Porto Alegre Travel Guide

Porto Alegre is one of the largest cities in Brazil, is the capital city of Rio Grande do Sul. Porto Alegre is the most important city of Southern Brazil, consisting of a cultural, political and economical center. Porto Alegre held the best standard of living among all Brazilian capitals for many years and it was the only Brazilian city listed on Jones Lang LaSalle's World Winning Cities. It's also the home of famous football clubs Grêmio and Internacional.

Porto Alegre is also one of the wealthiest cities in Latin America, and one of the most diverse. It has welcomed immigrants from all over the world, the largest numbers coming from Portugal, Germany, Italy, Spain and Poland. The are also significant Arab, Jewish and Afro-Brazilian contingents in the population.

Porto Alegre is undoubtedly the local capital city which most took after Europe in Brazil rather than its other various roots. It is part of a transitional area culturally influenced by both São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro; as well as Buenos Aires. Examples of both tendencies are visible through the openness in facing social needs such as the emerging gay rights and receptiveness to world social events. It holds a noticeable advantage over other Brazilian cities on aspects such as literacy, number of books read per year, wealth distribuition and longevity rates. The average Porto Alegrense is also seen as very politicized when compared to people from other parts of the country.

Porto Alegre is located in the subtropical area and so is called its climate. Average precipitation is high and regular throughout the year. Summer temperatures only occasionally rise above 32°C (90° F), although high levels of humidity make the season very muggy. The highest temperature ever registered was 40.7°C (105° F) in January 1943. The winter reveals mild average temperatures, contrasting to the quite changeable, and many times sudden behavioral, windy and rainy weather which also characterizes this time of the year. Usual winter temperatures range from 5 ºC to 25 ºC. Snow is very rare, sometimes confused with sleet. The lowest temperature ever recorded was -4 °C in July 1918. Autumns tend to be as changeable as winters, but are typically warmer. Spring, stabler akin to summer, is slightly drier than all the other seasons. Occurrence of radiation fog is common, causing several delays in early flights.