Porto Alegre

[Brall]

Hello Again,

I received a lot of great information from past inquiries, and I thought I would try again.

 

 

I plan to visit Porto Alegre next month, February. I have already read previous information on this site about the city and am looking for new (current) information from individuals who have been there within the last year or two. Are the beaches in Porto Alegre very nice, clean and beautiful? Any hotel suggestions, especially hotels located on the beach? Any recent experiences with the sauna scene?

 

Thanks!

[trilingual]

As far as the sauna scene goes, I don't have any very recent information, but as far as I know there haven't been any changes. Plataforma is still popular.

 

There aren't any "nice" beached in Porto Alegre. It's located on a river, not the ocean, and its beaches aren't anything to write home about. There is a beachfront area called Ipanema that can be pleasant on a hot day, but it's not a vacation destination in itself. For ocean beaches, you have to drive at least 90 minutes. Mostly, the beaches in Rio Grande do Sul are very broad, flat, open and windy. When you get right down to it, it's just one single 500-mile-long beach from Rio Grande do Sul all the way to Punta del Este in Uruguay. In Rio Grande do Sul the nicest beach is probably Torres, close to the Santa Catarina state line. If you're looking for good beaches and tolerable gay life, try Florianopolis, which is delightful.

 

No idea what kind of hotels you're looking for, but there's a new Sheraton in the very nice Moinhos de Vento neighborhood, with a smart shopping mall attached. It's probably about ten minutes or so from downtown.