Vitória
From World travel guide
Vitória, the capital of Espírito Santo, is a city on the southeast coast of Brazil.
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History
Founded in 1551, is the third oldest capital of Brazil, after Salvador and Recife. For a long time it was only a ‘city-port’, suffering various French, British and Dutch attacks, after sugar and ‘pau-brasil’. Its name is attributed to a victory over the native Indians, when, seeking refuge, the Portuguese fled to the island, and then achieved victory, renaming the village, at the time known only as “Vila Nova”, to “Vila Nova da Vitória”. It has many nicknames, like Ilha do Mel (Honey Island), Cidade Sol (Sun City) and others.
Geography
It is located in the southeastern region of Brazil, the most developed in the country. The location is strategic, close to the big urban centers, and it is, in average, one hour away by plane from São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro e Belo Horizonte. Circled by the Baía de Vitória, the main island has mangroves, beaches, granite formations and many smaller islands. The municipality of Vitória is made of an archipelago with 34 islands and a continental area. Its total area is 104.260.787km2, including the main island, the continental area, the coastal islands and the oceanic islands of Trindade and Martin Vaz. It used to have more than 50 islands, but now many of them have been incorporated, by landfills, to the main island. The highest point is the Maciço da Fonte Grande, a granite formation with 308,8m, and then there is the Pedra dos (Dois) Olhos, with 296m. The climate is tropical humid, with a maximum average temperature of 30,4ºC and a minimum of 24ºC, with most of the rainfall in the months between October and January.
Get in
By plane
Vitória’s airport is located really close to the points of interest, in Camburi beach. It’s more or less 10min by taxi to most hotels and served by many bus lines. There are daily flights from almost everywhere in the country.
By bus
Vitória’s long-distance bus station is in the downtown, also with many bus lines serving it. There are many buses arriving and leaving during the day from cities like Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Slavador, Belo Horizonte, Brasilia and others. It’s around 20 minutes away from most of the hotels by taxi and 30 to 35 minutes by bus. Bus trips are usually long, since ‘close’ in Brazil is something like 500km. The bus trip from Rio de Janeiro takes about 8 hours, and from São Paulo some 14 hours, but most of the bus times are at night, making the trip not much tiring and time wasting.
By train
The train station is located in the city of Cariacica (Great Vitória) and connects the city to Belo Horizonte, in the state of Minas Gerais.
By car
The two main roads are the BR-101, which runs south-north along the coast, linking Vitória to Rio de Janeiro, to the south, and Salvador, to the north, and BR-262, that runs east-west, leaving Vitória and going to B. Horizonte.
