Inhotim Is One of Brazil’s Hidden Artistic Treasures

So much of Brazil strains the imagination—the interminable skyline of São Paulo, the beaches of Rio curving between monoliths of granite, the aquamarine pools trapped between the undulating dunes of Lençóis Maranhenses. Add to that list Inhotim, a sprawling and relatively obscure contemporary art collection in the jungle of the state of Minas Gerais that surpasses any notion of what a museum can be.

There’s a slight feeling of despair that comes when you pick up a map of the campus at reception. What could pass as a city transit map stares back at you. “How on earth can I do all this in a day?” you wonder. At Inhotim there are five miles of trails, 24 galleries, and 29 site-specific works scattered around a 350-acre botanical garden. “We aren’t joking when we tell people two days is the recommended amount of time,” one staffer told me.

Since Inhotim opened in 2006, art lovers have flown in to Belo Horizonte for the sole purpose of visiting the collection. With that city being a punishing (and vertiginous) 90-minute drive each way, day trips were inconvenient. But the 2024 opening of the Clara Arte Resort within the grounds of the museum has changed that. 

Made up of 46 bungalows, with plans to expand, the property boasts a heated pool, sauna, spa, two lounges, and a gym. Notably, it matches Inhotim’s famed horticultural aesthetic with a biophilic design—plants are found not only throughout the interior but even poking out of the roof. Each bungalow comes with a fireplace and a balcony to take in views of the forest or surrounding mountains.

A trip to this outdoor museum is weather-sensitive, and if you go between December and February, there’s a good chance you’ll find yourself traipsing around in the rain. But I would revisit the chilling sculptures of Adriana Varejão, or the gallery designed by Rodrigo Cerviño Lopez, a suspended concrete box, every week if I could. The subtle beauty of the Galeria Claudia Andujar—which now hosts the works of Indigenous artists alongside those of the eponymous Swiss-born Brazilian photographer—made it one of the more elegant exhibition spaces I’d ever wandered into. And don’t miss Cildo Meireles’s irresistibly photogenic Shift to the Red, where every piece of furniture in a white-walled room is painted the same shade of the titular color. 

A version of this story first appeared in the December 2025/January 2026 issue of Travel + Leisure under the headline “Sight Lines.”