Curitiba is the capital of Parana, a city of about 1.9 million at 930 metres on a plateau behind the coastal range. It is the coldest state capital in Brazil, it rains here in every month, and it is internationally known for something no other Brazilian city is known for: how it is organised.
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THE PLANNING IS THE REASON CURITIBA IS FAMOUS and it is a genuine thing rather than civic boosterism. From the 1970s, under the architect-mayor JAIME LERNER, the city pedestrianised its main street before anywhere else in Brazil, built the world's first BUS RAPID TRANSIT system with the raised glass TUBE STATIONS where you pay before boarding and the bus loads like a metro, and ringed itself with parks that double as flood basins. Planners come here on study trips. Our Brazil travel guide for women covers the country.
THE SECOND THING IS THE WEATHER, AND IT IS NOT WHAT PEOPLE PACK FOR BRAZIL. At 930 metres and 25 degrees south, Curitiba runs 8 to 26C across the year, FROSTS SEVERAL TIMES EACH WINTER, and receives rain in all twelve months at around 1,500 millimetres. It is grey far more often than the rest of the country, and the local joke is that the city has four seasons in a day. A visitor arriving in July from Rio is genuinely cold.
THE THIRD IS THE IMMIGRATION, which shapes the food and the look of the place. Curitiba was settled heavily by POLISH, UKRAINIAN, GERMAN, ITALIAN AND JAPANESE immigrants, and the city has memorial parks to several of those communities, pierogi and barreado on menus alongside churrasco, and a visible architectural inheritance. It feels less Brazilian than anywhere in this library except Porto Alegre and Gramado.
The Parks, the Museums and the Market
A glasshouse that became the city's emblem, an eye-shaped museum, an opera house in a quarry.
THE JARDIM BOTANICO is the image on every postcard: a formal French-style parterre leading to a three-part art nouveau glasshouse, built in 1991 and now the thing the city is pictured by. It is free, it is twenty minutes from the centre, and the greenhouse is smaller inside than photographs suggest.
THE OSCAR NIEMEYER MUSEUM, universally called the MON, is the better building: a long low gallery with a vast eye-shaped pavilion on a yellow pillar standing out over a reflecting pool, added by Niemeyer in his nineties. The collection is secondary to the architecture, which is fine.
THE OPERA DE ARAME is the oddest and best thing here. A theatre of tubular steel and transparent panels built in 1992 inside a flooded former granite quarry, reached across a walkway over water, with the quarry walls rising around it. Next to it the PEDREIRA PAULO LEMINSKI is an open-air concert space in the same quarry. Go even if nothing is on.
THE HISTORIC CENTRE is small: the LARGO DA ORDEM with its eighteenth-century church and Sunday craft fair, the pedestrianised RUA XV DE NOVEMBRO, Brazil's first pedestrian street, and the glass-roofed RUA 24 HORAS. The MERCADO MUNICIPAL is the place to eat, with a good organic section and counters.
THE PARKS ARE THE CITY'S REAL CHARACTER and there are many: PARQUE TANGUA with its waterfall and a tunnel between two quarries, PARQUE BARIGUI with capybaras on the lawns, and the memorial parks to the Ukrainian and Polish communities. BOSQUE ALEMAO has a wooden tower and a Grimm fairy-tale trail.
AND THE WIRE-AND-GLASS TUBE STATIONS are worth riding a bus from, because the thing Curitiba exported to the world is best understood by using it rather than reading about it.
Recommended Tours and Experiences
The Serra do Mar, the Coast and the Falls
One of the world's great railway journeys, a colonial port town, and Iguazu to the west.
THE SERRA VERDE EXPRESS IS THE BEST THING YOU CAN DO FROM CURITIBA and is a genuine world-class railway journey. The line descends the SERRA DO MAR from the plateau to the coast through Atlantic rainforest, over viaducts and through tunnels, with the Veu da Noiva waterfall and long drops below. IT RUNS TO MORRETES, a small colonial town where the dish to eat is BARREADO, beef slow-cooked in a sealed clay pot, traditionally for twelve hours. Most people take the train down and a bus or transfer back. SIT ON THE LEFT GOING DOWN, and note that the service and the schedule change seasonally.
PARANAGUA, further along, is a faded colonial port, and ILHA DO MEL, reached by boat, is a car-free island with beaches, a lighthouse and a fort.
IGUAZU FALLS is about ten hours west by road or an hour and a half by air from here, and Curitiba is a common connection point for it.
FOR THE REST OF THE SOUTH: the Florianopolis packing list covers the island capital four hours south, the Porto Alegre packing list and Gramado packing list the far south, and the Sao Paulo packing list the megacity six hours north.
Getting around: Afonso Pena airport is about 25 minutes away. USE THE BUSES, because that is the point of the city, and the LINHA TURISMO is a dedicated tourist route hitting most of the sights with a hop-on ticket, which is genuinely the efficient way to see Curitiba in a day. The centre is walkable and the parks are spread out.
When to Go
October to April for warmth, and bring a layer whatever you choose.
A humid subtropical highland climate with real seasons and rain in every month: June to August 8 to 20C with frosts, December to February 17 to 27C, and roughly 1,500mm spread across the year.
OCTOBER TO APRIL is the warmer half and the more comfortable, with the parks at their best and the botanical garden in flower. It is also when the afternoon storms are heaviest, which in a city this green is no great hardship.
MAY TO SEPTEMBER is the cold half, and it is genuinely cold by Brazilian standards: 8 to 20C, grey, damp, with frost on clear mornings and occasional near-freezing nights. Heating is uncommon in buildings. The compensation is that the Serra Verde railway in mist is extraordinary.
THE SHOULDER MONTHS, APRIL AND OCTOBER, are arguably the best compromise and are the quietest.
THERE IS NO DRY SEASON TO AIM FOR, which is the honest summary. Rain falls in every month, the sky changes several times a day, and a waterproof is not a seasonal item here.
AND THE SERRA VERDE EXPRESS IS WEATHER-DEPENDENT in a way worth planning around: low cloud on the escarpment can reduce the views to a wall of grey, and the service is reduced or suspended after heavy rain because of landslide risk on the line.
Is Curitiba Safe for Women Travelers
One of the safer Brazilian capitals. The cold and the standard street-crime rules are the real content.
US State Department travel advisory: the Brazil advisory. Read the current level there directly rather than relying on a figure printed in any guide.
UK FCDO travel advice: gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/brazil, and read the safety and security page rather than only the landing page, because that is where the substance sits.
UK FCDO: there are no advised-against areas in mainland Brazilian cities, and the one place the FCDO advises against all but essential travel is RIVER TRAVEL ON SPECIFIC AMAZON STRETCHES: along the Amazon west of Codajas and east of Belem do Solimoes in Amazonas State, along any part of the Itaquai or Japura rivers, and along the Rio Negro north or west of Barcelos, because of criminal activity in the border country Brazil shares with Colombia, Peru and Venezuela. NOTE THAT BELEM DO SOLIMOES IS A TOWN IN AMAZONAS AND NOT THE CITY OF BELEM IN PARA, which is 1,500km east and is not named. Four areas have their own sections covering ordinary crime rather than advice against travel: RIO DE JANEIRO, SAO PAULO, BRASILIA, where the FCDO names the central bus station area for theft, and NORTH-EAST BRAZIL, where it names theft from hotel and motel rooms and muggings, and advises using taxis after sunset rather than walking and avoiding quiet or deserted areas.
Theft is the realistic risk in Brazil and the FCDO is specific enough to be useful. Robberies are common in many cities and particularly on buses, thieves target mobile phones and the FCDO names the window BETWEEN 4PM AND 9PM, and attackers may be armed. THE ADVICE IS NOT TO RESIST: hand over valuables rather than arguing with someone who may be armed and under the influence. Thefts are especially common on public beaches, including ARRASTOES, where a large group runs through a stretch of beach grabbing everything, so take nothing to the beach you would mind losing and DO NOT GO ON TO CITY BEACHES AFTER DARK. And the FCDO is unambiguous about FAVELAS: avoid all of them, including favela tours marketed to tourists and any accommodation, restaurant or bar advertised as being inside one, and check that a GPS route is not taking you through one, because tourists have been shot after entering by accident.
CURITIBA IS CONSISTENTLY AMONG THE SAFER LARGE BRAZILIAN CITIES and visitors notice it: the centre is orderly, the public transport is used by everyone, and the parks are busy with families at weekends. That said it is still a Brazilian city of two million and the national advice applies rather than being waved away.
THE GEOGRAPHY: the historic centre and the area around the RODOFERROVIARIA, the combined bus and rail terminal, are fine by day and quieter and less comfortable at night. BATEL and BIGORRILHO, where most visitors stay and the restaurants are, are comfortable into the evening. The phone rule applies as everywhere in Brazil, with the FCDO naming 4pm to 9pm as the window when mobiles are targeted.
THE FAVELA ADVICE applies and Curitiba's informal settlements are mostly on the city's outer edges rather than close to the centre, so the practical point is the usual one about checking a GPS route rather than about a neighbourhood you might wander into.
THE COLD IS THE RISK THAT ACTUALLY AFFECTS A TRIP HERE, and it is the reason this post exists in a merino library: a damp 10C with wind, in a city with almost no heating, after arriving from somewhere tropical, is how people spend a week unwell. Add the rain in every month.
FOR A WOMAN ALONE this is one of the easier Brazilian cities. The city is reserved rather than effusive, street harassment is low by national standards, and a woman eating alone or riding a bus at night in a central district is unremarkable. 180 IS THE NATIONAL WOMEN'S HELPLINE and the city has a DEAM, a dedicated women's police station.
Brazil has no reciprocal health agreement with the UK or the United States, so insurance with medical cover and repatriation is essential. Private hospitals in the big cities are genuinely good and expensive and will want payment or an insurance guarantee before treating you; the public SUS system will treat an emergency and is slower and more variable. A farmacia handles minor problems. TAP WATER IS TREATED AND GENERALLY SAFE IN THE MAJOR CITIES including Brasilia, Porto Alegre and Fortaleza, though most Brazilians drink filtered and bottled is universal. DENGUE IS THE REAL HEALTH RISK and Brazil has large annual epidemics, with chikungunya and Zika also present; the mosquito that carries all three bites BY DAY, so repellent is a daytime measure. YELLOW FEVER VACCINATION is recommended for much of the country and some onward countries require a certificate if you have been here, so check before you travel rather than at the border.
The Curitiba Packing List
Real layers, because this is the coldest state capital in Brazil
Our merino base layers are 100% Australian merino at 17.5 micron, and a long sleeve merino wool base layer for women is the first item here, because the cold is DAMP and merino keeps insulating when wet where cotton stops. Add a fleece mid layer year round and, for May to September, an insulated jacket.
A waterproof shell, in every month
A packable rain jacket for women. There is no dry season, the sky changes several times a day, and the Serra Verde railway and the parks are both outdoor propositions.
Shoes that cope with wet pavement
You will walk the parks and the Largo da Ordem's cobbles, both slick in rain. Something waterproof if you have it, with a real sole. The city is flat, so comfort matters more than grip.
A warm hat and gloves for a winter visit
A merino beanie and merino glove liners between May and September, particularly for an early morning on the railway when the carriages are cold.
Summer clothes if you come between December and February
Light and breathable for 27C with humidity, plus the rain layer. As with Porto Alegre, the same destination in July and January needs two different bags, which is unusual for Brazil.
The small things
An insulated water bottle, since Curitiba's tap water is treated and generally safe. A bag that closes. Cash in reais for the market and the Largo da Ordem fair, with cards fine elsewhere. Check the Serra Verde Express schedule and book ahead, because it does not run daily in all seasons. And an eye mask, because Brazilian hotel curtains and a 5am summer sunrise do not mix.
Essential Resources for Women in Curitiba
Emergency numbers: 190 police, 192 ambulance, 193 fire. 180 is the national women's helpline, the Central de Atendimento a Mulher, which can direct you to a DEAM women's police station, and Curitiba has one. 181 is anonymous crime reporting.
Tourist police: Brazil operates tourist police in the main destinations, and in Curitiba the Policia Civil handle visitor matters with the DEAM available for offences against women. For a crime in progress, 190.
Main hospital or clinic: Curitiba has excellent medical facilities and is a referral centre for the south. The Hospital Nossa Senhora das Gracas and Hospital Marcelino Champagnat are the main private options and handle international insurance; the Hospital de Clinicas da UFPR is the large public teaching hospital with a 24 hour emergency department. A farmacia handles minor problems. For an emergency dial 192.
Official health authority: the Brazilian Ministry of Health. Brazil has no reciprocal health agreement, so insurance with medical cover and repatriation is essential. Nossa Senhora das Gracas and Marcelino Champagnat are the private hospitals used to international insurance
US Embassy: the United States Embassy in Brasilia.
Official tourism authority: Visit Brasil, the national tourism board. And with the Parana state tourism body, plus the Serra Verde Express operator, whose schedule changes seasonally and whose service is reduced after heavy rain because of landslide risk on the line
This is the coldest state capital in Brazil. It frosts several times each winter, rain falls in every month, and buildings have almost no heating.
Ride a bus deliberately. The tube stations and the articulated fleet are the thing Curitiba exported to the world, and the Linha Turismo route is the efficient way to see the city.
The Serra Verde Express is weather-dependent. Low cloud reduces the views to grey and heavy rain suspends the service for landslide risk, so check before committing a day.
Sit on the left going down on that railway, and allow a full day with a bus or transfer back from Morretes.
Solo women safety assessment: Curitiba is consistently among the safer large Brazilian cities and it shows: the centre is orderly, public transport is used by everyone, and the parks fill with families at weekends. It is still a city of two million and the national advice applies rather than being waved away, with the FCDO naming 4pm to 9pm as the window when phones are targeted, noting robberies on buses, advising no resistance to a robbery, and being unambiguous that favelas should be avoided including any tour; Curitiba's informal settlements are mostly on the outer edges, so the practical point is checking a GPS route rather than a neighbourhood you might wander into. THE GEOGRAPHY IS SIMPLE: the historic centre and the area around the Rodoferroviaria are fine by day and quieter at night, while Batel and Bigorrilho, where most visitors stay, are comfortable into the evening. For a woman alone this is one of the easier Brazilian cities, reserved rather than effusive, with low street harassment by national standards, and a woman eating alone or taking a bus at night in a central district is unremarkable. 180 is the national women's helpline and the city has a DEAM women's police station. THE COLD IS THE RISK THAT ACTUALLY AFFECTS A TRIP HERE: a damp 10C with wind, in a city with almost no heating, arriving from somewhere tropical, with rain in every month, is how a week here gets spent unwell.
Reading On
For the country-level picture, start with the Brazil travel guide for women. Four hours south is the Florianopolis packing list, and further south the Porto Alegre packing list and Gramado packing list, which share this city's unusual Brazilian cold. North are the Sao Paulo packing list and the Paraty packing list. For why merino rather than cotton when the cold is damp and the heating is absent, read the guide to merino wool base layers for women. Every destination we cover is indexed at the travel packing guide for women, and the base layers are at the Roman Trail collection. For the nearest ocean, the Balneario Camboriu packing list covers the beach city two and a half hours east, which is where this plateau capital goes in January.
If the outer journey is calling you, the inner one usually is too. Explore SoulMap at romantrail.com/blogs/soulmap.
