Gramado

An artificial lake ringed by firs brought from Germany's Black Forest, where visitors rent pedal boats shaped like swans for a spin on the water. In summer the hydrangeas that symbolise the city bloom blue along the shore.

A downtown street roofed in glass so it stays walkable in the rain, with cafe and restaurant tables set out into its middle. During festivals, performances take place under that roof.

An indoor theme park laid with artificial snow for skiing and sledging. Many Brazilians touch snow for the first time here, and they rent snowsuits and gloves at the entrance before going in.

A garden of scale models of buildings from around the world, with a little train running between the model villages. It looks best around sunset, once every model glows from within.

A grey stone church in neighbouring Canela, 8 km away, modelled on Gothic and built over a long stretch starting in the 1950s. The many bells hung in its tower play melodies at set hours.

A 131 m waterfall in a state park on the Canela side, seen from a lookout as it drops straight through a forested gorge. The day after rain it runs fullest and most dramatic.

A canyon in the national park at Cambara do Sul to the northeast, its cliffs of several hundred metres split sheer as if cut with a knife. Cloud often fills it, so people go on a clear morning.

A steam train from Bento Goncalves that runs through vineyards while Italian immigrant songs and wine tastings carry on inside the carriages. Reaching the departure station from Gramado takes roughly 90 minutes by car.

A Christmas festival running from late spring into the new year, with shows on a stage over the lake and parades. Popular shows run out of seats early, so reserve well ahead.

A lookout perched where a ridge ends at the city limits, with the forests of the Quilombo valley spreading in layers below. In the morning mist pools in the valley and only the treetops poke through like islands.

One of Brazil's leading film festivals, held since 1973 every August at the Palacio dos Festivais theatre on the main avenue. Winners receive a small statuette called the Kikito, and crowds line the red carpet outside hoping to see the stars.

Woodland on the outskirts of Canela, where lookouts peer down on a river looping in a great horseshoe deep in its canyon. The park's name means horseshoe, and the dirt forest path between lookouts stays slick for a while after rain stops.

A canyon in Serra Geral National Park near Cambara do Sul, where the plateau edge drops away to forest hundreds of metres below. In good visibility the coastal plain and ocean show far off, and given the long dirt roads, many add Itaimbezinho the same day.

A German settlers' town north of Gramado whose tended flowerbeds earned it the nickname garden of the highlands. A person-high hedge maze fills the middle of its flower square, children racing through it, and an open-air museum holds relocated settler houses.

A steam museum in Canela whose facade, a locomotive bursting through the wall, copies the 1895 accident at Paris Montparnasse station. Inside, working steam miniatures of a paper mill, a tile works and a power plant run in front of visitors.