Praia Grande

The town of Praia Grande is one of the busiest beaches in Brazil. In high season it gets about 1.4 million tourists, nearly five times its permanent population, the latter also has been expanding quickly, with growth 56 000 inhabitants between 2000 and 2009, Praia Grande received the title of "the city with the fastest growing in Brazil".
Praia Grande was one of the first areas colonized by the Portuguese, which began with the arrival of Martim Afonso in 1532. The first village founded by the explorer, sent by the Portuguese crown, was precisely to Sao Vicente, Praia Grande that remained a part until 1967. From the mid-1990s, the construction boom, which occurred through a series of infrastructure works, landscaping and urbanization, which until then were too poor, eventually attracting thousands of families to the city in search of jobs offered by contractors and builders, causing a huge swelling population in the region between the current South Expressway, Highway Padre Manoel da Nóbrega and Serra do Mar creating suburbs, as Jardim Quietude, Ribeirópolis, Jardim Samambaia, among others.
The climate of Praia Grande is subtropical humid, without dry months, with hot summers and mild winters, being the hottest month in January, with an average of 24 ° C and the coldest is July with an average of 17 ° C.
With 23 kilometers of the coast of Praia Grande is divided into 11 beaches: Forte, Boqueirão, Guilhermina, Aviação, Tupi, Ocian, Vila Mirim, Vila Caiçara, Jardim Real, Florida and Solemar, being the center of the city in Boqueirão . Its interior contains some wetlands. Praia Grande has two terminals, Urban Road, located in the neighborhoods Mirim and Tude Bastos, from where buses to major cities of Brazil and even abroad (Paraguay, Uruguay and Argentina).
Praia Grande also has some turistics sight Portinho, Fortaleza de Itaipu, Memorial dos Voluntários da Paz (Praça das Cabeças), Cachoeira de Guariúma and Caminho de Anchieta. Also as a leisure and shopping features Calçadão da Orla, Palácio das Artes (theater, museum of city), Litoral Plaza Shopping, Skate Park's (tacks in Aviação, in Ocian, in Samambaia, in Quietude and in Boqueirão), Trails of Região Serrana, Tours of Dindinhos (free standing) and Double Deck`s (2 levels, output of the exclusive bus terminals), Schooner Tours (Intermares), jet ski and banana boat (Canto do Forte), Craft fairs (Caiçara, Ocian and Guilhermina).

- Luciano