This guide is for you if you are in Belo Horizonte and want a slower day than the churches of Ouro Preto: an old village on the road south, a drive through the gold town, and a long lunch in a hill village on the old Estrada Real. It helps you decide what changes the day before you book it: the season, the days when Lavras Novas fills up, what you can and cannot see inside at Cachoeira do Campo, and what to wear at 1,500 metres.
When to go
Lavras Novas sits at about 1,510 metres in the Serra do Espinhaço, and the altitude shapes the weather. Nights are cool even in summer. The seasons there run roughly like this:
- December to February: warm days, around 15 to 26 °C, and a lot of rain.
- March to May: 12 to 24 °C, with moderate rain.
- June to August: the dry months, 8 to 22 °C, with fog in the mornings.
- September to November: 13 to 25 °C, with moderate rain.
The dry winter months give the clearest views from the village and the easiest going on the trails. They are also when the village is busiest. Fewer than a thousand people live in Lavras Novas, and on public holidays it grows to about six times that size. The peak comes in the winter school holidays and on winter weekends. If you can, go on a weekday. The single main street and the restaurants are a different place without the holiday crowd.
Two religious dates are worth knowing. Lavras Novas keeps its Holy Week and its Festa do Divino. Cachoeira do Campo celebrates its patron, Nossa Senhora de Nazaré, on 8 September, with about ten days of masses and events around it. Expect the villages to be busier around them. Tell us if your date falls near one of them.
How the day fits together
You are collected at 07:00 from your hotel or apartment anywhere in Belo Horizonte. The first stop is Cachoeira do Campo at around 08:45. Then comes a slow drive through Ouro Preto at 10:00, with a stop for the view, and Lavras Novas at 11:00. Lunch is at 12:30, and you leave the village at 14:30. You are home at about 17:00.
The last stretch matters. Lavras Novas is less than 20 kilometres from the centre of Ouro Preto, but the final part of the road is unpaved and needs care. The whole drive from Belo Horizonte is about 120 kilometres.
The price covers the vehicle, the driver, fuel, tolls and parking. Entrances, lunch and any guided walks are not included. Because the car is yours, the itinerary can change on the day.
Cachoeira do Campo, and the church that may be closed
Cachoeira do Campo is a district of Ouro Preto, and historians call it the place where Minas Gerais was born. People settled there between 1700 and 1701, in a famine, drawn by good soil and a mild climate. It was a stage in the War of the Emboabas between 1707 and 1709, and in 1708 Manuel Nunes Viana was acclaimed as the first governor of the gold country inside the Matriz de Nossa Senhora de Nazaré, while the church was still being built. In 1720 Filipe dos Santos, leader of the Vila Rica revolt, was arrested in its forecourt.
The Matriz began as a small hermitage and dates from the early 18th century. It is listed by IPHAN, Brazil's federal heritage institute. Here is the catch for planning. When the newspaper Estado de Minas visited in 2021, the church opened to visitors from Tuesday to Saturday, from 14:00 to 18:00, and it was the only church in the district open to visits; the chapels could only be seen from outside. The tour reaches the village in the morning, so be ready to see the Matriz from the square. Church hours in Minas change often, so check them for your date. If the inside matters to you, tell us and we adjust the order of the day with you.
On the main road through the district there is a craft fair and about ten shops selling soapstone carvings, and sellers of jabuticaba fruit stand at the entrance to the village.
Lavras Novas
The village goes back to about 1704, when gold prospectors found the Mina dos Prazeres west of the Pico do Itacolomi. Its first name was Lavras Novas do Coronel Furtado. When the gold ran out and the capital moved to Belo Horizonte, the village was left isolated, and that is why its colonial layout survived. Visitors began to find it again in the 1990s. Most of its people are Black, and the community keeps its traditions. The church of Nossa Senhora dos Prazeres dates from 1762. In 2023 the dossier for listing the old village as heritage was signed.
Around the village there are waterfalls and trails. The Cachoeira dos Três Pingos is a run of three falls about four kilometres away, with shallow water where children can paddle. The Cachoeira do Pocinho has two clear pools at the end of a path of about 15 minutes. The Cachoeira dos Namorados is further out, at 5.5 kilometres. Longer walks need a local guide, and we can help you find one.
Lunch is country food from Minas Gerais in one of the village restaurants. Lunch is not included, so you choose where to eat.
Driving yourself or a private day
You can drive to Lavras Novas in a hire car. The last stretch into the hills is unpaved, and the driver on a self-drive day spends the day watching the road rather than the hills.
A private day takes that away, and it lets the stops move with church hours and the weather. The price depends on the size of your group; see it on the tour page.
What to bring
- A warm layer. It is cooler up in the hills than in Belo Horizonte, and much cooler on a winter morning.
- Shoes with grip for cobbles and for the paths to the waterfalls.
- A rain jacket in the wet summer months.
- Swimwear and a towel if you want a waterfall pool.
- Some local cash for small purchases at the craft stalls.
Who it suits, and who should think twice
The day suits people who have already seen Ouro Preto, or who would rather spend time in a small village than queue for churches. It suits families who want an easy walk to a waterfall after lunch.
Think twice if this is your only day near Ouro Preto and the baroque churches are why you came. In that case take the Ouro Preto and Mariana day, which gives the town and its churches the time they need. If Aleijadinho's carving is what you are after, the Congonhas and Sabará day is built around it. Our guide to day trips from Belo Horizonte compares all five.
Questions people ask
Can we see inside the Ouro Preto churches?
A short visit, yes. The full town needs its own day.
Can we add Congonhas?
It makes a long day, but it is possible. Message us and we will plan it.
Can we cancel?
Yes. Cancel up to 24 hours before pick-up and you are refunded in full. See our cancellation page.
Booking the day
Pick a weekday if you can, in the dry months if views matter most, and pack a warm layer. The timings, the pick-up and what is included are on the Lavras Novas private day trip page, where you choose the size of your group and book.
