After returning from Lençóis Maranhenses National Park it's nice to be back in the city, and the area around the São Luis airport isn't exactly what you want either. I got a driver to take me to the historic center which is still half an hour away but it was totally worth it. You get "old town" cobble streets, old buildings, it's basically like going to an old French city. It's also amazing enough that you get the French remains in Brazil seeing that most was Portuguese inheritance.

I didn't spend much time here. From the palace dropoff it was 1-2 hour max to see everything. There is a map to see where to go. The area is quite small and none of the buildings but churches were open. I was also not that interested in the churches if you want to know. The streets were colorful, quite clean, VERY smelly for some reason (there was also a line of thunderboxes...) but I was happy to be in the area. I had dinner here to enjoy the scenery and surroundings, atmosphere. You get the usual avoidable issue like penny pinchers and overpriced drink stalls but no biggie. I can't give you a suggestion of where to start but at some point you'll hit the park in the center which is when you want to stick west and also there is a very cemented park at the west side. Because everything here is still used for courthouse, presidential palace (ok local governor?) etc it's just like being in a town with old buildings...well, Europe? :)

In retrospective I'm glad I didn't invest more time into here. I enjoyed but it's totally fine for just a side visit. I think Lençóis Maranhenses NP is worth more time for a good reason and since you have to go via São Luis anyway the main issue just getting across town like in my case. Don't forget to try the local delicacy of Carne-de-sol (sun-dried meat). My recommendation is to add this to the NP visit and have a dinner to see the rest of town in combo.