Barão Geraldo is approximately 15 km (9.3 mi) from downtown Campinas and it is mainly connected to it via the Rodovia Campinas-Paulínia highway. Barão Geraldo is famous for hosting the main campus of the State University of Campinas (UNICAMP). The university campus is surrounded by typical suburban communities, the Cidade Universitária Campineira, so named because many professors and a large number of students reside there; as well as by gated condominiums, such as Rio das Pedras, Barao do Cafe and Santa Eudoxia, and many old farms, such as Pau D'Alho, Santa Eudóxia, Rio das Pedras and Santa Genebra. The University itself and the surrounding residential communities were built on a former coffee and sugarcane plantation[citation needed].
Barão Geraldo is one of the greenest districts of Campinas. It has several lakes and the Mata of Santa Genebra, a large preservation area where the original rain forest which covered the region in the past can be seen and is studied by the University. It still has a large diversity of plants and animals, including the capybara and the jaguars.