What do I do with my luggage?

December 12, 2008 5:18 PM

I'm nearish Sao Paolo, Brazil and I would like to visit the city before leaving tomorrow. The hotel checkout is at noon and my flight is at 22:30. Leaving the luggage at the hotel is not an option because it's not near the city. I also can't check my luggage at the airport until 3 hours before the flight. What do I do? Please help. Suggestions of places to visit are also welcome.
posted by exolstice to travel & transportation (5 comments total)

Once I took a 16 hour layover in São Paulo (Guarulhos) and left my luggage at a place where you can pay to leave it. I was a little apprehensive about it, but turned out fine. This was around ten years ago, but the service is probably still offered.

Many Brazilian airports have large lockers as well, so that you can leave your bags and take the key.
posted by umbú at 5:48 PM on December 12, 2008

That assumes that you can go to the airport and then leave again, though, which would probably take a long time (isn't it like 75 minutes to the city from Guarulhos?).
posted by umbú at 5:50 PM on December 12, 2008

It makes a difference which airport you're flying out of. Congonhas is close to downtown, Guarulhos is a good ways outside.

Cabs are pretty cheap there, so you could possibly just take a cab ride through downtown with your luggage, looking at the sights. You could possibly go to the MASP, the art museum, and grab some food somewhere.

When I flew out of Guarulhos, there was a storm *in the US Northeast* that resulted in tons of delays for pretty much anyone flying to/through the US, and loooooong lines everywhere. I would get there pretty early just to be safe if that's your airport.
posted by fructose at 6:35 PM on December 12, 2008

Depends in which direction you are. If you are close to Guarulhos (coming from the north/northeast), leave your luggage there, as umbu said.

If you're coming from some other direction, it's probably not worth it to go to the airport, then back to the city, then go to the airport again.

What you could do is take a cab to Congonhas (inside the city) leave your luggage there, then take the subway downtown, and at the end of day take the subway back to Congonhas and take a cab to Guarulhos (I'd recommend leaving Congonhas by 18:30 in order to reach Guarulhos with some extra time). Or you could do the same thing with the bus station (Tiete), but I don't remember if they have a locker (esp. a big one for "airplane-sized" luggage)
posted by qvantamon at 7:30 PM on December 12, 2008

I'm going to make the assumption here that you're flying out of GRU on an international flight. I gotta say, you probably don't have as long as you think you do. If you're flying to North America, those airlines only open up check-ins two or three hours before the flight. So two or three hours before that the lines start forming. Going through GRU, heading internationally, you always need to give yourself a lot of time to get through the Federal Police line, which can all of a sudden balloon to a couple hundred people.

But you still have a little bit of extra time. As mentioned above, taxis are relatively inexpensive and you can often arrange to pay someone a flat rate to use them for a few hours. They'll sit in the parking lot with your luggage in the back wherever you want to go. Your hotel will be able to put you in touch with a trustworthy cab driver and help you set up whatever you need.

Another option, which I've considered but never gotten around to doing, is a short stay hotel actually at GRU. I wish I could remember the name of it but it would give you a chance to rest before your flight and then take a shower before heading out. Glamorous, I know, but definitely practical.
posted by wallaby at 4:01 AM on December 13, 2008