Belo Horizonte
Brazil
A working city in a ring of hills, with Inhotim an hour away and a bar on every corner
Photo by Nathalia Segato on Unsplash
Photos by Luiz Felipe S. C., Luiz Felipe S. C., Daniel Monteiro and fpcamp on Unsplash
Best time to visit all of Brazil
April to September (the dry winter, with cool evenings for the boteco terraces)
Climate month by month
The next sixteen daysOpen-Meteo
Average high and low · °C
Rainfall · mm per month
Best months to visit This month · wettest 360mm in Dec
Where it is
19.92°S, 43.94°W Open in Google Maps
Things to do
Several days- Give Inhotim a full day, and two if you care about the art: it is closed on Mondays and Tuesdays, free on Wednesdays, and the pavilions are spread over a large garden with buggies between them
- Use the city as the base for Ouro Preto rather than doing both from one bed — Ouro Preto deserves its own nights
- Go to the Mercado Central at lunchtime on a weekday and eat at one of its bars
- See Niemeyer’s church at Pampulha, the building that made his name, and walk part of the lake
- Spend an evening in Santa Tereza, where the Clube da Esquina musicians grew up
- Walk the Sunday craft fair on Avenida Afonso Pena in the morning
Belo Horizonte travel tipsthe general rules
Currency budget Brazil
Good valueBrazil runs on cards and on Pix, the instant bank transfer, but Pix needs a Brazilian account, so as a visitor you are on cards and a little cash. Cards work in every boteco and at most stalls in the Mercado Central. If you are going on to Ouro Preto or Tiradentes, this is the place to sort out cash first.
ATMs & cards
Use Banco do Brasil, Bradesco, Itaú or Santander machines inside branches or shopping centres — Diamond Mall and Pátio Savassi are the easy ones — during the day. Many Brazilian ATMs restrict foreign cards in the evening. Decline the conversion, and never let anyone help you at the machine.
Avoid these
- standalone machines on the street
- any withdrawal after dark
Use these instead
- Banco do Brasil
- Bradesco
- Itaú
- Santander
Use machines inside branches or shopping centres, in daylight. Many Brazilian ATMs restrict foreign cards in the evening as an anti-fraud measure.
Wherever you are: if the machine offers to charge you in your home currency, decline. That is dynamic currency conversion and the rate is set by the ATM's operator, not your bank.
Safety all of Brazil
Reasonably safeAn ordinary big Brazilian city: comfortable in Savassi, Lourdes, Funcionários and around the Praça da Liberdade, with the usual caution elsewhere. The commercial centre around Praça Sete empties after the offices close, so take a car at night rather than walking through it, and keep the phone out of sight on the street. Botecos spill onto pavements and are sociable, safe places to be.
Where to walk, and where to pay attention (7 areas)
Comfortable, including after dark
- Savassi
- Lourdes
- Praça da Liberdade
- Pampulha lake — by day, around the Niemeyer buildings
Worth more attention
- Praça Sete — and the commercial centre after the offices close, when the streets empty
- the Rodoviária — busy and pickpocketed, as bus stations are; arrive and leave by car at night
- Walking between neighbourhoods after dark, when an app car costs little
Our own assessment, not a sourced index.
Entry & visa Brazil visa rules
No visa neededup to 90 days
Other passports
e-Visa requiredup to 90 days$80
Brazil reintroduced visas for these three nationalities. It is an e-visa applied for online.
Visa required in advance
Entry rules change often and depend on your passport, not where you live — the official page above is the authority, and the airline checks before you board.
Health & emergencies all of Brazil
Good but costlyRequired to enter
- Yellow fever certificate, but only if you are arriving from a country where yellow fever is present
Jabs worth having, and what happens if you need a doctor
Worth having
- Yellow fever — recommended for most of Brazil including the area around Rio
- Hepatitis A
- Typhoid
- Tetanus up to date
Getting treated
Public emergency care (SUS) is free to everyone including foreigners, but is crowded and slow. Private hospitals in Rio and São Paulo are excellent and expect insurance or payment up front.
Dengue, zika and chikungunya are all present and mosquito-borne — repellent matters. Yellow fever vaccination should be given at least 10 days before arrival.
Orientation, not medical advice — entry rules change and what you need depends on your own history. Check with a travel clinic four to six weeks before you go.
Food tip
OutstandingBelo Horizonte claims more bars per head than any city in Brazil and eats in them: pastel de angu, torresmo, mandioca frita and a cold beer in a boteco is the local evening. At the Mercado Central, stand at a bar inside for fígado com jiló, liver with bitter jiló, and buy queijo Minas and cachaça to take away. The city’s bar-food contest runs through the late autumn.
Travel tipsNightlife
Botecos rather than clubs: plastic tables on the pavement, cold beer, petiscos, and a whole neighbourhood doing the same thing.
- Santa Tereza — the old bohemian quarter, botecos and live music
- Savassi — the busiest bars and the later places
- Lourdes — the smarter bars and restaurants
- Mercado Central — for drinking at lunchtime, which is a local institution
Closing: Botecos wind down around midnight or one; Savassi goes later at weekends.
Getting around
Workable- UberWorks here
- 99Works here
- inDriveWorks here
- BoltNot here
99 the Brazilian one, often cheaper
- Against a taxi
- Cheaper than a taxi and, in the big cities, the default for everybody.
Some favela and periphery addresses will not be accepted by drivers at night; that is a driver safety decision, not a fare one.
Time zone and your working day
America/Sao Paulo — 1 hour ahead of you
7 hours of overlap with a 09:00–17:00 day where you are — 09:00–16:00 your time, 10:00–17:00 theirs.
No overlap with a 09:00–17:00 day where you are. Working from here means one of you keeps odd hours — their day starts at 08:00 on your clock.
office hours both at once night
Their 09:00–17:00 is 08:00–16:00 on yours.
The difference from the UK, Europe, the US and ten more
Worked out against America/New York, which is where this request looks like it came from.
eSIM
A data eSIM for Brazil, installed before you fly and working the moment you land:
Works here
Works hereRevolutIn the app
Must-see
Travel tipsNearby day trips
Travel tipsSay a few words
Portuguese (Brazilian)
- HelloOi / Oláoy / o-LA
- PleasePor favorpor fa-VOR
- Thank youObrigado / Obrigadao-bree-GA-doo / -da
- Yes / NoSim / Nãoseeng / nowng
4 more phrases
- Excuse meCom licençakong lee-SEN-sa
- How much is it?Quanto custa?KWAN-too KOOS-ta
- The bill, pleaseA conta, por favora KON-ta
- Cheers!Saúde!sa-OO-djee
Softer and more open than European Portuguese, and the de sounds like "dje".
Travel tipsReligion
Catholic and Evangelical
The largest Catholic population in the world, with a fast-growing Evangelical share and Afro-Brazilian traditions such as Candomblé and Umbanda practised alongside.
Travel tipsDo's and don'ts
Do
- Greet with a kiss on each cheek between women, or a woman and a man; a handshake between men
- Expect physical closeness in conversation — standing back reads as cold
- Arrive late to social invitations; on time is genuinely early
- Learn a few words of Portuguese, and never open in Spanish
Don't
- Do not make the OK sign with finger and thumb — it is obscene here
- Do not walk with a phone visible in the street
- Do not wear obvious jewellery or watches on the beach or in the city
- Do not call Brazilians Hispanic or assume they speak Spanish
Where to stay in Belo Horizonte
No Holistay rentals in Belo Horizonte yet — the platform is just opening up. Every listing here will have a video tour and the option to negotiate the nightly price directly with the host.
In the meantime, here is Belo Horizonte on the sites that do have the inventory — each search is already filled in:
- Booking.com hotels, guesthouses and apartments — the widest coverage almost everywhere
- Airbnb whole homes and apartments, and the better option for a week or more
How to get there
Fly into Belo Horizonte Confins CNF
55 minfrom the airport· 32 km as the crow flies
About 50 min by road to the centre.
Also worth pricing: Pampulha PLU — inside the city and twenty minutes from the centre, but mostly regional and executive flights; worth checking whether a route has opened.
Google Flights · Rome2Rio for the trains, buses and ferries as well as the flights
