Bars in Vila Madalena - How to get there

If you are a foreigner in São Paulo, so surely someone has already told you Vila Madalena is the place to go if you want to go to a bar, have fun, meet people... in other words, to have a real night out.
Just to support this argument, check this search on Google Maps for the word "bar" in the neighborhood:

But you can also see on the map that the buzz is quite far from the nearest subway station, which is called Metrô Vila Madalena, but is actually in a neighboring area (indicated by the green arrow on the top of the image). Although you could say "I don't mind walking", you can see that most streets in the area are not straight. This was originally a very montainous area, so you will have lots of steep streets to go up and down. If you risk it on your way there, it will be impossible on your way back, after some drinks...

So I'll tell you another route to get to the same spot. You can check from the map above that the bars concentrate around some blocks of streets, between Rua Mourato Coelho, Rua Wisard, Rua Girassol and Rua Inacio Pereira da Rocha. If you get to these parts, you can simply walk around and find the bar or nightclub that suits you best, or where you spot more interesting people going in.

Focus on these two streets that lie to the east of the hub of bars: Rua Cardeal Arcoverde and Rua Teodoro Sampaio (to the right). On the map below you can see they are quite close to the location of bars, and, better still, only straight and plain streets connect them to the desired area. (Yes, the green area near the "A" is a cemetery). Av. Rebouças, that you see on the bottom, to the right, is also a good alternative for buses.

These are main streets served by many bus lines. Rua Cardeal Arcoverde runs from the top of the map to its bottom, so it will be perfect if you are coming from Centro, or from somewhere near Av. Paulista. Rua Teodoro Sampaio runs "up", so it will work for you if you are coming from some neighborhood in the south of the city of São Paulo. (From somewhere near Av. Brig. Faria Lima, for example).

To find which bus line might work for you, go to this website: www.sptrans.com.br

You will see this on the top of the page:

Click on LINHA DE ÔNIBUS (which means 'bus line' and this is what you want to know), then insert your address in the first slot, in front of DE/Endereço. Put an approximate number of your location. On the second part, complete like me: R. Cardeal Arcoverde N° 1600. Then click on "Buscar".

You will get some bus lines that will take you there, and their routes.


GOOD LUCK!!!



A NIGHT OUT - Karaoke

As the idea for this blog is to give out suggestions for off-the-beaten track places, here we go! Your travel guide probably suggests you should visit Liberdade, the Japanese (and now also Korean and Chinese) neighborhood in São Paulo, whose streets are adorned with typical Japanese lights and red posts, plus Japanese and Chinese restaurants, shops, not to mention an arts and crafts market on Sundays (very entertaining, actually).

But let's imagine you want to spend the night out with friends and would like to do something a bit weird, but fun... that's what I did yesterday, I spent the night singing at Samurai Karaoke (R. da Glória, 608 - Liberdade). Samurai holds an oriental restaurant on the ground floor and the karaoke room on the top floor. Entrance is R$ 10,00 for women and R$ 15,00 for men (for the karaoke room only) and you may sing as much as time allows you (hostesses take people from each table in turns, so the emptier the place, the more you sing). They've got lots of songs in Portuguese, English, Japanese, and even a good deal of songs in Italian and Spanish. You may also order food and drinks from the restaurant below. The whole place has an air of decadence, receiving loners, groups of elderly people, Japanese ladies, and even large crowds of young people celebrating birthdays... you feel somehow inside the movie 'Lost in Translation', but if you like to sing and you do have some nice company, you certainly will have a good time! The place is open from 6pm from Monday to Saturday and closes after 3a.m.

Rua da Glória is parallel to R. Galvão Bueno, the main shopping street in Liberdade. Just go one block down... Actually the area has some other karaokes, the most famous of which is Karaoke Choperia Liberdade, on the 523. This is a much larger, crowded and completely kitsch place in which you have to pay R$ 2,00 for each song you sing and sometimes wait for hours to sing one song. But the atmosphere is that of a large party, but if perhaps you don't really have a large group of friends and would like to meet some locals (and maybe singing is not really your goal) this is the place to go!