Parque do Ibirapuera

Lonely Planet review

The biggest green space in central São Paulo, Parque do Ibirapuera makes a fine escape from the city's seemingly infinite stretches of concrete. In addition, the leafy 2 sq km park serves as a thriving center of the city's cultural life, with a series of museums, performance spaces and the grounds for São Paulo's renowned Bienal.

A series of landmark buildings are the work of modernist master Oscar Niemeyer, most of them linked by a long and distinctively serpentine covered walkway. At the north entrance of the park stands Victor Brecheret's huge Monumento Bandeiras, erected in 1953 as a tribute to the city's early pioneers. A meandering duck pond takes up much of the park's western half, and around it is ranged a series of shaded walks, including the Bosque da Leitura (Reading Forest) - a woodsy section that turns into an open-air library where you can check out books on Sunday afternoons.