São Paulo – To visit some of São Paulo’s main tourist points while riding a bike and listening to explanations on the city’s history, architecture and culture. That’s what Bike Tour SP is offering, a ride for free, on Saturdays and Sundays, through six regions of the São Paulo state capital. The majority of bikers that take the tour are from São Paulo, but foreign tourists and visitors from other regions of the country also participate.
The tour was created by two brothers, André Moral and Daniel Moral, and is now managed through a social enterprise that carries it out with the help of sponsorships, supports and partnerships. They have been riding bikes since they were kids and wanted to create something that would combine their love of biking to culture and solidarity. To take the tour the bikers don’t have to pay but are asked to bring two kilograms of food, later donated to social projects.
The tour’s routes are Faria Lima Avenue, Ibirapuera Park, New Downtown, Old Downtown, Paulista Avenue and Vila Madalena. The first three have five departure times on Saturdays, at 9 am, 10:30 am, noon, 13:30 pm and 3 pm, while the last three take place on Sundays, at the same departure times. The biking tour forms small groups and upon reaching each touristic point the bikers hear explanations on the places through the audio guide, in English or Portuguese.
In the Paulista Avenue route, the bikers visit Casa das Rosas, Public School Rodrigues Alves, Brigadeiro Luis Antonio Avenue, Gazeta Building, the headquarter of the Federation of Industries of the State of São Paulo (Fiesp), Assis Chateaubriand São Paulo Museum of Art (Masp), Franco de Mello Palace and Conjunto Nacional. The Old Downtown route includes Sé Cathedral, São Paulo Ground Zero, Sé Square, Padre José de Anchieta Statue, Marquesa de Santos palace, Pateo do Collegio, overpasses Viaduto Boa Vista and Viaduto do Chá, among other places.
The New Downtown route includes the Municipal Theatre, Copan Building, Arouche Square, Pinacoteca do Estado, Galeria Olido, Galeria do Rock and other places. In the Faria Lima Avenue, the places visited are Pinheiros Sport Club, Iguatemi Shopping Mall, Largo da Batata square and the Tomie Ohtake Institute. In the Ibirapuera Park trail, the tour takes place inside the park, with visits to the museum, bridges, planetarium and green areas. In the Vila Madalena route, there are visits to its bars, galleries and alleys.
The tours can also be taken by kids, pulled along in a little cart, the elderly, who ride in tandem bikes in which they don’t need to pedal, and modified hand bikes for people with disabilities. Children younger than six ride in child seats and older kids can use the 24-inch-wheel bikes. To take the tour, people need to book in advance on the Bike Tour SP website.
“The majority, say 95%, are people from São Paulo”, says Daniel about the demand. Foreign tourists that have taken the ride came mainly from Europe, according to the founder. Tourists don’t need to take their own bikes to take part in the tour. Bicycles and safety equipment are provided by the tour’s organizers and are placed in support checkpoints near the departure sites.
Daniel says that the idea for the tour came in 1996 after his brother went to Barcelona and saw the audio guide system. At the time, they were thinking of using something similar with bikes, but there wasn’t a bike-friendly infrastructure in the city of São Paulo. With the incentive to this mode of transportation and the construction of bike lanes, they decided to go ahead with the idea in May 2013. Today, 50 monitors work with Bike Tour SP.
One of the goals, since the start, was to democratize access to culture for the population. Another one was to encourage solidarity through donations. “So each person can feel part of the whole”, says Daniel, adding that donations end up encouraging other solidarity and charity acts among the bikers.
The project collects one and a half tons of food per month. Donations are sent to Bezerra de Menezes Assistance Center (Nabem), which provides aid to people suffering with leprosy and the population in need, and Missão Cena, which runs a daycare for children of crack addicts.
André Moral earned his major in Architecture in 1997 at the Faculdade de Belas Artes de São Paulo and is a partner at Step Revestimentos. Daniel Moral has a major in Information Systems and a MBA degree in business management at Fundação Getulio Vargas, and is a partner of website and magazine Chácara Klabin and the founder of Eureka Coworking.
Bike Tour SP
Bike tour through São Paulo’s tourist points
Saturdays and Sundays with several departure times
Routes: Faria Lima Avenue, Ibirapuera Park, Old Dowtown, Old Downtown, Paulista Avenue and Vila Madalena (all of them in the city of São Paulo)
Further information and registrations: http://www.biketoursp.com.br/
Free of charge
*Translated by Sérgio Kakitani
