Sao Paulo ---That Dangerous?
 

Hello All,

My wife is traveling to Sao Paulo for business in the upcoming week. After speaking to my brother's wife that is Brazillian I did some research on this city. Iraq looks safer that this country. Higher murder ratio than the US's worst cities, car jackings galore. Flash kid-nappings, and even 35 police officers killed in one weekend by a gang. One article even stated that Bogota was safer than Sao Paulo. She travels all over the world and I have never seen such negative feedback on any location she has been too. Should I recommend (highly) that she be accompanied by another employee (safety in numbers)?

I am female and currently in Sao Paulo on business. This is my third trip this year. I stay in the Jardins area and feel completely safe there. I even run to and in the Ibirapuera park on the weekends. Of course, I do follow the recommended precautions - I dont wear flashy jewelry, don't go to areas I don't know, have a driver that picks me up for work. The city is awesome, and the people are very warm. My first two trips were with co-workers (also female). This trip I am on my own. I have not experienced any problems. There are areas that are bad, but if your wife does not venture over there, she will be fine. The city is huge, bigger than I ever could have imagined, so when you hear about crime here, you have to put the size of the city into perspective.

Only the city of Sao Paulo has more than 10 million hab. plus 15 million in the surroundings cities, but I agree that the crime rates are high. I live here since I was born and I never been robbed or kidnaped. Normally, business travellers are in Jardins or Berrini area - safe places. The dangerous parts are the far suburbs, and some favelas - in SP some ugly neighbourhoods are near the city (and the rich places). My advice is: be carefull because it's a strange place (you never been here)and you don't know how to live here. Try to act like the local people, and the classical advices: light jewlry, don't go in places you don't know, etc... In the end you will see that SP is not that dangerous...

I am a single female and will be traveling alone to Sao Paulo, on business, in January. This will be my first trip. I am also concerned about my trip there. The company that I will be visiting is: GN GN ReSound Ltda
Rua do Paraiso, 139 - 6,8, 9 step
Sao Paulo
CEP 04103-000
Brazil
Can anyone tell me if this is a 'safe' part of the city and if there are any nice hotels in the area? Thank you in advance. I'll probably have lots more questions so if anyone wants to spend some time answering them, please let me know.

Agree that S Paulo is not the safest city in the world but compare it to Iraq means you have not been watching the news for a long time.

Keep common sense and you will be fine. If you read the british council report on Sao Paulo, you will see that they do not advise against anyone travelling to the city (as they do to Iraq, for example).

Cheers, J.

The area you are visiting is very central, pretty safe, close to the most interesting places to visit in Sao Paulo. Take some time to walk through Paulista Avenue.

i´ve been to Sao Paulo several times and never have experienced anything dangerous just get the right procedures you will be fine, the paulistas are very warm people, the city offers great nightlife places to go also amazing restaurants , if you have any doubt just get the subway system .