4 Best Sights in São Paulo, Brazil

Traveling families will find education and entertainment for their children at this interactive science museum in the former city hall building. For architecture fans, the early-20th-century structure, with its interior courtyard, alone justifies a visit. Stepping into human-size soap bubbles or touching actual meteorites, meanwhile, are the big attractions for kids. The museum's exhibits are organized along four thematic lines: the universe, life, ingenuity, and society.

In 1888 a Brazilian scientist, with the aid of the state government, turned a farmhouse into a center for the production of snake serum. Today the Instituto Butantan has more than 70,000 snakes, spiders, scorpions, and lizards in its five museums. It still extracts venom and processes it into serum that's made available to victims of poisonous bites throughout Latin America.

A great spot for a midday picnic, the Botanical Gardens contain about 3,000 plants belonging to more than 340 native species. Orchids, aquatic plants, and Atlantic rain-forest species thrive in the gardens' greenhouses. The hundred-plus bird species that have been observed at Jardim Botânico make it a favorite stopover for São Paulo birders.

The 200-acre São Paulo Zoo has more than 3,200 animals, and many of its 410 species—such as the mico-leão-dourado (golden lion tamarin monkey)—are endangered. If you visit the zoo, don't miss the monkey houses, built on small islands in the park's lake, and the Casa do Sangue Frio (Cold-Blooded House), with reptilian and amphibious creatures.