Minas Gerais covers an area of 587,172 square kilometres, making this State larger than France, Sweden, Spain or Japan! Located in the southeast of Brazil, it borders with six other states: São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Espírito Santo, Bahia, Mato Grosso do Sul and Goiás, plus Brasília, the Federal District.

Infrastructure: includes 5 river ports, 92 regional airports, 27,000 kilometres of paved roads and over 5,000 kilometres of railway, linking over 20 million people in 853 cities

Climate: tropical ranging from 22 °C to 27 °C in summer and 15 °C to 21 °C in winter

Time zone: the same as Brasilia, which is GMT - 3 hours

Getting there:  flights are available to Tancredo Neves International Airport in the state capital of Belo Horizonte from Europe, North America and South America; internal flights available to other cities

Distances & flight times from other major Brazilian cities: