EZTrip.com International Destination Guide and Hotel Listings

One hundred kilometres northwest of São Paulo is CAMPINAS , in decline since the nineteenth century when it was by far the more important of the two cities. It started life as a sugar plantation centre, produced coffee from 1870 and, most recently, has made its money as an agricultural processing and high-tech industrial centre. An attractive city, with a reasonably small centre, there aren't too many reasons for visiting, though it's interesting enough to take a tour around Largo do Rosário, with its Catedral , inaugurated in 1883. A few blocks southwest of here - around the train station - is the Vila Industrial , rows of small houses built for the city's new working class in the late nineteenth century. Better known is Unicamp , the Universidade Estadual de São Paulo, 13km from the city centre. The university was founded in 1969 on land belonging to Colonel Zeferino Vaz and, during the worst years of military terror, became - thanks to the protection afforded by Vaz - a refuge for left-wing teachers who would otherwise have been imprisoned or forced into exile. Unicamp rapidly acquired an international reputation and today is considered one of Brazil's best universities.

With a student population of 100,000, Campinas has a reasonably lively cultural life, centred on the Centro de Convivência Cultural , at Praça Imprensa Fluminense in the centre. It has a theatre and art galleries and is home to the fine Orquestra Sinfonia. To the south of the praça, the folklore, history, Indian and natural history museums (Tues-Sat 9-10.50am & 1-5pm, Sun 9am-noon & 1-5pm) in the Bosque dos Jequitbás contain little of any interest, though the park itself is a pleasant place to while away an hour or two.

If you have a car, one of the most interesting places to visit near Campinas is the Fazenda Monte d'Este , 12km from town, just off the SP-340 (the road leading to Holambra). Built during the nineteenth-century coffee boom, the beautiful fazenda house is open to the public and houses a small museum outlining the development of the area's former coffee-based economy. The tour, which lasts 1hr 30min, costs $9, or $30 including an excellent lunch (bookings essential on tel 019/257-1236).