Brazil
Travel Information
Brazil is 3,319,66 square miles or 8,511,965 square kilometers covering almost half of South America. Brazil's coastline runs along the Atlantic Ocean for over 11,919 miles (7,408 kilometers) of white sandy beaches. Almost a continent in itself, Brazil borders all the nations of South America, with the exception of Chile and Equator.
Where to go
The most heavily populated and economically advanced part of the country is the Southeast, where the three largest cities – São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Belo Horizonte – form a triangle around which the economy pivots. All are worth visiting in their own right, though Rio, one of the world’s most stupendously sited cities, stands head and shoulders above the lot. The South, encompassing the states of Paraná, Santa Catarina and Rio Grande do Sul, stretches down to the borders with Uruguay and northern Argentina, and westwards to Paraguay, and includes much of the enormous Paraná river system. The spectacular Iguaçu Falls (at the northernmost point where Brazil and Argentina meet) are one of the great natural wonders of South America.

The vast hinterland of the South and Southeast is often called the Centre-West and includes an enormous central plateau of savanna and rock escarpments, the Planalto Central. In the middle stands Brasília, the country’s space-age capital, built from nothing in the late 1950s and still developing today. The capital is the gateway to a vast interior, the Mato Grosso, only fully charted and settled over the last three decades; it includes the mighty Pantanal swampland, the richest wildlife reserve on the continent. North and west, the Mato Grosso shades into the Amazon, a mosaic of jungle, rivers, savanna and marshland that also contains two major cities – Belém, at the mouth of the Amazon itself, and Manaus, some 1600km upstream. The tributaries of the Amazon, rivers like the Tapajós, the Xingu, the Negro, the Araguaia or the Tocantins, are virtually unknown outside Brazil, but each is a huge river system in its own right.

The other major sub-region of Brazil is the Northeast, the part of the country that curves out into the Atlantic Ocean. This was the first part of Brazil to be settled by the Portuguese and colonial remains are thicker on the ground here than anywhere else in the country – notably in the cities of Salvador and São Luís and the lovely town of Olinda. It’s a region of dramatic contrasts: a lush, tropical coastline with the best beaches in Brazil, slipping inland into the sertão, a semi-arid interior plagued by drought and appallingly unequal land distribution. All the major cities of the Northeast are on the coast; the two most famous are Salvador and Recife, both magical blends of Africa, Portugal and the Americas, but Fortaleza is also impressive, bristling with skyscrapers and justly proud of its progressive culture.

When to go

Brazil splits into four distinct climatic regions. The coldest part – in fact the only part of Brazil which ever gets really cold – is the South and Southeast, the region roughly from central Minas Gerais to Rio Grande do Sul, which includes Belo Horizonte, São Paulo and Porto Alegre. Here, there’s a distinct winter between June and September, with occasional cold, wind and rain. However, although Brazilians complain, it’s all fairly mild. Temperatures rarely hit freezing overnight, and when they do it’s featured on the TV news. The coldest part is the interior of Rio Grande do Sul, in the extreme south of the country, but even here there are many warm, bright days in winter and the summer (Dec–March) is hot. Only in Santa Catarina’s central highlands does it occasionally snow.

The coastal climate is exceptionally good. Brazil has been called a “crab civilization” because most of its population lives on or near the coast – with good reason. Seven thousand kilometres of coastline, from Paraná to near the equator, bask under a warm tropical climate. There is a “winter”, when there are cloudy days and sometimes the temperature dips below 25°C (77°F), and a rainy season, when it can really pour. In Rio and points south the summer rains last from October through to January, but they come much earlier in the Northeast, lasting about three months from April in Fortaleza and Salvador, and from May in Recife. Even in winter or the rainy season, the weather will be excellent much of the time.

The Northeast is too hot to have a winter. Nowhere is the average monthly temperature below 25°C (77°F) and the interior, semi-arid at the best of times, often soars beyond that – regularly to as much as 40°C (104°F). Rain is sparse and irregular, although violent. Amazônia is stereotyped as being steamy jungle with constant rainfall, but much of the region has a distinct dry season – apparently getting longer every year in the most deforested areas of east and west Amazônia. And in the large expanses of savanna in the northern and central Amazon basin, rainfall is far from constant. Belém is closest to the image of a steamy tropical city: it rains there an awful lot from January to May, and merely quite a lot for the rest of the year. Manaus and central Amazônia, in contrast, have a marked dry season from July to October.

Climate

Most of Brazil lies immediately to the south of the Equator. As a result, there is quite a little seasonal variation. The climate is comfortably temperate in most of the country, and refreshing sea breezes often blow along the coast all year round. With temperatures usually ranging from 65 to 86 degrees Fahrenheit (18 to 30 degrees Centigrade) in Brazil 's principal cities, casual spring and summer clothes are appropriate for almost every region and occasion.

Average temperatures (°C) and rainfall

  Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
Belém 31
23
24
30
23
26
30
23
25
31
23
22
31
23
24
32
23
15
32
22
14
32
22
15
32
22
13
32
22
10
32
22
11
32
22
14
Belo Horizonte 27
18
15
27
18
13
27
17
9
27
16
4
25
12
4
24
10
2
24
10
2
25
12
1
27
14
2
27
16
10
27
17
12
26
18
14
Brasília 27
18
19
28
18
16
28
18
15
28
17
9
27
15
3
26
13
1
26
13
0
28
14
2
30
16
4
29
18
11
27
18
15
27
18
20
Manaus 30
23
20
30
23
18
30
23
21
30
23
20
31
24
18
31
23
12
32
23
12
33
24
5
33
24
7
33
24
4
32
24
12
31
24
16
Porto Alegre 31
20
9
30
20
10
29
19
10
25
16
6
22
13
6
20
11
8
20
10
8
21
11
8
22
13
11
24
15
10
27
17
8
29
18
8
Recife 30
25
7
30
25
8
30
24
10
30
23
11
29
23
17
28
22
16
27
21
17
27
22
14
28
22
7
29
23
3
30
24
4
30
24
4
Rio de Janeiro 30
23
13
30
23
11
27
23
9
29
21
9
26
20
6
25
18
5
25
18
5
25
18
4
25
19
5
26
20
11
28
20
10
28
22
12
Salvador 29
23
6
29
23
9
29
24
17
28
23
19
27
22
22
26
21
23
26
21
18
26
21
15
27
21
10
28
22
8
28
23
9
29
23
11
São Paulo 28
18
15
28
18
13
27
17
12
25
15
6
23
13
3
22
11
4
21
10
4
23
11
3
25
13
5
25
14
12
25
15
11
26
16
14
The first figure is the average maximum temperature; the second the average minimum; and the third the average number of rainy days per month

Time zone

In most of the country and in the main cities, the time is 3 hours earlier than Greenwich. That happens because Brazil is within the same hemisphere, it is in the same time zone as North America and there is a maximum of 2 hours difference from New York 's time.

Entry requirements

Citizens of most Western European nations, including the UK and Ireland, only need a valid passport and either a return or onward ticket, or evidence of funds to pay for one, to enter Brazil. You fill in an entry card on arrival and get a tourist visa allowing you to stay for ninety days. Australian, New Zealand, US and Canadian citizens need visas in advance, available from Brazilian consulates abroad; a return or onward ticket is usually a requirement. Passports, valid for at least six months from the intended date of arrival, must carry a visa for Brazil. 

Tourist or Transit visas generally processed within two working days, are obtained from the nearest Brazilian Consulate. One passport-size photograph, along with a round-trip ticket and an application form, fully completed and signed, are required.

Do not lose the carbon copy of the entry card the police staple into your passport on arrival, as you may be fined when you leave if you don’t present it. A sensible precaution is to photocopy it and also keep a record of your passport number in case it is lost or stolen. If you do lose your passport, report to the Polícia Federal and then obtain a replacement travel document from your nearest consulate. You’ll then have to return to the Polícia Federal who will put an endorsement in your passport giving you 72 hours either to return to your original point of entry into Brazil for a replacement entry card or to leave the country altogether. So, for example, if you lose your documents in Rio and entered Brazil here, the formalities don’t present too much of a problem. However, you may be hundreds of kilometres from your point of entry and far from a land border, in which case you’ll have to decide whether to remain in Brazil illegally or leave the country earlier than planned.

A tourist visa can be extended for another ninety days if you apply at least fifteen days before it expires, but it will only be extended once; if you want to stay longer you’ll have to leave the country and re-enter. There’s nothing in the rule book to stop you re-entering immediately, but it’s advisable to wait at least a day. For anything to do with visas you deal with the federal police, the Polícia Federal. Every state capital has a federal police station with a visa section: ask for the delegacia federal. A $10 charge, payable in local currency, is made on tourist visa extensions.

Customs requirements

Besides clothing and personal belongings, tourists entering Brazil may bring one of the following items: a radio/ tape deck / portable disc laser / walkman / a typewriter / camera.

Currency & Costs

The Brazilian currency is the Real (R$). The official rate of exchange for other currencies is published daily in the main Brazilian newspapers. Foreign currency or travellers checks can be exchanged for Reais at hotels, banks, and travel agencies. Most international credit cards are accepted.

Up until 1994 when the famous Plano Real was introduced, Brazilian inflation was astronomical, and the country was a very cheap destination for anyone who had hard currency like the dollar. At a stroke, the Plano Real stabilized inflation, and the tightly controlled exchange made Brazil no longer cheap to foreigners. In early 1999, however, the global markets lost confidence – virtually overnight – in the Brazilian economy, sending ripples of hardship throughout the country as prices of imported goods shot up, in some cases doubling, and property values dropped, along with the value of the real against the dollar. As a consequence, Brazil has once again become a relatively inexpensive destination for foreigners, certainly noticeably cheaper than Europe or the USA.

US dollars are easy enough to change in banks and exchange offices anywhere, and are also readily accepted as payment by luxury hotels, upmarket restaurants, tour companies and souvenir shops in the big cities. Given the current instability of the real, we quote prices in this book in US dollars; this should give a reliable idea of what you’ll be paying on the spot. At the time of writing, the Brazilian real is worth just over half a dollar – R$1.75=US$1 and R$2.80=£1 – but it is strengthening against it.

The cost of living in Brazil is higher than in most other parts of South America (Argentina excepted) but lower than in the Plano Real era. Some things, fortunately, are still cheap by European and North American price levels, particularly budget and mid-range hotels, most foodstuffs (including eating out in most restaurants), clothes and bus travel. Other things are more expensive: plane tickets (unless part of an air pass), film, sun cream and anything electrical. One hangover from hyperinflation is that prices are still not quite standardized from place to place, and you can still find bargains if you have the time and patience to shop around.

All the same, Brazil is very much a viable destination for the budget traveller, especially in urban areas. The cheapness of food and budget hotels – and the fact that the best attractions, like the beaches, are free – still makes it possible to have a very good time for under $50 a day. Staying in good hotels, travelling by comfortable buses and not stinting on the extras will cost you from around $100 a day.

Changing Money

In large cities, only the head offices of major banks (Banco do Brasil, HSBC, Banco Itaú, Banespa) will have an exchange department (ask for câmbio); whether changing cash, travellers’ cheques or making a credit card withdrawal, you’ll need your passport, unless you’re simply using an ATM. You can also change cash and travellers’ cheques in smart hotels and in some large travel agencies. The best rates, however, are usually to be found in a casa de câmbio, but these only operate on any scale in Rio and São Paulo.

Exchange departments of banks often close early, sometimes at 1pm, although more often at 2pm or 3pm, and it can take up to two hours to complete all the necessary paperwork. Some banks will only change a minimum of $100 per transaction. Airport banks are open seven days a week, others only Monday to Friday. You’ll find life much easier if you bring only US dollar banknotes and travellers’ cheques. Only in casas de câmbio in Rio and São Paulo will you be able to change other currencies.

Outside large cities it can sometimes be difficult to change money at all, but an ever-increasing number of branches of the Banco do Brasil provide this service. If you get stuck, travel agents or smart hotels are worth a try, though most will only accept dollar banknotes; if they don’t buy themselves, they will know who does.

The main credit cards are all now widely accepted in Brazil, even in rural areas. Mastercard and Visa are the most prevalent, with Diners Club and American Express also widespread. Even so, don’t expect to rely entirely on cards, as some businesses – even ones you would expect to – don’t accept them or accept only a very limited range. And when hotels offer low-season discounts, they may make a condition that the bill is paid with cash. If you do pay by card in a shop which doesn’t have an automatic swipe register, the shop will have to use chronically overloaded phone lines to check the balance, which can take an inconvenient amount of time. Note also that Brazilians are quite fussy about your signature matching that on your card.

You can obtain cash advances on all major cards at most bank branches in big cities; in smaller towns only the main branch of Banco do Brasil will do it. Visa is much the easiest card to get a cash advance on. Try to avoid joining the queues for the tellers, but look for a sign saying Cartão or Saques por Cartão; if there aren’t any, wave your card at one of the managers behind a desk, and they will point you in the right direction.

Far easier and much faster is to use one of the ever-increasing number of ATMs. Again, Visa cards are the most widely accepted, Mastercard less so. Visa cards can be used at the ATMs of Banco do Brasil and Banco Bradesco; Mastercard at HSBC, Itaú and Banco Mercantil.

You should never rely entirely on credit card withdrawals, however; computers or satellite communications can sometimes be down for days, which can put a hold on all potential credit card transactions for several days at a time.

To change Brazilian currency back into dollars when you leave, you need to show bank exchange receipts to the value of what you want to change. These receipts are called comprovantes, and banks will type one out for you on request when you buy Brazilian currency – casas de câmbio do not issue them.

National holidays

  • January 1 = New Year 's Day

  • February/ March = Carnival, 4 days before Ash-Wednesday

  • March/April = Easter (Good-Friday is a national holiday)

  • May 1 = Labor Day

  • June 11 = Corpus Christi

  • September 7 = Independence Day

  • October 12 = N. Sra. Aparecida (patron saint of Brazil)

  • November 2 = All Souls' Day

  • November 15 = Proclamation of the Republic

  • December 25 = Christmas Day

For more information on Holidays & Festivals, go to:

Shopping & Business hours

The shops in Brazil are open from 9:00 AM to 6:30 PM, Mondays through Friday, and from 9:00AM to 1:00PM on Saturdays. Shops close as late as 10:00 PM during the month of December. Museums and monuments more or less follow office hours but many are closed on Monday. 

Banks are opened from 10:00AM to 4:30PM during the week.Banks usually stop changing money at either 2pm or 3pm; except for those at major airports, they’re closed at weekends and on public holidays. Basic hours for most businesses are from 9am to 6pm, with an extended lunch hour from around noon to 2pm. 

Although plane and bus timetables are kept to whenever possible, in the less developed parts of the country – most notably Amazonia but also the interior of the Northeast – delays often happen. Brazilians are very Latin in their attitude to time, and if ever there was a country where patience will stand you in good stead it’s Brazil. Turn up at the arranged time, but don’t be surprised at all if you’re kept waiting. Waiting times are especially long if you have to deal with any part of the state bureaucracy, like extending a visa. There is no way out of this; just take a good book.

Shopping Centers

Most of the modern capital features comfortable shopping centers, where one may find every article from cigarettes, films, shoes to precious stones. Most of the modern shopping centers have large entertainment areas and food-plazas.

Duty Free shops

Found at the International Airports only. These shops, located inside the international boarding areas, accept foreign currencies only.

Clothing

Tropical suits are necessary and, with neckties, are the customary official attire all year round. A dark, lightweight suit will be useful for formal evening occasions. Dinner jackets are rarely worn.  Women wear light cotton dresses in the summer. In the winter, warm clothing is suitable for Southern Brazil. In restaurants, ties and jackets are seldom required (in Rio only), but are frequently necessary because of the air-conditioning. The sunlight is extremely bright and sunglasses are recommended.

Electric current

Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo provide 110 or 220 Volt, 60-cycle alternating current (AC). Salvador and Manaus have 127-Volt service. Recife, Brasilia and a number of other cities have 220-Volt service. Most hotels, however, provide transformers and/or adapters for guests.

Vaccination & Health Precautions

Although there are no compulsory vaccinations required to enter the country, certain precautions should be taken, certainly if you’re staying for any length of time or visiting the more remote regions. Taking out travel insurance is vital, and you should take all possible precautions to guard against AIDS, a major worry in Brazil.

Many diseases are directly or indirectly related to impure water and contaminated food, and care should be taken over what you eat and drink.

With a little common sense, it’s quite easy to establish whether food is fresh or not, and always ensure that it’s properly cooked. Special caution should be taken with seafood, especially shellfish – don’t eat anything that’s at all suspicious. Fruit and salad ingredients should be washed in bottled or purified water or, preferably, peeled. Ultimately you are going to run some risks with food, so if you’re going to enjoy your stay to the full, there’s no sense in being too paranoid.

Even in the most remote towns and villages mineral water (água mineral), either sparkling (com gás) or still (sem gás), is easily available and cheap. To avoid dehydration be sure to drink plenty of non-alcoholic liquids, always carry a bottle of water on long trips and check that the seal on any bottled water you use is intact.

As with food, it’s difficult to be on guard all the time; fruit juices are more often than not diluted, at best with only filtered water, and while it is wise to avoid ice in general this is well-nigh impossible.

Given the remoteness of many parts of the Amazon and the prevalence of insects and snakes, health care takes on a special significance. Despite the heat, you should wear long trousers all the time and use repellent to guard against disease-spreading insect bites. If you are trekking through forest or savanna, it is vital to wear good boots which protect your ankles from snake bites, chiggers and scorpions, and you should never trek alone.

Snakes are timid and only attack if you step on them, unless you are unlucky. Many of the most poisonous snakes are tiny, easily able to snuggle inside a shoe or a rucksack pocket. Always shake out your hammock and clothes, keep rucksack pockets tightly closed and take special care when it rains as snakes, scorpions and other nasty beasties quite sensibly head for shelter in huts. If you do get bitten by a snake, try to catch it for identification. Use a shoelace or a torn piece of shirt wound round the limb with a stick as a tourniquet, which you should repeatedly tighten for twenty seconds and then release for a minute, to slow down the action of the poison. Contrary to popular belief, cutting yourself and sucking out blood will do you more harm than good. It goes without saying that you should get yourself to a doctor as soon as possible. If you are well off the beaten track, small pharmacies even in remote villages usually stock serum, but you must know the type of snake involved.

The humidity means that any cut or wound gets infected very easily. Always clean cuts or bites with alcohol or purified water before dressing. As a general rule, leave all insects alone and never handle them. Even the smallest ants, caterpillars and bees can give you nasty stings and bites, and scorpions, large soldier ants and some species of bee will give you fever for a day or two as well.

Potable water

Although water is treated in most cities, we strongly recommend that only mineral water shall be drank. Water from taps is not suitable for drinking.

Language

Portuguese is the national language. In Brazil, Portuguese is spoken with a rhythmic intonation and in a relaxed way different than in Portugal. It has a flavor of its own, typical of a young and dynamic country. Today one might say that Brazilians speak "Brazilian". English is the second language spoken in most areas, specially in hotels, shops, restaurants, and other tourist spots.

Mail Services

Postal services within Brazil are cheap, though sending airmail abroad is expensive. Hotels usually deliver any letters or post cards, but there are post offices available in every neighborhood.

A post office is called a correio: they have bright yellow postboxes and signs. An imposing Correios e Telégrafos building will always be found in the centre of a city of any size, and from here you can send telegrams as well; but there are also small offices and kiosks scattered around which only deal with mail. Because post offices in Brazil deal with other things besides post, queues are often a problem. Save time by using a franking machine for stamps; the lines move much more quickly. Stamps (selos) are most commonly simply available in two varieties – either for mailing within Brazil or abroad. A foreign postage stamp costs around 60¢ for either a postcard or a letter up to 10 grammes. It is very expensive to send parcels abroad – if you plan to cross into Paraguay consider sending packages from there, as it has much lower postal rates.

Mail within Brazil takes three or four days, longer in the North and Northeast, while airmail letters to Europe and North America usually take about a week or sometimes even less. Surface mail takes about a month to North America, and three to Europe. Although the postal system is generally very reliable, it is not advisable to send valuables through the mail.

Telephone calls

The phone network, too, is impressive, especially considering the size of the country: public phones are everywhere, most places can be dialled direct and rates are low. International calls are easy to do, to be collected home or at telephone offices paid locally. Collect calls may be done from public telephones dialing 107 (no tokens required).

Public telephones are called orelhões, “big ears”, after their distinctive conch-shaped covers. They come in two varieties: red for local calls and blue for inter-urban. These days, phones are operated mostly by phonecards (carta telefônico) which have replaced tokens (fichas) and are on sale everywhere – from newspaper stands, street sellers’ trays and most cafés. For local calls a 5 reis card will last for several conversations; for long-distance or international calls, higher-value phonecards come in 10, 20, 50 or 100 reis denominations. Calls to the USA or Europe cost about $2.50 per minute. Lift the phone from the hook, insert the phonecard and listen for a dialling tone before dialling direct. Note that long-distance calls are cheaper after 8pm.

The dialling tone is a single continuous note, engaged is rapid pips, and the ringing tone is regular peals, as in the USA. The phone system in Brazil is continually overloaded. If you get an engaged tone, keep trying – nine times out of ten, the phone is not actually engaged and you get through after seven or eight attempts. The smaller the place, the more often you need to try: be patient.

Long-distance and international calls can also be made from a posto telefônico, which all operate in the same way: you ask at the counter for a chave and are given a numbered key. You go to the booth, insert the key and turn it to the right, and can then make up to three completed calls. You are billed when you return the key – around $2.50 a minute to the USA or Europe. To make an inter-urban call you need to dial the trunk code, the código DDD (pronounced “daydayday”), listed at the front of phone directories. For international calls, ask for chamada internacional; a reverse-charge call is a chamada a cobrar. Reversing the charges costs about twice as much as paying locally, and it is much cheaper to use a telephone charge card from home. Except in the most remote parts of Amazonia and the Northeast, everything from a small town upwards has a posto, though note that outside large cities they shut at 10pm.

Email and the Internet

Like most rapidly developing nations, Brazil has latched on to the Internet, with many hotels and businesses now online. Public access is not so widely available, although all cities and many towns do now have cybercafés (listed in the “Listings” sections throughout the guide, and many hotels offer Internet access too. There’s a surprising paucity of access in the Amazon region and parts of the Northeast, although both Manaus and Belém are well served by Internet facilities, as is Salvador. The general hourly rate for Internet access in Brazil is between $2 and $4.

Taxis

Usually are yellow-cars with a taximeter. Some major capitals offer also a radio-taxi service with more comfort. Airport taxis operate with pre-established prices.