Season Guide - Brazil - Hilton Racing

Down on the streets, the gridlock shimmered. Two kids were heading a ball beneath a triffid-like tree. Thick tropical air gusted in from the Mato Grosso. A waiter wafted by with a tray of tiny seafood canapés trailed by an army of fashionistas. The DJ was playing sampa nova, the slightly manic beat that has been the city's soundtrack since the early 2000s, when São Paulo (Sampa to the locals) came out of its shell. São Paulo's chaos was beginning to make some sense.

I only got round to visiting São Paulo after 10 years of changing planes at Guarulhos airport to fly on to Buenos Aires, Rio de Janeiro and Salvador. Like most people, I ignored Brazil's economic powerhouse, warned off by rumours of traffic - the busiest helicopter lanes in the world - and urban tension Why, I'd wondered, would you want to swap user-friendly romantic cities where pleasure ranked way above work for a city of 17 million souls locked in the all-too-familiar grind of traffic, work and paying bills?

Well, my perfect caipirinha aside, how about a few daytime reasons? The city's best-known neighbourhood known as Jardins (i.e. Gardens) is a patchwork of smaller districts - Jardim Europa, Jardim Paulista, and Jardim America - that extend southwest from the Avenida Paulista. These planned, gridiron areas filled with villas and mansions, stylish apartment blocks, cool hotels, fantastic shopping, and humanity - more than one million people and 100,000 cars make their way along the Avenida Paulista every day. Away from the business and bustle are the Museu Arte São Paulo - part of the top floor and all of the second floor are dedicated to Brazilian artists - and, just opposite, Siqueira Campos Park, also called by its old name, Trianon Park.

In the Luz district is the beautiful, brightly lit Pinacoteca do Estado, home to works by some of Brazil's most stylish modernist painters, including Waldemar Cordeiro and Willys de Castro. If modernism is your thing, see en passant, the Copan, a 1950 apartment building designed by Oscar Niemeyer - the brains behind Brasília - and the 1930 train station, the Sala São Paulo, now a smart concert hall.

Perhaps, despite being edified by the art and architecture, you feel a little saudade for Copacabana or Bahia? Well, São Paulo comes into its own at night, when the hordes pour onto the streets to get their fix of football, food and fun. I decided to forgo a match night at one of the three local clubs - most of Brazil's best players seem to have relocated to Middlesborough and, anyway, since Ayrton Senna, many Paulistas prefer Formula One - but I did explore the nightlife in two lively vilas or districts. Vila Olí was young and vibrant, with large dance clubs and some of the city's best bars - Bar Favela was particularly hip.

Vila Madalena draws a slightly older crowd but was better for food. Most places seemed to do sushi, Italian or French. I asked the waiter at Virô Bistrô, an elegant brasserie, why no one was offering traditional Brazilian fare. 'Ah, you'll have to go to Rio for that,' he said. 'Here in Sampa, we are international, we are the future.'