Although it’s a major staging post for the Pantanal, there isn’t a lot in terms of organized tourism in the immediate region around Cuiabá, and what there is is mostly aimed at local people. Nevertheless, the scenery and air of mystery around Chapada dos Guimarães makes for a rewarding side-trip from the city – […]

Airlines TAM, Av. Isaac Póvoas 586 T65/3682-1702; Varig, Av. 15 de Novembro 230 T65/682-1140; Cruiser T65/3682-7000 (flies all over Mato Grosso and to Santarem); Trip T65/3682-2555 (to Sinop and Alta Floresta); Gol T65/3682-1666.
Banks and exchange Cuiabá is the only place in the region where you’re likely to be able to change travellers’ cheques. […]

Cuiabá has a surprising range of cuisine and some excellent restaurants, although you’ll find almost everything closed on Sundays. Avenida Getúlio Vargas hosts an array of very swish and expensive modern Italian restaurants, such as Adriano at no. 985 and Tavola Piena at no. 676; Getúlio’s at no. 1147 offers decently priced drinks and […]

Perhaps because of its busy feel, Cuiabá is an exciting place to spend a few days. There’s certainly a lot to see and do in the city’s relatively self-contained centre, where modern skyscrapers long ago won the battle for attention with the now hidden ornate facades of crumbling, pastel-shaded colonial villas, churches and shops.
The […]

Both the BR-163 and the BR-364 run to Cuiabá. Whether you’re coming from São Paulo, Rio, Brasília or the Northeast, you’ll want to take the BR-364 for travelling overland into the western Amazon.
The rodoviária (T65/3621-1040) on Avenida Marechal Rondon is an ultramodern complex, 3km north of the city centre: from here it’s a fifteen-minute […]

The southern gateway into the Amazon, CUIABÁ has always been firmly on the edge of Brazil’s wilderness. Following the discovery of a gold field here in 1719 (one version of the town’s name means the “river of stars”), the town mushroomed as an administrative and service centre in the middle of Indian territory, thousands […]