This second most populous state in Brazil, owes its name to its practically inexhaustible reserves of gold, iron ore, manganese, nickel, diamonds and other precious and semi-precious stones. Minas Gerais, the state that has Belo Horizonte as its capital, has the largest number of colonial cities in Brazil. The capital is quite a young city. It is the first planned city ever built in Brazil. It is Brazil's third largest city, but it keeps the relaxed way that is famous throughout the country. Belo Horizonte is also the gateway to the many historical cities in the state of Minas Gerais.

Transfers in & out:
You will be picked up at the airport upon arrival and taken to your hotel in deluxe vehicles by our bilingual tour guide. While on the way, the guide will explain the importance of the city and the historical cities that surround Belo Horizonte.

Half-day city tour:
Leaving from the hotel, you will visit the Liberty Square, where every Sunday morning local arts and crafts are shown and sold. Points that we will visit on this tour are: the Cathedral, the Museu Histórico da Inconfidência, Pampulha and its enormous artificial lake, the Yatch Club, the Museu de Arte Moderna and the Chapel of Saint Francis. The chapel was decorated by Portinari and built by Oscar Niemeyer, the same architect who planned Brasília - the capital of Brazil.

Half-day tour to Sabará:
This historical city is about 15 miles from Belo Horizonte and was founded in 1672 by the explorer Borba Gato. On his search for gold and emeralds, the city was originally a camp used by his expedition for the conquest of new territories. Places of interest here are: the newly restored Imperial Theater (the only Elizabethan Style theater in the Americas), the Gold Museum and the Churches of Carmo and Nossa Senhora do Ó (1720). In contrast with these historical monuments, Sabará is also the site of a steel mill; an industry that replaced exhausted gold mines.

Half-day tour to Congonhas do Campo:
Here, you will have the chance to admire the art of Aleijadinho (the Little Cripple) at its finest. There are two statues of the biblical prophets in soapstone and the 66-life size figures in cedar, depicting the Stations of the Cross. These art works are even more astounding with the knowledge that the sculptor, due to a crippling disease, worked with a hammer and chisel strapped to his wrists.

Full Day tour to Ouro Preto:
Ouro Preto is the most important historical center of Brazil, and its baroque style that has been preserved since the 1700s. Its churches, bridges, palaces and museums reflect the immense wealth of that period. It is the birthplace of Antônio Francisco Lisboa, the Little Cripple, whose works are the finest in Brazil. Ouro Preto was the center of the most important conspiracy against Portugal, when Brazil was still a colony. The political movement took place in the last half of the 18th century, and was called the "Inconfidência Mineira".
Its leader, Tiradentes, was hanged, and his accomplices were imprisoned for their participation in it.