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Arrival
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Natal's
airport
, Augusto Severo, is about 15km south of the centre on the BR-101 highway; a taxi to the centre will cost you about $18, or you can catch the bus marked "Parnamirim-Natal". Taxis from the airport to Ponta Negra cost around $12. The
RodoviA?ria
is also a long way out from the centre, at Av. CapitA?o Mor-Gouveia 1237 in the suburb of Cidade de EsperanA§a (tel 084/205-4377), but you can get a local bus into town at the bus stop on the other side of the road, opposite the RodoviA?ria entrance. Most of these buses from across the road pass through the centre: those marked "Av. Rio Branco", "Cidade Alta" and "Ribeira" are the most common. Taxis from the RodoviA?ria into the centre are also plentiful and should cost around $8.
Natal's main thoroughfare is the Avenida Rio Branco , which runs past the oldest part of the city, Cidade Alta , and terminates just to the right of a scruffy square, PraA§a Augusto Severo, site of the useful local bus station. The main post office is on block 5 of Avenida Rio Branco, with the Banco do Brasil next door. Cutting across the avenida is Rua JoA?o Pessoa, graced at its western end by the city's old cathedral. East along JoA?o Pessoa, you'll come to the small PraA§a Padre JoA?o Maria , which is surrounded by some of the finest and most colourful old mansions in Natal, and which most days hosts a small but interesting artesanato market.
From Cidade Alta, roads descend straight to the
city beaches
of Praia do Forte, Praia do Meio and Praia dos Artistas, and the coastal road to the
southern beaches
. The most important of these is Ponta Negra, at 10km away just far enough from the city centre to have survived massive development.
Beaches to the north
of the city are generally less crowded and even more beautiful, but harder to get to. Just out of the centre are the quiet and pleasant grid-pattern suburbs of
PetrA?polis
and the incongruously named
Tirol
, after the birthplace of the Austrian planner who laid them out in the 1930s. Other useful information
for tourists (each section contains more specific sub-sections): |
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Brazil,
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