Minas Gerais – Bespoke Brazil Itineraries

Translating to “General Mines,” Minas Gerais is an inland state due north of Rio de Janeiro.

Famously, the region was the setting of an extended gold rush that began in the 1690s and produced immeasurable wealth for the colonizing Portuguese Empire. An explosion of enterprising miners and half a million slave laborers unearthed precious metals which traveled along the Caminho do Ouro (Gold Trail) to reach the port of Paraty for Europe.

A church rises beyond an artisan market in Ouro Preto, with ceramic stalls and mountains under a clear sky.

Historic Tiradentes climbs a Minas Gerais hillside, with church towers, tiled roofs, and soft evening light.

Rolling green hills and a valley town nestle beneath overcast skies in Minas Gerais, Brazil.

Why visit Minas Gerais?

A visit to modern-day Minas Gerais brings history buffs off Brazil’s well-trodden tourist routes to colonial towns preserved in time. Best experienced as a privately guided road trip bookended by the state capital of Belo Horizonte and Rio de Janeiro (travel in either direction), make the charming, cobblestone towns of Ouro Preto and Tiradentes your anchors.

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A visit to modern-day Minas Gerais brings history buffs off Brazil’s well-trodden tourist routes to colonial towns preserved in time. Best experienced as a privately guided road trip bookended by the state capital of Belo Horizonte and Rio de Janeiro (travel in either direction), make the charming, cobblestone towns of Ouro Preto and Tiradentes your anchors.
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Enveloped by picture-pretty hills, adorned with white-washed facades topped with red roofs, and dotted with handsome Baroque churches, you’ll get a sense of the inordinate wealth and history that passed through Minas Gerais. Ibitipoca, Miranda, and Petropolis make splendid road trip stop-offs, too.
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Art and design lovers will appreciate touring the region’s Oscar Niemeyer-designed buildings (a key figure in the modern movement) and Inhotim, a 1,945–acre museum of contemporary art and botanical garden.

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Other areas to explore

A visit to Minas Gerais puts you within easy reach of many other beautiful and fascinating parts of Brazil.

Sailboats anchor in calm turquoise water beside a densely forested green island at Ilha Grande.

Costa Verde

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Florianópolis

If you want a beach escape without going off-grid, point your compass to glitzy Florianópolis, located in southern Brazil on Santa Catarina Island.

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Iguazú Falls

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Aerial view of the Lençóis Maranhenses shows endless white dunes interspersed with blue lagoons.

Lençóis Maranhenses and Jericoacoara

Remote, extraordinary, and unlike anywhere else in South America, northeastern Brazil's dune coast is one of the continent's great undiscovered journeys.