You'll be amazed with the view, quality of the rooms and service of the Luz Plaza hotel. We stayed on the 15th floor facing the Luz Park (dense of vegetation) and the old 19th century (British-style) Luz Station. Moreover, you can see part of downtown Sao Paulo and the beginning of the East Zone in the horizon. It doesn't matter if is day or night, the view is amazing and makes you wonder about the size of this city.

The room was extremely comfortable: one big bedroom, delicious bedding, nice bathroom with tub (quite rare in Brazilian hotels), one separate living room and a small toilet connected to it. Obviously it suits perfectly business people who may have to received people but it's definitely useful when people are travelling in group or simply when you want some space.

Staff is great and some of them speak good English. Our impression was that most of the people staying here were Koreans, as Bom Retiro (the neighborhood) is full of them. By the way, is a famous area for clothing that are mainly produced and sold by Korean people.

Concerning prices, well, for what you get in Sao Paulo it's definitely a good deal.

So, this is all amazing and a good price, how is this possible?

Because it's located in old downtown São Paulo, an extremely busy and lively area during the day - extremely commercial (and cultural too) – it tends to be empty at nights. During the day, if you decide to walk along the streets there will be lots of begging too and although there is lots of amazing buildings with lots of interesting cultural activities, the streets are a social mix of people of all backgrounds, but especially simple people.

Although for some people this is exactly the sort of thing they want to see and experience, for others it can be intimidating. I'd say that 9 out 10, you'll be safe but - like in any other big city - watch it!

But if you’d like to see the REAL Sao Paulo, this is definitely the place to be. It's lively, there is lots of things, sounds, colors, smells etc. going on. It's also next door to one tube station (luz), which is a excellent way of getting around (clean, efficient, but hot in summer) giving the famous traffic jams of the city.
Besides that, there are a couple of nice bars and restaurants in this area and specially surroundings (Ipiranga Avenue and Consolassao).

You're not far from Paulista Avenue either, which is definitely a nice area to stay too, but you'll never find the same comfort for the Luz Plaza rates. Impossible! By the way, apart from Paulista area, I'd say it's a waste of time to stay in places like Morumbi or along Marginal Pinheiros. No tube station, terrible transport, and traffic jams every single day. But if you prefer not to see the average Brazilian person, then you definitely better off there.