Campos do Jordão
The altitude and dry air were prescribed for tuberculosis, and patients came from São Paulo from the 1910s; when antibiotics ended that, the town rebuilt itself with chalets, fondue and a July season when Paulistas come to feel cold. Beneath the pastiche is genuine araucária forest and the largest classical music festival in Latin America, running since 1970.
Why go
A Swiss-styled town in the Brazilian highlands — at 1,628 metres, the highest municipality in the country. A winter festival of classical music — the largest in Latin America, through July. Araucária forest — the Paraná pine, an ancient species, in protected parkland around the town. São Paulo two and a half hours away — which is the whole point of it.
The character
Campos do Jordão was founded as a sanatorium town — the altitude and dry air were prescribed for tuberculosis, and patients came from São Paulo from the 1910s. When antibiotics ended that trade, the town reinvented itself with an architecture borrowed wholesale from Switzerland and Bavaria: chalets, fondue restaurants, a chocolate industry and a winter season in July, when temperatures drop near zero and Paulistas come to feel cold on purpose.
Underneath the pastiche is something real. The Festival de Inverno, running since 1970, is the largest classical music festival in Latin America, with an academy that brings hundreds of young musicians for masterclasses through July, and it fills the Auditório Claudio Santoro. And the natural setting is genuine: this is Atlantic forest at altitude, with araucária — the Paraná pine, a species that predates flowering plants — in Horto Florestal and the state park, along with monkeys, toucans and orchids.
Places of character
Horto Florestal — a state park of araucária and Atlantic forest with trails and waterfalls. Auditório Claudio Santoro — the winter festival's main hall, in the woods at Capivari. Palácio Boa Vista — the state governor's winter residence, with a serious Brazilian art collection. Morro do Elefante — a chairlift and a viewpoint over the valley. Capivari — the pedestrian centre of chalets, chocolate shops and fondue, unashamedly themed. Pedra do Baú — a granite formation an hour away, with a via ferrata and climbing.
The way to do it
Come in July for the festival if music is the reason, or in any other month for the forest and empty trails. Book festival concerts well ahead. Walk in Horto Florestal for the araucárias, which are the actual landscape. And accept the Swiss theming with humour — the town does.
One perfect day
Breakfast, then Horto Florestal for two hours among araucárias with monkeys overhead and a waterfall at the end of the trail. Coffee and chocolate in Capivari, which is what everyone does. Lunch of trout. Afternoon at the Palácio Boa Vista for the Brazilian modernists — Portinari and Di Cavalcanti, unexpectedly, in a governor's mountain house. Chairlift up Morro do Elefante for the valley in late light. Evening concert at the Auditório if it is July, otherwise fondue by a fire in a town pretending to be somewhere else entirely.
Grand hotels
Hotel Toriba — 1943, the town's original grand hotel, in forest above Capivari. Vila Inglesa — a period property with gardens, and the older Campos do Jordão manner.
When to go
Best expression: July, for the winter festival and the cold the town exists to provide. Consider: April and May, dry and clear with the forest at its best and no crowds. Avoid if possible: December to February, the wet season, and the July weekends if you dislike traffic.
The frame
Ideal stay 2 nights · Minimum 1 night · Best arrival by car from São Paulo, two and a half hours · Airport GRU, 190 km · Walkability Capivari and the parks · Best without a car possible with buses