Campos do Jordão

The currency is the real (R$). Cards and Pix are common, but not every place accepts cards: Parque Amantikir, for example, took cash, bank transfer or Pix in October 2026. The Procon-SP winter survey, carried out in June 2026 for the weekend of July 4 and 5, found in Campos do Jordão an average daily rate of R$ 1,139.80 at hotels, the highest of the three towns surveyed, and R$ 772.80 at inns, always for a couple, with breakfast and parking. At restaurants, the same survey found an average of R$ 41.36 for the chicken executive plate, R$ 51.92 for the fixed-price self-service and R$ 90.90 per kilo at pay-by-weight self-service. Tickets add up fast: in 2026, R$ 100 full price at Amantikir, R$ 27 at the State Park plus R$ 30 for parking, and R$ 20 at the Museu Felícia Leirner, free on Sundays. The Palácio Boa Vista and Parque Capivari charge no entry; the cable car and the adventure activities are paid separately.

Getting there by car: about 170 km from São Paulo

From São Paulo it is about 170 km, a little over two hours without traffic, with tolls. You take the Rodovia Ayrton Senna and the Carvalho Pinto to the junction with the Via Dutra, and from there the Rodovia Floriano Rodrigues Pinheiro (SP-123), a single-carriageway road that climbs the mountains from Taubaté, from about 630 m to 1,600 m above sea level. A car makes the trips away from Capivari easier, such as Pico do Itapeva and Pedra do Baú.

Getting there by bus and by plane

Pássaro Marron connects the Rodoviária do Tietê, in São Paulo, to the Campos do Jordão bus station, in Vila Jaguaribe, in about 3 hours, with a stop in São José dos Campos. The town has no airport; the nearest with scheduled flights is Guarulhos (GRU), about 150 km away. The direct airport line was discontinued: Pássaro Marron runs from Guarulhos to São José dos Campos in about 1 hour 30 minutes, and another bus from the same company continues to Campos do Jordão in about 1 hour 30 minutes. Check schedules and connections when you buy.

In town: bus, taxi and on foot

Capivari is covered on foot. For the rest, Viação na Montanha operates the municipal buses, which cost R$ 4.10 in November 2025; from Praça Capivari leave the Horto Florestal, Alto da Boa Vista (for the Palace) and Pica-Pau (for the Museu Casa da Xilogravura and the Baden Baden factory) lines, and you usually have to walk a bit after the stop. There is a taxi stand at Praça Capivari, and a ride to the bus station comes to about R$ 30, according to a guide updated in January 2026. Uber and 99 work for short trips, but getting back from outings outside town is uncertain, and it is worth agreeing a fixed price with a taxi driver.

The railway is stopped

The Estrada de Ferro Campos do Jordão, from 1914, linked Pindamonhangaba to the town over 47 km. The mountain section has not operated since 2017, and the service that remained, including the tourist trams within the town, has been suspended since 2024. In October 2026 the Legislative Assembly approved the provisional transfer of the railway to CPTM, without setting schedules, fares or a reopening; earlier concession plans foresaw the gradual return of short sections only some years after the contract was signed. For this trip, do not count on a train or tram.

For visitors to Campos do Jordão, the main precautions concern the road and the weather. The SP-123 climbs the mountains as a single-carriageway road with curves, and fog is frequent in the high parts, such as Pico do Itapeva; drive carefully and avoid driving down the mountain tired at night. Winter early mornings are near zero or below, and anyone going on the State Park trails should bring a coat and water, follow the marked trails and respect the closing time. If you drink in Capivari, go back by taxi or app: there are Lei Seca sobriety checkpoints at the exit of the center. On the crowded pedestrian street on July nights, watch your bag and phone as in any crowd.

At the Palace, phones go in the lockers

You cannot enter the Palácio Boa Vista with a bag, shopping bag, phone, umbrella, camera, toy or food; the locker at the entrance is free. The visit follows the guide, in a group, and without phones or cameras, the interior is not photographed.

Photo shoots at Amantikir are by appointment

Personal photos are allowed at Amantikir, but photo shoots must be scheduled with the park. Dogs of all sizes are allowed in, according to the park's rules.

Fondue à la carte and the sequence are different orders

À la carte, you choose one pot of cheese, meat or chocolate. In the sequence, the three rounds come in order, and the rodízio includes refills. Ask which format it is before sitting down, because the price varies with it and with the ingredients.

Counting on the train or tram

The Estrada de Ferro Campos do Jordão has not operated since 2024, and that includes the tourist trams within the town; the mountain section stopped in 2017. To get up the mountain and around, the options are car, bus, taxi and ride-hailing app.

Going to the Palácio Boa Vista on the wrong day

Walk-in visits are on Wednesdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays; there are no visits on Monday and Tuesday, and Thursday is for groups with reservations. In bad weather the visit may be suspended, and the numbered tickets are limited.

Showing up at Amantikir with only a card

In October 2026 the park accepted cash, bank transfer and Pix. Bring one of those ways to pay.

Sleeping far from Capivari without a car

Hotels outside the little center are on winding roads, and the night is in Capivari. Without a car, every dinner becomes a taxi or app ride, and there are Lei Seca sobriety checkpoints at the exit of the center.

Leaving July bookings to the last minute

July, with the school holidays and the Winter Festival, is the busiest month, and hotels and fondue restaurants fill up; on the July 9, 2026 holiday hotel occupancy passed 85%. Book ahead or choose April, May or September.

Tem mesa para o fondue hoje?

A useful question for booking in Capivari in July and on holidays

Aceita Pix?

Pix is Brazil's instant payment system; some places do not accept cards

Qual ônibus vai para o Horto?

To find the Horto Florestal line, which leaves from Praça Capivari

Já estão distribuindo as senhas?

For the guided visit to the Palácio Boa Vista, with numbered tickets in order of arrival

Jordanense

Someone born in or living in Campos do Jordão

A high plateau in the Mantiqueira

Campos do Jordão sits on a plateau of the Serra da Mantiqueira, in eastern São Paulo, on the border with Minas Gerais. The town center is at 1,628 m above sea level, and the municipality covers about 290 km². The climate is temperate oceanic (Cfb), with an annual average of 14.5 °C: mild, rainy summers and dry winters, with cold early mornings and frost during cold snaps. Snow is rare and was recorded in 1928, 1942, 1947 and 1966.

Villages in a row along the valley

The town has no single center. The villages line up along the valley and the old railway, in a sequence that anyone arriving on the SP-123 passes through in order: the town's Portal, Abernéssia, Vila Jaguaribe and, last, Vila Capivari, where the Emílio Ribas Station stands. Between the Abernéssia station and the Emílio Ribas station, the railway runs about 4 km. Alto da Boa Vista, with the Palace and the Museu Felícia Leirner, lies west of Abernéssia, on higher ground.

Araucaria forest and viewpoints

The landscape that gives the town its identity is the araucaria forest, largely protected by Campos do Jordão State Park, about 14 km northeast of Capivari, along the Rio Sapucaí. The viewpoints sit on the edges of the plateau: Morro do Elefante, just above Capivari, and Pico do Itapeva, at 2,030 m, which is already in the municipality of Pindamonhangaba and looks out over the Paraíba Valley.

The Winter Festival

The Campos do Jordão Winter Festival began with the Winter Concerts of July 1970 at the Palácio Boa Vista, conceived by Luís Arrobas Martins and inspired by the American festival at Tanglewood. It is a classical music festival, with concerts and opera. The 56th edition ran from July 4 to August 2, 2026, with more than 80 free performances, an open-air opening by Osesp in Parque Capivari and Mozart's The Magic Flute at the Auditório Claudio Santoro, which has 814 seats.

Sculpture and landscape

Felícia Leirner, a sculptor born in Warsaw in 1904, left São Paulo for Campos do Jordão after 1962 and spent her last working years expanding the collection that now forms the museum bearing her name, inaugurated in 1978. The works, from the figurative to the organic phases, are scattered through the forest, and the circuit is done on foot.

The memory of the sanatoriums

The town preserves the mark of the period when it received tuberculosis patients. The sociologist Oracy Nogueira studied these patients' social experience in Vozes de Campos do Jordão, which grew out of a 1945 dissertation, and the playwright Nelson Rodrigues, who was treated in the town, wrote about the public sanatorium he called the sanatorinho.

The Cherry Blossom Festival

At Parque da Cerejeira, in Vila Albertina, the Festa da Cerejeira em Flor follows the cherry trees' bloom with odori dance, koto, taiko, tea ceremony, workshops, a cosplay contest and a Japanese food court. It is organized by Sakura Home, a unit of the Associação Nipo-Brasileira de Assistência Social Enkyo, and the 55th edition ran on weekends from July 25 to August 16, 2026.

Floradas na Serra (1939), by Dinah Silveira de Queiroz, and the film by Luciano Salce (1954)

The novel follows Elza, a young woman with tuberculosis who goes to Campos do Jordão for treatment, and the other patients of the mountain's boarding houses and sanatoriums. It was filmed by the Companhia Cinematográfica Vera Cruz in 1954, with Cacilda Becker, and shows the town from the time when people went there seeking a cure.

Vozes de Campos do Jordão, by Oracy Nogueira

A sociological study that grew out of a 1945 dissertation on the social experience of lung patients in the state of São Paulo, reissued by Fiocruz in 2009. It helps in understanding the period when Abernéssia and the other villages grew around the sanatoriums.