Chapecó

Chapecó is a town in Western Santa Catarina. It is the region's main transport hub, and a major industrial, financial and educational center.

Understand
Chapecó is the state's 5th biggest city by population and 7th by GDP, and of these cities, the only one more than 50 km inland from the Atlantic coast: Chapecó lies 400 km inland, at about 100 km from the border with Argentina.

The metropolitan area counts over 400,000 inhabitants (2020), and its economy is centered on the meat industry (cattle, swine, poultry). Ago-business fairs bring many visitors to the city, when hotels are full and airplane tickets price skyrocket.

Chapecó also has a football team playing on Brazil's first division, the Chapecoense, which was victim of a tragedy in 2016 when virtually all the players and coach team, as well as press and crew members, died in a plane crash near Medellin, Colombia.

The city celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2017.

By plane


Unusually for Brazil, Chapecó's airport is owned and managed by the city itself. For this reason, it does not show on the Federal Airport Management Company INFRAERO database.

As with many other airports in South Brazil, Chapecó airport suffers frequent closures due to fog in the winter months (June-August). Being the main commercial airport operating in a radius of 250 km, there's no quick option to leave the city if its airport is unavailable. The "closest" main airports are Foz do Iguaçu 440 km, Porto Alegre 450 km, Curitiba 510 km and Florianópolis 570 km.

By bus
The long-distance bus terminal is 3 km from the church square. In open structure, it can be cold in winter months, and the infrastructure is not great, so don't plan on spending a lot of time there. The main destinations of interest are Foz do Iguaçu (9.5 hr, R$130), Curitiba (10 hr, R$95) and Florianópolis (12 hr, R$200).

Get around
Many addresses in Chapecó come with letters: usually D for "to the right" (of a certain reference road) or E for "to the left". Do not ignore these letters when putting addresses on GPS navigation systems, or you risk being sent in the wrong direction.

Chapecó is very walkable on its central area. There's also a network of city buses, with lines and timetables available on app Moovit, the fare is R$ 3,25 (October 2018) and has to be paid for each ride (there's no free transfer, not even at the central Terminal).

Taxis can be difficult to find unless you're leaving from a hotel. Uber has started its local operation in February 2018.