Metro, São Paulo

I am sorry to post a question, but this seem to be the best place to find out what I need to. My husband will be in Sao Paulo for business for a whle. I am intending to go with our 14 year old for a period of time. I have heard mixed reviews on this, and looking for opinions of those that have been there.

Will my son and I be able to safely during the day see historic/scenery via the metro? Or is this not safe??

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.

SUBWAY: offers a fast alternative, providing safety and comfort for people who want to get around São Paulo. Avoid rush hours (early morning, midday, early evenings).

TICKET FARES:

Unitário (one-way single trip): R$ 2,40

Metrô/ônibus (subway + bus) (one-way single trip): R$ 4,10

Warning: DO NOT BUY TICKETS FROM STREET VENDORS! Not only it's illegal but also you may end up with a used ticket with no value.

Metro is clean, safe, and easy to use...only complaint is that the metro stations are very far apart from one another, sometimes you need to take a taxi just to arrive at a metro stop. Besides that very good and cheap way to get around the city.

To see everything in the center of S?o Paulo and Paulista (MASP, P?tio do Col?gio, Catedral da S?, etc.) the subway is the best way - traffic can be very heavy and buses are infrequent and badly mantained.

The subway is safe, regular and easy to use (just 5 lines and there are maps on every station showing where they intersect and the stations). There are also maps of the surrounding area with interesting spots marked so you can find your way around when you get off.

But it does get very crowded during rush hour...

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The São Paulo Metro (subway) which I have used occasionally ( because I live comfortably very close to a Metro station ) is as good and modern as any in , say, Europe. It's surprisingly very clean , grafitti free , fast and , as mentioned , modern.... There are so far few lines ( actually only three , north - south , east - west and the short line under Ave. Paulista but they start to integrate two or three city train lines into the Metro system ) and they're now constructing full blast a new , the "yellow", line which will run centrally towards the Marginal Pinheiros , Butantã and maybe beyond.....
This is not so good for me at the moment because they had to close the street where I have my business ( see restaurant tip re tacos, tequila and live mariachi music ) and as far as I know , the street will stay blocked for at least two years or more and my turnover has allready dropped pretty much.... On the other hand once everything is finished my business will be right one short block from a super modern Metro station.... Let's see....

SP is so humongous that the fastest and cheapest way to go araound is by subway.

Don't make the mistake to get a cab if you don't know how far you're going, because you don't want to get a heart attack when hear the price.

Subway use is like anyother subway in the world..so i'll skip the instructions

For info on timetables and prices and routes check out the SP metro website.

It is more than one hundred metro station present in the main neighborhoods of the city, it has 5 lines and it is connect with the urban trains, whoch serve another cities too!

But it has one problem, during the summer the trains are unbearable, no air contioning system!!!! In none of the trains!

Marcio and I suffured in these trains in hte peak hour, it is just like Tokyo! :)

I would say it is still useful!

September 16th, 2005