Guarulhos

Guarulhos is a city in São Paulo, located in the metropolitan area of the city of São Paulo. Despite being a city with 1.2 million people, second largest in the state, Guarulhos is mostly known for its international airport, the most important of South America and the main gateway to São Paulo. Indeed, Guarulhos has not much to offer to a visitor, although there are remarkable exceptions, like the Cabuçu center of Parque Estadual da Cantareira, one of the most beautiful nature spots of the São Paulo metropolitan area.

Understand
With GRU airport, Guarulhos is a typical "airport city" of a larger, more important city, used by visitors almost solely as a meeting point or a stopover to somewhere else. Unlike most "airport cities", however, Guarulhos is a huge city. It is a major center of industry and services, but also partly a dormitory city for São Paulo.

The view that many visitors have of Guarulhos are the favelas and factories that surround the GRU airport. However, the city also has a large middle class, which has been growing due to the pressure of housing prices in São Paulo. For this reason, there have been many new developments in the city, including a new modern shopping mall.

As expected, Guarulhos' most common visitors are business visitors who come for short-term conferences and meetings, sometimes in the vicinity of the airport. For them, the city offers the conveniences (and inconveniences) of a typical large Brazilian city, but for the more adventurous visitor, there are also some nice nature areas that are worth checking out.

By plane
São Paulo's biggest and busiest airport is actually located in Guarulhos:

Guarulhos International Airport (GRU)


Leaving the airport, the only way to get into the city, or get to any other city around, is Rodovia Helio Smidt, which connects the airport to Avenida Monteiro Lobato (for Guarulhos destinations) and to Via Dutra and Rodovia Ayrton Senna (to get to farthest locations).

A taxi co-operative, Guarucoop (tel: +55 11 2440-7070), has a monopoly on cabs leaving the airport. They are plentiful and the queue is outside the arrival terminal. Credit-card users can pay for their journey in advance at the booth, although it's useful to have local currency as not all international credit or debit cards will work at all businesses in Brazil. Expect to pay about R$50 to any close destination.

Just across the arrival platform at terminals 1 and 2, there are some bus stops, where it's possible to take a bus to Cecap Terminal, and some other destinations inside Guarulhos, such as Guarulhos International Shopping and Cemitério da Saudade, in Picanço. From Cecap Terminal, there is a number of bus lines which can take you to any destination in Guarulhos.

By bus
The easiest way to get to Guarulhos, is get to São Paulo, and from there, take an intermunicipal bus. Although there is a bus terminal next to Guarulhos Airport:

From São Paulo
Several intermunicipal buses, operated by EMTU, serve Guarulhos from São Paulo metrô stations, such as Armênia, Tietê, Carrão, Penha and Tucuruvi. Due to the geographical location of Guarulhos, related to São Paulo, the best places to get a bus are at East and North regions of São Paulo.

By car
Guarulhos is served by many highways, connecting it to São Paulo, and many other Brazilian destinations:

Rodovia Ayrton Senna
Rodovia Ayrton Senna and Carvalho Pinto (its extension) is a modern and fast highway, that runs from São Paulo to Rio de Janeiro, crossing through Guarulhos.

Westbound, Rodovia Ayrton Senna links Guarulhos (Airport and eastern locations) to São Paulo, connecting to Marginal Tietê, from where it's possible to get many other highways to reach popular destinations, such as Campinas, Santos, Sorocaba, and the countryside of São Paulo.

Eastbound, Rodovia Ayrton Senna links Guarulhos to Rio de Janeiro (via Dutra), and popular destinations in São Paulo countryside, such as São José dos Campos, Campos do Jordão, and coastal cities, like Ubatuba (via Taubaté), São Sebastião and Bertioga (via Mogi das Cruzes) and Caraguatatuba (via Rodovia dos Tamoios).

Via Dutra
Sometimes referred as Guarulhos' main avenue, Via Dutra is not the best choice to travel long distances, due to its heavy urban traffic, and it runs alongside with Ayrton Senna, making the other one a more reasonable choice.

Fernão Dias
Fernão Dias is a federal highway which runs from Guarulhos (intersection with Via Dutra) to Minas Gerais capital and southern destinations. In Atibaia, Fernão Dias highway intersects the Dom Pedro I highway, which runs from Campinas to Jacareí, turning it to a more reasonable choice to get to countryside destinations, like Campinas, as you may avoid the frequent traffic jams at Marginal Tietê in São Paulo. However, it may be a little tricky to drive through this highway, especially when it's raining, due to the heavy traffic of cargo vehicles and the track layout.

Rodoanel Mário Covas
Best known simply as "Rodoanel", this modern highway is proposed to form a ring around São Paulo, connecting the entire highway system. Since the north section is not already built, it's possible to use "Rodoanel" system only to get to coastal cities like Santos (via Anchieta and Imigrantes), and Curitiba (via Régis Bittencourt), with the advantage of avoiding intense traffic inside São Paulo.

Jacu-Pessego avenue is a good alternative to "Rodoanel", since they run alongside until Mauá, where they intersect.

By train
There are two train stations in Guarulhos: Guarulhos - CECAP and Aeroporto Guarulhos, both on the Line 13 - Jade of the São Paulo train system. This line is only accessible through the station Engenheiro Goulart which is on the Line 12 - Safira.

Budget

 * O Postinho, Rua Luiz Faccini, (11) 2452-0256
 * Viola Brasileira, Rua Dona Olinda de Albuquerque, 39 (11) 2409-8235
 * Viola Brasileira, Rua Dona Olinda de Albuquerque, 39 (11) 2409-8235

Mid-range

 * Pizzaria e Churrascaria Cavacas, Rua Quitandinha - Vila Galvão, (11) 2452-8789
 * Restaurante Minhoto, Av. 7 de Setembro, 1555 - Vila Galvão,  (11) 2451-2000
 * Restaurante Minhoto, Av. 7 de Setembro, 1555 - Vila Galvão,  (11) 2451-2000

Stay safe
The area surrounding the GRU airport contains very poor neighborhoods, and these are certainly not a place to be explored in case you feel bored. Guarulhos' good neighborhoods are mostly in the area around the city center, although they require caution, especially during the night, as in São Paulo.