5 best things to do in Curitiba, Brazil, in 1-day
Curitiba is the capital of Paraná state and the largest city in the region, with approximately 1.9 million inhabitants. It ranks as the 8th most populated city in Brazil.
We spent two nights in Curitiba, which gave us more than enough time to explore the city before heading to Joinville to meet friends and eventually making our way down to Uruguay.
If you find yourself with an extra day, consider taking the scenic Serra Verde Express train ride from Curitiba to Morretes. This journey offers breathtaking views of the mountains and takes about 4 hours. You can purchase tickets for the train ride on the Serra Verde Express website or book it online via getyourguide, and for the return trip by bus, visit ClickBus for convenient booking.
We came by bus from Sao Paulo, here is our complete guide.
Table of Contents
Mapping the day
- Old town (walking)
- Flower street (walking)
- 24 hours street (walking)
- Botanical garden (walking / Uber)
- Tangua Park (Uber/walking/Uber)
Where to Stay in Curitiba
For us, one of the most important aspects of our travels is choosing the right place to stay. With that in mind, here are our top recommendations:
- (€): Johnscher by SJ – San Juan Curitiba
- (€€): Novotel Curitiba Batel
- (€€€): Nomaa Hotel
Best things to do in Curitiba
Old city center
We started our day by the old town square of Order till the Flower clock which is a 5min walk if you do not stop. Then we headed toward the city center and the flower street (a main pedestrian street going east to west of the city center) and stroll around it till we find the 24 hours streets (restaurant and shop street, it is not anymore a 24/7 opened street but kept the name).
Then, we headed back to the flower street to stroll more. But quickly we realized that we had almost done all the city center and all of this in less than 2h.
The Botanical garden
As we had time, we decided to walk to the botanical garden located in the south east of the city. It took us a good 40min to reach it. The walk there wasn’t anything special as once out of the city center, there isn’t much. So an Uber would be a better option.
The botanical garden was really beautiful. It is a small park with in its center a small botanic garden within a greenhouse. The garden itself is based on French Style gardens and integrate a small forest and a small lake.
The perfect place to lay for a while under the shadow of the trees and rest.
Tangua Park
To continue with our day, we headed back (Uber) to our guesthouse to rest during a few hours. From noon to 3pm the sun is really strong.
We then went to Tangua Park in north of the city. (20min Uber ride). The park is mainly composed on two level with a lake on the lower one and a nice structure with fountain and a waterfall on the upper one. The park is opened since 1996 and offer a nice seating area near the lake with a small to enjoy a drink while looking at the waterfall.
We then headed back to our guesthouse.
Conclusion
Curitba is a cute town but one thing that was quite annoying for us was the number of homeless. Not only that there are lots of them but also, they would always come to you and ask you for something. And then follow you for a while before giving up. That happened to us in one day over 10 times being quite a hustle.
Afterward, even though the city is cute, it doesn’t have much to offer or that’s what we believe. And Half a day in it would be more than enough. It could be a transit site for the rest of your trip.
“Work, travel, save, repeat.” – Anonymous
