rua Curitiba and then Rua São Paulo—yeah, that's how streets work in Belo Horizonte) Rua Pium-í crossing with Rua Passatempo Avenida Fleming (only if you are in the Pampulha region) You may know it only as an ingredient in vitamin pills, but here you can …
When crossing the street, watch for motorcycles, which can appear out of nowhere and sometimes ignore stop signs. At some intersections with divided streets, you can cross only one side at once. Minas has both the military police (polícia militar) who are the enforcers of the law at street level, however not linked to the Brazilian Military and the civilian police (polícia civil) who conduct further investigations like the British CID. Most officers don't have a knowledge of basic English.
Guide content from Wikivoyage contributors (CC BY-SA) — abridged; the full article has much more.
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In Jul, Belo Horizonte typically sees ~23°C daytime highs and 2 rainy days.
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