Caldas Novas and Rio Quente Travel Video Guide

Caldas Novas and Rio Quente Travel Itinerary

• Maps and flag of Brazil
• Caldas Novas and Rio Quente travel photos
• Caldas Novas and Rio Quente travel forum
• Flights to Caldas Novas and Rio Quente
• Hotels in Caldas Novas and Rio Quente
• Hostels in Caldas Novas and Rio Quente
• Buy the guide book!

More easily accessible than many of Goias's attractions, the adjacent thermal resorts of Caldas Novas and Rio Quente, around 185km south of Goiania, are incredibly popular with Brazilians from beyond the state. Taken together they lay claim to being the world's largest hot-spring aquifers, a massive and very hot natural subterranean reservoir. The healing reputation and the sheer joy of relaxing in the natural spa resorts lure plenty of people from the urban sprawl of the Sao Paulo region.

CALDAS NOVAS sometimes gets crowded in the dry season, from May to September, but there are thousands of hotel beds and over seventy hotels (which is over half the hotels in the entire state) within the relatively small town of only around 40,000 people. The therapeutic properties of the waters are said to include reduction of blood pressure, dissolving of kidney stones, reduction of blood viscosity, improved digestion, analgesic effect on rheumatic symptoms and even, it is claimed, the stimulation of endocrine glands and sexual vitality. While some people do come for long expensive courses of treatment, most visitors are simply on holiday, relaxing, sunbathing and taking the waters for a few days or a week.

Reservations are best made in advance, usually from Goiania. Among the better hotels , Thermas di Roma, Rua Sao Cristovao, Solar de Caldas, on the exit for Morrinhos (tel 062/453-1718, fax 453-1945; half board $70-90), has a beautiful location out of town with panoramic views, nine thermal pools, and a sauna. On the whole, it's excellent value, as is Taiyo Thermas, in the town itself at Rua Presidente Castelo Branco 115 (tel & fax 062/453-1334, www.hoteltaiyo.com.br; $50-70), with three pools and a sauna. Slightly less expensive, although singles are the same price as doubles, is the smaller Hotel Roma, Praca Mestre Orlando 368 (tel 062/453-1335, fax 453-1340; $50-70), with six thermal pools. Cheaper still is Hotel Triangulo, Av. Orozimbo Correia Neto 157 (tel & fax 062/453-1709, triangulo@internetional.com.br; $35-50), with only one pool, but the waters are no doubt just as efficacious. Poolless, but with reasonable rooms, is Hotel Santa Clara, Rua America 226 (tel fax 062/453-1764; $10-20). For camping , CCB-GO-2, 4km along the road for Ipameri (tel 062/223-6561), is in a beautiful location. The better hotels have their own restaurants or you could try the Restaurante Papas at Praca Mestre Orlando 12, which serves a wide variety of Brazilian dishes. Tourist information is available from the Sebrae office (daily 9am-6pm; tel 062/453-1868), on the Praca Mestre Orlando. The Banco do Brasil is at Rua Santos Dumont 55.

Nearby RIO QUENTE consists of a huge hotel complex attached to a small service town of only 2000

inhabitants. The main feature, the dominant Pousada do Rio Quente complex (tel 062/452-8000, reservations tel 061/224-7166, www.rioquenteresorts.com.br; $90-125), offers superb-quality accommodation in two hotels: the four-star Hotel Pousada and the five-star Hotel. The whole complex is arranged around a natural hydrothermal spa, and in high season the minimum stay is two nights, with cheaper (but still $90-125) four-day packages offered Sunday to Wednesday.

Your Tips For Caldas Novas and Rio Quente

• Northeast Brazil Travel Videos
  Brazil Travel Itinerary
  The Northeast ( nordeste) of Brazil covers an immense area and features a variety of climates and scenery, from the dense equatorial forests of western Maranhao, only 200km from the mouth of the Amazon, to the parched interior of Bahia, some 2000km to the south. - Brazil
  

• Goias and Tocantins Brazil Travel Videos
  Brazil Travel Itinerary
  Almost 1000km from Rio and located in the barren sertao of the Goias highlands - very much in rural, peasant Brazil - Brasilia is the largest and most interesting of the world's "planned cities". - Brazil
  

• Espirito Santo Brazil Travel Videos
  Brazil Travel Itinerary
  Espirito Santo , a compact combination of mountains and beaches, is one of the smallest states in Brazil (with a population of only 2. - Brazil
  

• Rio Brazil Travel Videos
  Brazil Travel Itinerary
  The citizens of the ten-million-strong city of Rio de Janeiro call it the Cidade Marvilhosa - and there can't be much argument about that. - Brazil
  

• Sao Paulo Brazil Travel Videos
  Brazil Travel Itinerary
  The citizens of the Sao Paulo state , Paulistas, never tire of saying that their state is Brazil's economic powerhouse, and they produce a mountain of statistics to sustain the boast. - Brazil
  

• South Brazil Travel Videos
  Brazil Travel Itinerary
  The states forming the South of Brazil - Parana , Santa Catarina and Rio Grande do Sul - are generally considered to be the most developed part of the country. - Brazil
  

• Amazon Brazil Travel Videos
  Brazil Travel Itinerary
  The Amazon is a vast forest - the largest on the planet - and a giant river system. - Brazil
  

• Mato Grosso region Brazil Travel Videos
  Brazil Travel Itinerary
  Very Brazilian, in both its vastness and its frontier culture, the Mato Grosso region is essentially an enormous plain rippled by a handful of small mountain ranges. - Brazil
  

• Minas Gerais Brazil Travel Videos
  Brazil Travel Itinerary
  The French geologist Gorceix summed up Minas Gerais 150 years ago, when he wrote that the state had "a breast of iron and a heart of gold". - Brazil