In this post, I will tell you about a quick visit we made to Curitiba, the capital of the state of Paraná, on this trip to Brazil.
We spent the previous two days in Foz do Iguaçu (check my posts Foz Day 1 and Foz Day 2) and had a brilliant time there. On the way back, we took a flight to Curitiba, arriving in the town at lunchtime.
We had visited Curitiba many times before, and I already have a post highlighting some interesting places to visit in Curitiba. Check it out on the link. This time it was more about visiting a friend and spending some time together.
We were travelling independently with a hired car as we are confident travellers and speak the language. However, if you prefer to be part of a tour and to have everything organised for you, I advise you to book a complete tour with Tourradar.
They have different kinds of tours that will fit your time and budget. If you book it via my links you can get a discount by using this code: RoseG50.
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We arrived in Curitiba and took the car that was parked in the airport car park while we went to Foz do Iguaçu. My friend lives close to the airport, so it was a quick trip from the airport to her house.
After some chatting at her house, we decided to go out and visit a few places, but before telling you about that, let me tell you a little bit about Curitiba:
Below is a map of the places we visited on that day:
A LITTLE BIT ABOUT CURITIBA
Curitiba, the capital of Paraná in southern Brazil, stands as a rare example of urban planning done right. Often called “the greenest city in Latin America,” it blends sustainability, design, and functionality in ways few cities have matched.
In the 1970s, under visionary mayor Jaime Lerner, the town pioneered ideas that are now standard in modern cities: dedicated bus lanes, integrated public transport, and urban parks designed to prevent floods rather than concrete walls. The result was a city that grew rapidly without losing its human scale or environmental balance.
Today, Curitiba is a model of liveability. Its extensive park system, like Barigui, Tingui, and Tanguá, offers clean air, recreation, and biodiversity right within city limits. The iconic “Jardim Botânico”, with its glasshouse and landscaped gardens, has become the city’s emblem.
Economically, the town balances industrial strength (especially in automotive and tech sectors) with a growing creative economy. It’s also one of Brazil’s safest and most organised cities. It attracts students, professionals, and tourists looking for something calmer than São Paulo or Rio.
Culturally, it mixes European immigrant heritage, mainly Polish, Ukrainian, and Italian, with modern Brazilian energy. The result is a cosmopolitan city that feels simultaneously efficient and welcoming.
Curitiba proves that intelligent planning and environmental respect can coexist with growth. It’s not perfect, housing inequality and traffic still exist, but as a living urban experiment, it remains one of the most successful in the developing world.
VISITING CURITIBA
We decided to visit Parque Barigui. Although I have been to Curitiba many times, I’ve never been to this park. This park is very famous in Brazil and abroad due to the capybaras that live in the park freely.
Parque Barigui is Curitiba’s most beloved public park, a vast green space that embodies the city’s identity as Brazil’s model for sustainable urban living.
Created in 1972 as part of Jaime Lerner’s plan to control flooding from the Barigui River, the park turned a potential environmental problem into one of Curitiba’s greatest assets.
Spanning more than 1.4 million square meters, Barigui serves as both a floodplain and a social hub. When the river overflows, the park absorbs the water, protecting nearby neighbourhoods. The rest of the time, it’s full of runners, cyclists, families, and capybaras, the semi-aquatic rodents that have become unofficial park mascots.
The park’s infrastructure is simple but effective: long walking paths, picnic areas, sports courts, and the serene Barigui Lake at its centre. Around it sit the Automobile Museum, a restaurant with panoramic views, and spaces for cultural and community events.
When we arrived there, we went straight to see the capybaras. They are so lovely and sweet and are very popular with children and animal lovers. My daughter was delighted with them and couldn’t stop taking photos of them!
When we had had enough of the park and the capybaras, we took the car and drove to the centre of town. It was still early, and we wanted to have a look at the shops in the centre before they closed.
We stopped at a charming chocolate shop selling beautiful chocolate items and biscuits for Easter. It wasn’t easy to choose some to give as presents, they were all so nice!
We continued exploring the shops in the centre until we arrived at “Praça Osório” (Osório Square). On this square, they were having an Easter Fair with lots of stalls selling crafts and food. This fair takes place there every year, as well as a Christmas fair in December.
We spent a little more money there and bought some nice items to give as presents as well. There were good options to eat there, but we were planning to go to a Japanese restaurant afterwards. My friend is Brazilian but of Japanese descent, and she knows a lot of nice Japanese restaurants in Curitiba.
There are many places to visit in Curitiba, but because we were there for just a short time that was all we could see on this visit. Read my other post about Curitiba where I explain in details our visit to the Botanic Gardens, the Municipal Market and the “Ópera de Arame” (Wire Opera). These are some of the most popular sites in Curitiba.
We didn’t have time, but if you do I advise you to take this tour in English, Spanish or Portuguese, that will take you to the most important places in Curitiba. It will collect you from your hotel and take you back after the tour and the tour will last the full day.
There is also a tour of Curitiba called: Curitiba City-by-Night with dinner. It will take you to the most popular places at night when all is beautifully illuminated and very different from what you see during the day. Dinner is included and it is in an Italian restaurant in a famous neighbourhood of Curitiba called “Santa Felicidade”. Book this tour HERE.
After finishing exploring the fair, we headed to the restaurant. It was called Taisho Yakiniku, in the Água Verde neighbourhood. That was a very nice restaurant, it had a buffet of some traditional Japanese dishes, it had sushi, of course and also a Japanese BBQ.
Every table had a BBQ in it, and we could barbecue the pieces of meat to our own taste. All accompanied by the delicious Japanese sauces and condiments.
It was a great dinner; we ate so much there! We didn’t find it very expensive either. It was very fair prices for what we had.
After dinner, we went back to my friend’s house and stayed up talking until late, as we hadn’t seen her for a long time. This was another friend we made when we arrived in London, who moved to Japan from the UK and later to Brazil, to Curitiba.
The next day in the morning, we left Curitiba and drove back to Pontal do Paraná to spend some more days there with my brother and his family. We spent Easter with them, and after that, drove back to São Vicente for our final days before returning to the UK.
With this post, I finish my series of Brazil posts for this trip. I will start a new series of posts on Sicily next week, so keep an eye out for it!
I hope this post helps you to plan your own itinerary to Curitiba and it gives you ideas of what can be done in one day visiting the city.
HOW TO MAKE THE MOST OF YOUR TRIP
Below you will find a list of what to visit, where to stay and where to eat in Curitiba. I classified each place as follows:
BOLD – Visited, tried and recommended
NOT BOLD – Not visited or tried, but planning to visit or try and heard very good reviews
RED – Visited and tried but do not recommend, avoid or be cautious
*** – Excellent
** – Good
* – OK
£££ – Expensive
££ – Fair and affordable
£ – Cheap
WHAT TO SEE
ATTRACTIONS
1 – Botanic Gardens ***
2 – Wire Opera – ***
3 – Municipal Market of Curitiba – ***
4 – Barigui Park – ***
5 – Praça General Osório for the fairs – ***
6 – Curitiba Centre – ***
WHERE TO STAY IN CURITIBA
HOTELS
1 – Radisson Hotel Curitiba – 5* – *** – £££
2 – Full Jazz by Slaviero Hotéis – 5* – £££
3 – Qoya Hotel Curitiba – 5* – £££
4 – Quality Hotel Curitiba – 4* – £££
5 – Rio Hotel by Bourbon Curitiba – 3* – ££
6 – Studio 25º Andar -3* – ££
If you prefer to look for your own accommodation search and book via the widget below:
WHERE TO EAT IN CURITIBA
RESTAURANTS
1 – Restaurants at the Municipal Market – *** – £
2 – Barolo Trattoria – *** – ££ – Italian
3 – Terrazza 40– £££ – International Cuisine
4 – Batel Grill – £££ – BBQ Churrascaria
5 – Taisho Yakiniku – *** – ££ – Japanese
6 – Ibérico Gastronomia – ££ – Portuguese/Spanish
We only tried the ones in bold , the others are the result of my researches and ones that I would like to try. If you tried any of my recommendations above, please send me a message and tell me about your experience good or bad, so I can update the list accordingly. Thanks!
If you tried any of my recommendations above, please send me a message and tell me about your experience good or bad, so I can update the list accordingly. Thanks!
If you enjoyed reading this post you might also like to read:
On this visit to Brazil:
3 – Sorocaba
6 – Curitiba
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