São Paulo Flights

The airport is actually located on the outskirts of Sýo Paulo, in a town called Guarulhos (that's why the airport code is GRU). Sýo Paulo downtown is around 45 minutes (or more with road traffic) from the airport, so if you are planning to visit Sýo Paulo, choose a hotel IN Sýo Paulo and NOT nearby the international airport.
There is not much to do around the international airport anyway, only hotels.

Hi,

At the recommendation of another review, which I now can't find, I used the services of Sao Paulo Airport Transfers on my recent trip to Sao Paulo. As a regular business traveller I really cannot recommend them enough, from the quality of car used, to the standard and courtesy of the driver.

My flight to Guarulhos was delayed by 2 hours and I was unable to contact anyone to let them know, but the driver was waiting patiently for me when I arrived, and assisted me with my luggage.

The most outstanding aspect of the service was when I was taken back to the airport. When leaving the vehicle my Blackberry must have fallen out of my pocket, the driver spotted this after I was inside the terminal and actually came looking for me at the check in desk. Fantastic!

The website of the company is reasonably easy to remember, it's www.saopauloairporttransfers.com - they provide taxi transfers from Sao Paulo Guarulhos airport, and I think they may also offer the same service from Congonhas, but would be best to check that with them.

Cheers

Phil

PS, please ignore the guy standing in front of the car, he was one of those 'unnofficial' car park attendants who watch the car while it's parked on the street - the driver had parked to help me carry a few bags into the office.

Hi,

We used an excellent company called Sao Paulo Airport Transfers when we recently visited Sao Paulo. They provide airport to hotel taxi transfers from Guaruhlos airport, which is the trip we booked, and also from Congonhas airport, although we didn't use this aspect of their service but would assume it's the same as from the international airport.

Previously we used their sister company, Rio Airport Transfer, when we visited Rio and found them to be good as well. I'd assume they're part of the same company, or have some sort of partnership whereby they recommend each others services, but both provided us with a very good and prompt service, at a cheaper rate than that offered by the hotel.

Taxis are available at the airport, but we prefer to pay a little extra to minimise the fuss and hassle when we arrive at an airport.

Flying to Sao Paulo from Europe usually takes around 12 hours. You can fly from London, Amsterdam, Paris, Munich, Frankfurt, Milan, Madrid, Helsinki, Istanbul and Lisbon.
France is one of the few countries with good flight connections to Brazil. Not only does Air France offer two daily flights from Paris to Sao Paulo on Boeing 747's but Varig with a daily service has routes too.
The shuttle flight between Rio and Sao Paulo offers three daily flights on the Rio Galeao / Sao Paulo Guarulhos route.

Quando chegar a São Paulo pelo aeroporto internacional de Guarulhos (GRU), você pode economizar no deslocamento utilizando a linha de ônibus regulares AirportBus Service que leva o passageiro até a estação de metrô Tatuapé, com isso seu deslocamento até o centro ficará 90% mais barato.

When you go to Sao Paulo by airplane via Guarulhos international airport (GRU), you can take a cheap (about 90% less) bus called AirportBus Service and go to Metrô tatuapé station.

When you enter Brazil, you are given a copy of a form (sorry, can't remember if it was Customs or Imigration) that you must present when you exit the country. I normally take great care with these documents, but for some reason I misplaced this item. I was lectured by an angry Brazilian official about being irresponsible, careless, etc. and sent to another area to fill out the same form.

As I filled out the new form, the same official mocked a German tourist's accent, belittled him and finally called him an idiot before sending him into the area where the blank forms were located.

He continued humiliating several others, and the whole scene was somewhat surreal. It's too bad that the last Brazilian several hundred people saw that day was so bitter.

Moral of the story: Don't lose that little white reciept, unless you want to be scolded like a child.

São Paulo has two main airports. All international flights arrive at Guarulhos Airport (GRU), 18 1/2 miles (30km) northeast of the city-centre. Paulistas will also refer to this airport as Cumbica.
Guarulhos Airport is the largest in Brazil and sure one of the biggest in Southamerica.
Unlike airports in Europe and North America, the international airport of São Paulo has a duty-free shop upon arrival before clearing customs, where you can purchase up to US$500 of goods. Once you have cleared customs you can change money or traveler's checks or use an ATM to obtain cash in Reais (R$). The American Express office is open daily from 6:30am to 10:30pm and charges no commission on changing cash or traveler's checks (as long as they are American Express checks), located in Terminal 1 Arrivals. The Banco do Brasil charges a US$20 flat rate for traveler's checks transactions and US$5 flat rate for cash transactions. The ATMs are compatible with Visa/Plus, located in Terminal 1 Arrivals.

Unfortunately the airport does not have any official webpage (at least I could not find one), but there is a page from "Infraero" where you can find the informations you want:

http://www.infraero.gov.br/www/home.nsf/agGetLink?OpenAgent&ID=5CD30112948DCE2E82256A0F004E04BA&Lang=br
(page does take some time to loud!)

Adress:
São Paulo-Guarulhos International Airport
PO Box 3061-Guarulhos
São Paulo 07141-970
Brazil
Telephone: (0)11 6445 2945
Fax: (0)11 6445 3173 or 6412 3335

For $58R's One Way you can take an AIR-Shuttle between GRU-International into CGH (Downtown Airport) on Ocean Air (Which also serves many other cities say like Macae)

Visit:
http://www.oceanair.com.br

This is much faster and easier than the bus PLUS NO traffic problems to deal with.
Limited Schedules.

Boa Viagem!