City guide · Brazil · South America
Sao Paulo is genuinely dog-friendly at ground level: municipal parks admit leashed dogs by written regulation, several have fenced off-leash runs, and cafes and hotel terraces increasingly say yes. The catch is distance and traffic - the good walks are spread across a city 20 km wide.
6 places4 categories6 neighbourhoods
6 places, each checked against the venue's own information
Neighbourhoods covered: Vila Mariana, Alto de Pinheiros, Itaquera, Bela Vista, Jardim Paulista, Panamby.
No photo yetSao Paulo's 124-hectare flagship park, laid out in 1954 around Niemeyer's pavilions, a lake and the marquise. Paths loop the water and the Praca da Paz lawns, with museums, a running track and the city's most famous dog run tucked between gates 6 and 7.
No photo yetA 732,000 sq m state park on the old Pinheiros river floodplain, with a running track, cycle path, orchid house, library, football pitches and a large fenced dog area split into small and large dogs. The Roda Rico ferris wheel now rises beside it.
No photo yetAt roughly 1.5 million sq m this is Sao Paulo's second-largest park, an old estate on the east side with lakes, eucalyptus stands and the cherry grove that hosts the annual Festa das Cerejeiras. Walking tracks and cycle paths run through the wooded sections.
No photo yetA 1930s French-style mansion on Avenida Paulista, now a free house-museum run by the state culture secretariat, with a rose garden, a cafe and a shaded yard behind the front fence. Exhibitions of literature and landscape architecture fill the rooms.
No photo yetRuy Ohtake's crescent-shaped concrete landmark a block from Ibirapuera, with round porthole windows, two pools and the Skye rooftop restaurant looking over the Jardins. It has been the city's design hotel since 2002.
No photo yetThe garden restaurant of Palacio Tangara, an Oetker Collection hotel on the edge of Parque Burle Marx, with tables on a lawn terrace under the trees, live music through the day and a Mediterranean menu of pizzas, feijoada and brunch.
Leash rules, off-leash hours and whether dogs are allowed inside are set locally and change without notice. Each listing here says what the venue or the responsible authority publishes, and the listing page links to the page we checked, so you can confirm the current rule before you set out. Outside a signed off-leash area, keep the dog on a lead.
No venue can pay to be listed or to rank higher, and no listing carries an invented rating or a stock photograph standing in for the real place. If something here is out of date, tell us and we will re-check it.
Lima's dog scene runs through Miraflores, which certifies pet-friendly shops, runs dog events on its clifftop malecón and posts brigadistas to enforce leashes. Outside certified venues, expect leashed parks and terrace-only dining.
Bogotá is a park city for dogs: huge green spaces, published leash rules and official dog areas, plus pets allowed up Monserrate on weekdays. Restaurant pet policies are rarely published, so confirm before you sit down.
Rio made dogs legal on the sand in 2019, so every municipal beach is fair game - on a lead. In practice the dog day happens on the waterfront promenades at dawn and dusk, in the Aterro and around the Lagoa, with a small but growing set of pet-friendly kiosks and hotels.
Buenos Aires is a dog city by culture more than by rule: paseadores move packs through Palermo every morning and terraces fill with dogs at the first coffee. Leashes are required and off-leash is confined to fenced caniles, but the density of pavement tables makes eating out with a dog unusually easy.
Santiago is a leash-law city with a serious park culture: municipal dog zones are fenced, free and often fitted with agility kit. Off-leash freedom exists, but almost always inside a designated canil rather than on open lawns.
Medellín is casually dog-friendly: dogs ride the Metrocable to Arví, trail owners through malls and check into boutique hotels. The catch is that few places publish formal dog rules, so what you get often depends on who is at the door.
Send it in and we will check it against the venue's own information before it goes live. Venue owners can also send a photograph of their place — free, with the credit kept.