Dog Friendly City Guide: São Paulo, Brazil

At Mocotó, the sertanejo restaurant that José de Almeida opened in Vila Medeiros in 1973, you tell the staff on arrival that a special guest has come, and they set a table with fresh filtered water, a hook for the lead, a mat to lie on and a treat from the chef. That is São Paulo with a dog: a huge, busy city that has quietly made room for the dog under the table. The welcome lives outdoors, on verandas, garden bars and terraces, and in a network of public dog spaces the city calls ParCães. Learn where they are and São Paulo becomes a generous city to share with a dog.

Getting There With a Dog

Brazil asks every dog that arrives for an International Veterinary Certificate or an official pet passport, and the Ministry of Agriculture's page for bringing pets into Brazil sets out the health rules under Portaria MAPA 741 of 2024. From the United States, a USDA accredited vet issues Brazil's health certificate, which is valid for 60 days from the day the vet signs it and must still be valid when you land. USDA endorses it digitally, and the printed copy travels with the dog. The USDA page for pet travel from the US to Brazil links the certificate and every step.

Brazil is on the CDC's list of high risk countries for dog rabies, so a dog vaccinated in the United States needs two documents to come back: the receipt for the CDC Dog Import Form, and the Certification of U.S.-Issued Rabies Vaccination, completed by a USDA accredited vet and endorsed by USDA before the dog leaves the country. With both, the dog can enter at the port named on the form, and it must be at least six months old and microchipped. The CDC sets it out on its page for US vaccinated dogs from high risk countries. From Britain, the government's guide to bringing your pet to Great Britain tells you what a dog needs for the journey home.

Where to Stay

Palácio Tangará, the Oetker Collection's house next door to Parque Burle Marx, has thought hard about dogs. Its dog friendly rooms are on the ground floor, with wooden floors and an outdoor area of their own, so the dog has its own patch of outside from the moment you arrive. Up to two dogs share a room, and a bed and bowls are waiting. The kitchen cooks an exclusive dog menu of natural food, made fresh to order, and there is an enormous garden in the grounds set aside for dogs, with a walking service if you want one. Dogs come with you to the gardens, the patio and the restaurant terrace.

The fee is R$450 a stay, and R$200 of every fee goes to a local charity that shelters, rehabilitates and rehomes abandoned dogs, so your dog's stay helps another find a home. There is a weight limit of 44 pounds, about 20 kilos, and dogs are not left alone in the room, so book one of the dog rooms early and plan to keep your dog close.

Eat and Drink

Start in the north at Mocotó, now run by José's son Rodrigo Oliveira and holder of a Michelin Bib Gourmand for its cooking from Brazil's backlands. Its own page asks that your dog be sociable with other dogs and people, stay out of the waiters' way, keep its barking down and keep its paws off the table. Order the dadinhos de tapioca the house is famous for, and the caldo de mocotó that gives the restaurant its name.

In Jardins, Botanikafé on Alameda Lorena serves brunch all day, and its own site says it plainly: we are pet friendly, your friend is very welcome, and there is fresh water at the entrance for them. A few streets away, Zena Cucina on Rua Peixoto Gomide has cooked the food of Genoa for seventeen years and holds a Bib Gourmand. It takes dogs on its veranda with a bowl of water, and the Gazeta de São Paulo, in March 2026, picked the Nhoque Zena, gnocchi in fresh tomato and basil at R$56, as the dish that never fails.

For dinner in Jardins, QT Pizza Bar on Alameda Ministro Rocha Azevedo stands seventeenth on the 50 Top Pizza World list for 2026, which also named its Pomodori pizza of the year. The name comes from the Italian "mangia che te fa bene", eat, it does you good, and Catraca Livre's pet guide, updated in September 2026, points dog owners to its veranda. It opens at six from Tuesday to Friday and at five at the weekend.

Across in Pinheiros, Preto Cozinha on Rua Fradique Coutinho cooks the food of Bahia under chef Rodrigo Freire, and the Gazeta named its bar gallery and garden as the place to sit with a dog. Try the arroz de xinxim, the Bahian chicken rice, at R$77. For a drink, Pitico on Rua Guaicuí calls itself a bar that is also a garden, with special drinks and small plates to share, and flags itself pet friendly on its own page. It opens in the late afternoon.

Walks and Parks

The great park is Ibirapuera, the city's green heart, and in June 2025 its operator Urbia reopened the dog area as the Petz Park. At 9,000 square metres it is one of the largest dog spaces in any public park in São Paulo and, Urbia says, the second largest dog park in Latin America. Nine dog water fountains went in with the refit, three inside the Petz Park and six around the rest of the park, so a long walk round the lakes is easier on a hot day.

West of Pinheiros, Parque Villa-Lobos has a walking track, a cycle path, wide lawns and free entry, open every day from half past five in the morning to seven at night. Its park rules welcome dogs on a short lead and collar and ask you to pick up after them, and Catraca Livre's guide counts two dog areas, 500 square metres for small dogs and 1,500 for large.

Nearby, the Praça do Pôr do Sol in Alto de Pinheiros is the traditional hilltop square where people gather on the grass to watch the sun go down. When the Pinheiros district office rebuilt the square it added a fenced petplay with tyres, a ramp, wooden boards and a six post slalom, and the subprefect said that dogs could play to their heart's content.

Closer to the centre, the city's page for Parque Buenos Aires on Avenida Angélica, a protected park laid out in 1913, lists a fenced dog run among its lawns and its reflecting pool, open daily from six in the morning to eight at night. And when the city opened Parque Augusta in 2021, 23,000 square metres between Rua Augusta and Rua Caio Prado, it came with walking paths and a dog run of its own.

A Day Out

Give a day to the west. Walk the lawns and paths at Villa-Lobos in the cool of the morning and let the dog loose in the dog area, then drive the short way into Pinheiros for a long lunch in the garden at Preto Cozinha. Spend the late afternoon at Pitico, and finish on the hill at the Praça do Pôr do Sol, where the dog can run in the petplay while the sky turns over the city.

On another day, start at Ibirapuera with an hour in the Petz Park, then cross into Jardins for brunch at Botanikafé or lunch on the veranda at Zena, and book QT Pizza Bar for the evening. Keep a third day for the drive north to Mocotó.

Good to Know

São Paulo's law asks every dog in a street, square or other public place to wear a collar and be on a lead, with a fine of R$100 per animal if not, and the same law makes the person holding the lead pick up after the dog. The city's guide to its ParCães adds that the Pit Bull, the Rottweiler, the American Staffordshire Terrier, the Neapolitan Mastiff and their crosses must wear a muzzle under Law 11,531 of 2003, however gentle the dog. In the dog runs the lead goes on at the gate, puppies under four months, bitches in season and aggressive dogs stay out, and no food comes in for dog or owner. The city also asks owners to keep vaccinations and flea and tick treatment up to date, and to skip walks in the strongest sun, when the asphalt can burn a dog's paws. Most of the places to eat and drink in this guide seat dogs outside, on the veranda, the terrace or in the garden, so ask for an outdoor table when you book.