BH, as everyone calls it, is Brazil at its most welcoming and least touristy, which means locals actually have time for you. It is compact enough to feel like home fast, ringed by the Serra do Curral mountains, and famous nationwide for its warmth and its bars. You get real Minas Gerais life plus quick access to colonial towns and the Inhotim art park.

• Home to UFMG, one of Brazil's top public universities, so the exchange crowd is large and easy to find.
• Voted Brazil's capital of botecos, where the corner-bar scene is the whole social life, not just a night out.
• Under two hours from Ouro Preto and Inhotim, so weekends barely need planning.

Student life orbits the boteco: cheap draught beer (chope), petiscos and tables spilling onto the pavement, especially around Savassi and Santa Tereza. UFMG's Pampulha campus runs the usual repúblicas (shared student houses) and a packed party calendar, while the Comida di Buteco festival each spring turns the whole city into a bar crawl with a purpose. Nights are late, friendly and rarely expensive.

• Savassi is the easy first stop, with dozens of botecos around the Praça da Savassi.
• Santa Tereza is BH's bohemian heart; catch live samba and the famous Duelo de MCs rap battle.
• Ask the Belo Horizonte group on Studcasa which repúblicas near Pampulha have rooms coming up.

BH is one of Brazil's better-value big cities. Budget roughly R$2,500 to 3,800 (about 400 to 600 euros) a month as a student, with a shared room, home cooking and student transport doing most of the saving. Eating at botecos and por-quilo (pay-by-weight) lunch spots keeps food cheap; imported goods and nights out add up faster.

• A shared room in a república near Pampulha or Savassi runs about R$900 to 1,500 a month.
• Lunch at a por-quilo restaurant is R$25 to 40; a chope at a boteco around R$8 to 12.
• Load a Cartão BHBUS Óptimo for student bus fares rather than paying cash each ride.

Most exchange students land in a república, a shared house of students often organised by course or vibe, or rent a room in Pampulha, Savassi or Funcionários. UFMG offers little on-campus housing, so start looking before you arrive and expect to view places in your first week. Contracts are informal and a month's deposit is normal.

• Repúblicas cluster around Pampulha (near campus) and buzzier Savassi and Funcionários.
• Facebook groups like Repúblicas UFMG and Vagas em Repúblicas BH move fast, so message early.
• Post in the Studcasa Belo Horizonte group to find rooms before other exchange students snap them up.

BH is spread out and hilly, so you'll rely on buses and the MOVE BRT more than the single metro line. Linha 1 of the metro is handy for the centre and UFMG's Pampulha stop but doesn't reach most student areas. Apps make it painless, and Uber and 99 are cheap for late nights when buses thin out.

• Buy and top up a Cartão BHBUS for buses and the MOVE BRT corridors.
• Use Moovit or Google Maps to plan; routes are dense but not always obvious.
• 99 and Uber are cheap and safer than late buses after nights out in Savassi or Santa Tereza.

UFMG anchors the city and sits among Brazil's top universities, strong in medicine, engineering, humanities and the arts, with its main campus at Pampulha. PUC Minas and CEFET-MG add private and technical options. Teaching is mostly in Portuguese, so brush up before you arrive, though the international office helps place you and some graduate courses run in English.

• UFMG's international office (DRI) handles exchange enrolment and buddy schemes, so email ahead.
• Basic Portuguese makes a huge difference; UFMG runs Portuguese-for-foreigners classes, so sign up early.

This depends heavily on your nationality. Most non-Mercosur students on a semester exchange need a temporary student visa (VITEM IV), applied for at a Brazilian consulate before travelling, with your university's acceptance letter, proof of funds, and often a criminal record check. Mercosur-country nationals have a simpler residence route. Some short stays can be done on a tourist entry, but for a full semester the student visa is the safe, correct path, so start early.

After arrival you must register with the Federal Police (Policia Federal) within the deadline on your visa to get your foreigner ID (RNM/CRNM). Keep certified, translated copies of everything, and expect the process to be slow and document-heavy.

• Most non-Mercosur students, VITEM IV student visa before arrival
• Mercosur nationals, simpler temporary residence route
• Register with the Policia Federal after arrival for your RNM/CRNM ID
• Bring proof of funds, acceptance letter and a criminal record check, often apostilled

Minas Gerais is comfort-food country and BH eats well. Expect pão de queijo for breakfast, feijão tropeiro, frango com quiabo and slabs of queijo Minas, all washed down with cachaça or that ever-present chope. The Mercado Central is the spiritual home of it, a maze of cheese, cachaça, spices and tiny bars.

• Spend a morning at the Mercado Central: try a fígado com jiló bar and grab cheese and doce de leite.
• Order pão de queijo and a cafezinho at any padaria; it's the local breakfast ritual.
• Minas produces some of Brazil's best artisanal cachaça, so learn a few caipirinha basics.

Where you base yourself shapes your term. Pampulha, by the modernist lake and Niemeyer church, is calmer and close to UFMG; Savassi and Funcionários are the polished, bar-heavy centre; Santa Tereza is the artsy, cheaper bohemian pocket loved by students and musicians. Lourdes is upscale and central if your budget stretches.

• Pampulha: lakeside, green and near campus; best for a quieter routine and runs by the Lagoa.
• Savassi and Funcionários: the social core, walkable to hundreds of botecos and cafés.
• Santa Tereza: bohemian, musical and easier on the wallet, a short hop from the centre.

BH is the perfect base for the greatest hits of Minas Gerais. Colonial Ouro Preto is under two hours by bus, the open-air art park Inhotim about ninety minutes, and the waterfalls of Serra do Cipó an easy day trip. For something bigger, the turquoise canyons of Capitólio are a weekend away.

• Ouro Preto (about 2 hours by bus) for baroque churches and steep cobbled streets.
• Inhotim in Brumadinho (about 1.5 hours), one of the world's largest open-air art museums.
• Serra do Cipó for waterfalls and hiking; Capitólio's canyons for a longer weekend.

A little Portuguese and a lot of openness go furthest here; mineiros are famously friendly but shy in English. Learn boteco etiquette (you flag the waiter, split the bill at the end, tip is usually 10 percent included), carry a bit of cash for small bars, and don't schedule anything serious right after lunch. The rainy season brings dramatic afternoon downpours.

• Say uai and trem like a local; mineiro slang is a running joke you'll want in on.
• Keep valuables low-key on buses and in the centre at night, and prefer 99 or Uber after dark.
• Rainy season runs November to March, so carry a light jacket for the afternoon storms.