Is São Paulo Safe for Solo Female Travelers?

Solo travel

Sao Paulo is a very fast-paced city, full of life and lights. It has great places to visit, such as parks and avenues. In my experience, the people were polite and I really liked it! However, many people warned me to be careful because the robbery and crime rate there is high, which made me quite worried.

Family travel

I was worried to visit São Paulo after hearing a lot of people say it was dangerous. After it went dark I did feel a bit unsafe and we ubered everywhere. But during the day it was completely fine, I took my phone out when I had to and just kept to busier areas.

Solo travel

It's an interesting place, the culinary variety is wonderful. I just didn't feel very safe walking around some places. I prefer traveling with someone. I think my experience wasn't that good because I was alone, so I avoided going out after dark.

Group travel

São Paulo is a city full of culture, we stayed at Pinheiros neighborhood which was pretty safe but you still have to be alert and prefer areas where there's a crowd of people. There's a lot of good restaurants and cafes to enjoy

Couple travel

I felt save almost every moment during day time, but not in the neighbourhood “Luz” I’d never walk there alone in the night. The city is amazingly big but so beautiful! I really recommend tasting traditional food, going to the Parc d’Ibirapuera and visiting Sampa Sky

Group travel

My travel buddy and I are currently in São Paulo and we’re travelling low budget. So far we’ve stayed in a hostel in Guarulhos and had enough luck to be able to stay at a really lovely Ladies place that we found through this app. We visited Sampa Sky, the Liberdade neighbourhood, Beck de Batman, the mercado municipal paulistano and a couple more attractions. So far all our experiences were good even in the areas locals warned us about. Maybe we were just lucky, but I’d recommend staying vigilante at all times, especially with your phone and bags. Most locals don’t speak a lot of English so sometimes it’s hard to communicate but we have found that everyone makes an effort to help you out.

Of all Brazilian capitals, São Paulo is the safest. However, I recommend being extra cautious about robberies, especially cell phones, even in cars (there have been some cases of thieves breaking car windows to steal your phone). In general, avoid being distracted by your cell phone in open spaces, keep the car windows up and avoid walking alone at night.

São Paulo is a moderate safe city, it really depends on which neighborhood you are and how cautious your behavior is. For example, walking alone at night and holding your phone flashily on the streets isn’t appropriate behavior in most Brazilian cities. But the public transportation system is excellent and sexual assault isn’t really that common here. You have to be smart and always a bit vigilant to robbers, but overall I feel safe on my day to day.