Blumenau

The cradle of the prosperous Vale do Itajaí region, Blumenau is a pleasant city of more than 300,000, with clean streets and friendly people. Its German heritage is manifest, in the name, in the cultural calendar—a highlight of which is the beer-swilling folk festival, Oktobefest—and in the architecture, with much of downtown restored to preserve the early German enxaimel architectural style of half-timber and half-brick construction (called Fachwerk in German).