Brazil

Days 1 to 3: São Paulo

São Paulo's Guarulhos International Airport (GRU) is 25 km from the centre. The Guarucoop taxi service from the official rank at arrivals is the most reliable option; agree the destination before getting in. Uber works well and is usually cheaper. The journey into Pinheiros takes 40 to 60 minutes depending on traffic, and São Paulo traffic is extraordinary; never land and immediately try to get somewhere in a hurry.

Base yourself in Pinheiros. It is the right neighbourhood for this trip: walkable, residential in character, dense with independent cafés, vinyl record shops, natural wine bars, galleries and late-night restaurants. It sits immediately west of the Paulista axis and is significantly more liveable than the tourist-facing areas around the cathedral or the centre. The streets between Rua dos Pinheiros, Rua Cardeal Arcoverde and Rua Mourato Coelho give you the concentration of what makes the neighbourhood work.

Day 1: arrive, walk the neighbourhood, eat close to where you are staying, sleep. The city's scale is genuinely disorienting on arrival; resist the urge to immediately see everything and let the first evening just be a dinner and a beer in Pinheiros.

Day 2: Start at Avenida Paulista, the six-lane ceremonial spine of the city, lined with corporate towers, street artists, cultural centres and food vendors. The Museu de Arte de São Paulo (MASP), suspended above the street on two red concrete pillars, holds one of the finest European art collections in Latin America, with works by Raphael, Rembrandt, Van Gogh, Manet and Picasso alongside major Brazilian artists. Entry is free on Tuesday evenings. Immediately below MASP, the Trianon Park provides a small patch of Atlantic rainforest preserved inside the city; sit in it for 20 minutes and feel the temperature drop. Walk west along Paulista toward the cultural centre at the Casa das Rosas.

Ibirapuera Park in the afternoon: 158 hectares of lakes, pavilions and garden designed by Oscar Niemeyer and Roberto Burle Marx, opened in 1954. The Museu Afro Brasil and the Museu de Arte Moderna are both inside the park. The path that runs around the lake is where São Paulo jogs, skates, argues and has coffee simultaneously. Stay until the early evening.

For dinner: Botanikafé in Jardins for a composed, plant-forward meal in a beautiful space, or stay in Pinheiros where the density of good independent restaurants is higher per block than almost any neighbourhood in South America.

Day 3: São Paulo's electronic music and nightlife scene is globally respected. The city has more than a hundred weekly club nights and the quality of DJs passing through is consistent. Resident Advisor lists São Paulo events; check the week before you arrive and book ahead for anything at Heavy House. The best nights run from midnight to noon, and the city's relationship with time is genuinely different from European nightlife culture; showing up at 11 pm is early. This can be combined with a second cultural day (Vila Madalena for street art and galleries; the Pinacoteca for the best Brazilian art museum in the city, housed in a stunning red brick building near the Luz train station) or used as a recovery day depending on how Day 2's evening went.

Also: Skye bar at the Hotel Unique in Jardins is a rooftop pool bar in a striking curved building. Sunset drinks here before heading to dinner are one of the city's better evenings. Book ahead.