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Florianópolis
The City
With its more than 42 beaches, exuberant natural life, a hospitable people and, moreover, an excellent infrastructure for welcoming visitors, Florianópolis can easily be compared to paradise. The city was elected by Brazil’s two largest tourism publications as Brazilian main destination: the tourist capital of Mercosur is the second most important destination in our country.
Those who get to know the beauties of the State of Santa Catarina Island want to stay here longer than just one season. This is why an ever increasing number of people are choosing the capital with the best quality of life in our country as a place to live. Those who like beaches and a peaceful life, without sacrificing the advantages of bigger cities, find here the perfect place to be. Florianópolis combines everything you find in a big city with the charm of a small town.
Our island strikes a very good balance between human settlement and environmental preservation. The harmony and the conservation of biodiversity around the urban center are outstanding in this region, which is the only Brazilian capital city located on an island where the ecosystems are preserved. There are now more than 20 ecological conservation districts and new parks in the county, covering 42% of its territory.
Over the years, the city became more modern, implemented a sound infrastructure for all its inhabitants, its economy grew and new business opportunities arose, inserting Florianópolis in the circuit of leading national and international events.
The city has become cosmopolitan, but without loosing its identity. The traces of its Azorean settlers are still present in the capital’s daily life. The “manezinhos”, gentilic for Florianópolis, known for speaking fast, walk the narrow streets downtown and the Public Market, preserving their customs and festivals, inherited from Portuguese colonization.
This is the Island of Magic, with its contrasts between the new and the old, the cosmopolitan and the provincial, the urban and the rural, stressing the best aspects of the two worlds. Enchanting the visitor, Florianópolis is the perfect place to work, to invest, to visit and to live.
Location
Florianópolis is built on an ocean island with 424.4 Km² and a small continental peninsula with 12.1 km²: the city’s total surface is 436.5 km². Little over 370 thousand people live on the Island and the neighborhoods on the Continent.
Florianópolis is located amongst the main Brazilian capital cities and Latin America, right on the axis formed by Brazil’s large urban centers and the cities of Buenos Aires and Montevideo. It’s perfect for a stopover on the Mercosur route and, being easy to access by land, air and sea, is already part of the circuit of many international events.
Different modes and means of transportation will take you to the Island of the State of Santa Catarina. By plane: Hercílio Luz Airport is located 13km south of the island’s main downtown hotels. By road: this is the option for those who favor bus or car travels and who find here well structured and double lane highways (national highway BR-101) with stunning scenery.
Climate
Florianópolis’ climate is characteristic of the Southern Brazilian coasts. Seasons are well characterized, summer and winter are clearly defined; fall and spring climates are quite similar to each other. The average maximum temperature of the hottest month stays between 26°C and 31ºC, and the average minimum temperature of the coldest month stays between 15°C and 19°C. The yearly mean temperature is around 24°C.
Airport
Florianópolis has one airport - Hercílio Luz International Airport (FLN) – located in the Southern part of the State of Santa Catarina Island and managed by Infraero (Brazilian Airport Authority). The airport is 13Km (15 minutes) away from the main hotels and convention centers, located downtown, and 40Km (30 to 40 minutes) away from hotels & resorts located in the Northern end of our island.
A new passenger terminal is to be built which will enlarge the premises and improve its processing capacity, and will have a greater number of airline counters; the number of boarding bridges will go from zero to four.
Six airlines operate regular flights to and from Florianópolis: Varig, TAM, Gol, OceanAir, NHT, and Aerolíneas Argentinas, with direct flights to and from Brazil and Mercosur main destinations: Porto Alegre, Curitiba, Brasília, São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Campinas, Buenos Aires and Santiago do Chile.
During last summers, Florianópolis Airport confirmed its place as one of the main Brazilian destinations for domestic and international tourists. With a capacity for 980 thousand users a year, it handled, in 2006, 1.63 million passengers.
Florianópolis outgrew the current passenger terminal capacity. Thus, we’ll soon have a new airport, with a capacity for 2.7 million passengers a year. The bidding process for the building of the new terminal has already begun.
Public Transportation
Florianópolis public transportation is bus based. Let’s highlight the Integrated Transportation System, made up of six “Integration Bus Terminals”. In this system, “local lines” connect our different neighborhoods with the relevant area terminals, which, in turn, are connected with the central bus terminal (TICEN) through the “main lines “. The “Executive Transportation” system, designed for higher purchasing power passengers who look for additional comfort, resorts to minibuses which can stop anywhere its passengers find it convenient. There is, as well, an important incoming traffic of public transportation buses from neighboring townships.
Convention Center – Costão do Santinho
The Costão do Santinho Hotel has an International Events Center for up to 1,500 people, offering modern infrastructure and logistics, including communication services, press rooms, Internet access, car rental and heliport, as well as a well trained staff. The Center has 10 rooms with 25 to 100 seats, a room with 5.9m ceiling which can be subdivided in modules and can hold up to 1,000 participants, and a restaurant catering only to event clients. Besides offering its own rooms, Costão do Santinho is surrounded by other lodging options, located 10 minutes from its premises.
Costão do Santinho is believed to be an ecological paradise with an area of over 1 million m², 750 thousand of which are covered with preserved Atlantic Forest, dunes, and rocky coastlines. Here you find a breathtaking landscape, and a beach with crystalline blue water and fine white sand. Considered as the best beach resort in Brazil by the readers of the publication Viagem e Turismo in 2005/2006/2007, this resort is known for its quality services, its international standards, its charm and sophistication.
Gastronomy
In Florianópolis, over 523 restaurants offer you high quality in and a variety of cuisines, from the most exotic to the most sophisticated international cuisines. Simple and delicious, our typical gastronomy has a double origin: Portuguese and native. Its main elements are: Fish, shrimp and, inevitably, manioc flour, which the settlers from the Azores Island inherited from our indigenous peoples, the Tupi-Guaranis.
The oysters, another Florianópolis gastronomic highlight, are cultivated in our island; the region surrounding Florianópolis is responsible for 70% of the Brazilian oyster production. When you are in Florianópolis, you just can’t miss what we call a “shrimp sequence”, which is an extraordinary meal consisting of a series of shrimp-based dishes. In Florianópolis is located the first Brazilian restaurant to be given the international food security certificate.
Shopping
Here you find the same main shop and griffes as in any large city, in dedicated streets, as well as in our 04 shopping malls, which offer their clients variety and service quality. As to culture and handicraft, Florianópolis is proud of its typical, historic neighborhoods, with their series of old houses and open-air markets offering local handicraft. There you’ll find articles which rank from our local popular white rum (cachaça), up to witch dolls, part of the local folklore.
Evenings
You can choose: from a simple sunset happy hour in small bars to the excitement of the best nightclubs, and, in between, cafeterias, gambling houses, theater, alternative places, different music nightclubs. You won’t lack options in Florianópolis: from the traditional places along Beira Mar Norte Avenue, not far from Downtown, to the innovative choices around the Conceição Lagoon.
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