Airlines TAM T83/3232-2002; Varig, Av. Presidente Pessoa 1251 T83/3232-1515.
Banks and exchange There are ATMs around the city centre and the beaches, and you can change money and traveller’s cheques at Câmbio Turismo, which has branches at Rua Visconde de Pelotas 54 in the city centre (Mon–Fri), and in the shopping centre on Tambaú beach […]

As usual in a coastal capital, the centre tends to get deserted after dark, as people looking for a night out head for the beaches, particularly Tambaú. However, there are several restaurants and bars in the centre worth trying out.
João Pessoa has a surprisingly rich but fluctuating music scene for a city of its […]

The beach areas of Tambaú and Cabo Branco are linked to the centre by frequent buses from the Anel Viário and the local bus station. The Cabo Branco seafront is especially stylish, with a mosaic pavement and thousands of well-tended palm trees to complement the sweep of the bay. This is best viewed from […]

The centre of João Pessoa is dotted with colonial churches, monasteries and convents, some of which are extremely beautiful. Until 1992 they were all being allowed to fall into ruin but, not a moment too soon, the state government and the Ministry of Culture mounted a crash restoration programme, for once using historians and […]

The very cheapest places to stay are the dormitórios opposite the rodoviária. You can find good budget and medium-range hotels both in the centre and on the beaches, but five-star luxury is only available by the sea. Hotels in João Pessoa rarely seem to charge the full price displayed at the reception desk, and […]

The rodoviária (T83/3221-9611) in João Pessoa is conveniently near the city centre. Any bus from the local bus station, opposite the rodoviária’s entrance, takes you to the city’s one unmistakeable, central landmark: the circular lake of the Parque Solon de Lucena, which everybody simply calls the Lagoa, spectacularly bordered by tall palms imported from […]

JOÃO PESSOA is one of the oldest and one of the poorest cities in Brazil. In the last two decades, there’s been massive new development along the city’s two main beaches, but an air of dilapidated elegance remains around the old part of town. Of all the Northeast’s city centres, this is the one […]