Sao Paulo, Brazil: A Decadent Adventure
The pulse of Sao Paulo, Brazil, beats louder than ever as a booming economy and thriving fashion industry create a sexy new renaissance in one of the hottest cities in the world.
With infinite skyscrapers and 40-story slums clad in graffiti and shattered windows, this high-rise metropolis of 10 million people sprawls farther than the eye can see. Or at least as far as the air quality allows.
Italian Design Hotel
Jardins is the premiere residential and shopping district of Sao Paulo. Tree-lined streets with three-story storefronts are interspersed with 60-story mega-condos. Security guards and bodyguards are everywhere, more as a fashion accessory than true law enforcement presence.
It's here you'll find deco-modern
, the city's hottest hotel, with its prominent clock tower and elegant brick-and-glass entry.
A dark lobby is decked out in '20s club chairs the color of caramel and leather furnishings assembled amongst 10-person tufted sofas. An adjacent drinking bar is a cigar-smoking gentleman's club of cognac drinkers chatting about the day's business news.
Rooms show their Italian lineage with marble bathrooms and quality minimalist furnishings with neighborhood views.
The Fasano is hotter than ever with a new outpost in Rio and soon in Punta del Este. Should the hotel be sold out, book into the
located a few blocks away on a busier thoroughfare of the Jardins.
Its aging, all-white lobby once ruled the Sao Paulo hotel landscape with trendy furnishings and common areas that are beginning to show their true age but still lure jetsetters and travel elite. The 24th-floor gym and adjacent spa should not be missed.
Be Fashionable While Shopping
Strolling along Rua Oscar Freire, one could just as easily be in Milan or Beverly Hills if it were not for the display of black-clad security muscle standing outside of each shop.
Elaborate boutiques, like Clube Chocolate with its windowless wood-plank facade, offer striking architecture and local clothing designers for Sao Paulo-elite.
Need more of a selection? Hire a driver and spend the day at
, Sao Paulo's premiere shopping boutique owned by the Tranchesi family for over 50-years. Behind the elaborate Italianate façade is a multistory sanctuary of Chanel, Prada and Gucci.
True bon-vivants waste little time in city traffic and instead arrive via private helicopter that lands on the roof to awaiting personal shoppers. The boutique department store is home to a formal restaurant and social club available for fashion week events and be-seen luncheons.
If looking for more authentic Sao Paulo life, grab a cab to the
. This working food hall and indoor bazaar is located in one of Sao Paulo's finest examples of '20s architecture. The area around the market is composed of abandoned high-rises and gang-ridden housing developments -- if walking back, head downtown or be sure your cab waits while you shop. Finding another cab will be next to impossible.
Paparazzi Dining Spots
Most in-the-know visitors to Sao Paulo get a late start on dinner. If you simply can't wait till 10 p.m., find a shaded space under the fig tree at
Figueira Rubaiyat
around the corner from the Hotel Fasano.
A locally sustained steakhouse delivers beef specialties and seafood dishes sourced from their own cattle ranch and orchard located just outside the city. A serious wine lists draws from French and Italian vineyards and attracts a professional happy hour crowd anytime after 4 p.m.
For those looking for more of a party scene, ditch your digs in the Jardins and head-out to Itaim Biti and Vila Madalena where fine-food and nightlife coexist.
is one of the city's hottest and best known celebrity eateries, everyone from Paris Hilton to Naomi Campbell has been spotted noshing on Brazilian specialties before hitting the dance floor or tabletops. Make sure to enjoy their signature caipirinhas while feasting on thick Japanese steaks and Italian specialties.
Still not chic enough? Hotel Unique rises out of nowhere in a fortified residential enclave near the Botanical Garden and Jardins. The hotel's semi-circle exterior is iconic, but its rooftop restaurant and pool lounge known as
is legendary. The restaurant serves inventive Brazilian cuisine in a narrow dining room overlooking a rooftop pool and city skyline.
Very Late Brazilian Nights
Winter (June through August) is the best time to visit Sao Paulo, with lower temperatures and minimal rainfall. It's also when everybody stays in town instead of weekending in Buzios or Rio.
Residents get a relatively late start clubbing, arriving around midnight to places like
, the L.A.-style nightclub that likes to namedrop its celebrity clientele like Gisele Bundchen and Ricky Martin. A strong contingent of tanned women in miniskirts and dressed-up men drinking their bodyweight in tequila stay up most of the night dancing to Brazilian rock and samba.
The newest nightclub in town is
, a Brazilian pop experience of fame and paparazzi exhibited in the main lounge and its Warhol-esque murals of dancing models and rock stars.
Velvet booths in cubist shapes surround illuminated cocktail tables and a glass-topped bar where guys in open-collared Cavalli shirts scout out local models dancing to house mixes by rotating DJs.
arrived to Sao Paulo in November 2006.
Guests arrive through a fortress-like entrance and well-secured door leading to a white stucco courtyard. The further you go inside, the better the club looks. White walls are detailed in raw stone, with smooth concrete floors and white seating areas assembled in lofty outdoor spaces.
Michael Martin is the managing editor of JetSetReport.com -- a luxury travel and lifestyle guide based in Los Angeles and London. His work has appeared in In Style, Blackbook, Elle, U.K.'s Red magazine, ITV and BBC.