Santos

City of Santos is a closest beach to Sao Paulo about 2 hours by bus.
Road to Santos follows some nice scenery, including favelas and mountains. Upon arrival you perhaps had grown a question in you, what you gonna do there, unless you already know there are information booths where people speak English, they`ll give you map and point out major points, such as beach, coffee museum, football museum, (Pele comes from Santos team) beaches and mall if you`re interested in shopping. There are also diving school and eco tourism companies there which have tours every weekend, also there is an aquarium. I spent about hour on a beach, spent some time in mall, then walked old city, i was too late to enter coffee museum So by the evening i absorbed the atmosphere of this place, small town about 500.000, nobody hurries nowhere, unlike SP. Very very nice trip for 1 day. If you want to stay more, there are hotels there, but i`d suggest to get into hotel for 50R$ in there, cuz hotels for 25$R which there are a lot are filled with putas (hookers) and probably attract some dubious personalities...well, like everywhere, and not necessary at all.
Santos is 1 of the beach towns situated on the eastern coast in SP state. There are other places very much likes Santos - Praja Grande, Guaraja , Sao Vincente, Sao Sebastiao. but be warned that busses circulate among some of these place once per 3-4 hours, to some directoins twice a day only, so look at schedule upon arrival, before you leave to city. I visited Guaraja as well, this place is a resort, all it has, beaches, hotels, cafes, little shops and lots of houses owned by people from SP who come here on holidays. If in Santos there are museums, in Guaraja you will not find even one muesum, this place is a 100% resort. If you looking for it, its your place, i can compare Guaraja to Rio de Janeiro, it has similar city planing, lots of beaches, houses among those beaches, but Rio is Rio, much more beautiful, if your aim is to get some sun, to relax, go to Rio, Guaraja can wait