Campo Grande is the capital of Mato Grosso do Sul, a modern, spread-out city of wide avenues built on cattle and soya money, and for most travellers the airport you fly into for Bonito and the southern Pantanal. Bonito is about four hours by road; the lodges of the southern Pantanal are a similar distance west, toward Corumbá.
It is not a city people come to for itself, but it rewards a night. The Bioparque Pantanal, opened in 2022, is one of the largest freshwater aquariums in the world, showing the fish of the Pantanal and the Paraguay basin. The Mercado Municipal and the Feira Central, a night market of food stalls, show the city's mixed heritage: Paraguayan chipa, Japanese sobá brought by Okinawan immigrants and now a local institution, and plenty of beef.
The Parque das Nações Indígenas is a large, green city park with a lake and capybaras grazing on the lawns, and a good place to walk in the late afternoon.