Brazil – quick travel guide

Big exotic paradise of nature, friendly people, food and vibes.

Brazil…a huge and beautiful country in South America that is more relatively untouched by US influences than others. I love how exotic it is, the food, culture, and people. Love that they mostly only speak Portuguese, no English or even Spanish.

But there’s a lot you must know to experience it properly. You can easily spend a month or a year here.

General tips for traveling in Brasil:

• VISA – Brazil used to be VISA-free (provided on arrival) and then if you overstay your VISA time, the penalty is something like $5usd/day. As of right now, they may require VISAs before you arrive. To extend, you can go to the police station and file your extension. I suggest reading up online for more specifics.
• CPF – one of the first things you’ll notice many places asking you is if you have a CPF number. It’s a national identity number that you need to make many purchases or register for things. You can make do without it, but you’ll have fewer options to choose from. Foreigners can get it too…research online for details.
• Mobile carrier:
  • Claro – the largest network in Brazil, highest price, not always the best service but indeed best coverage in rural parts. However, they don’t sell to foreigners without CPF.
  • TIM – probably the fastest and most modern network, good pricing. Good option in the big cities. Since I need eSIM, I went with TIM. It was easy to purchase an eSIM from in the official store. Super cheap and good coverage everywhere I was. But I later found out, I was only able to buy an eSIM because store employee broke some rule for me or maybe put his own. So on a subsequent visit the next year, TIM told me I had to go to VIVO (because only VIVO sells eSIM without requiring CPF).
  • VIVO – widely known as the cheapest one. I went here because TIM wouldn’t sell me an eSIM without a CPF number. VIVO was functional, good pricing, and good speed in the biggest cities (like Sao Paulo). The issue was it sometimes slowed down or cut out in the other big cities…and then in rural areas, it has bad or no connection (whereas my friend with Claro was still connected).
• Transportation:
  • Metro – I never used but seems fine.
  • Bus – I almost never used local bus. For the regional buses to get from city to city, I recommend BrasilByBus because you can buy tickets without a CPF.
• Portuguese – it really helps to learn a little. If you already know Spanish, a month of DuoLingo practice everyday will be enough for you.
• Havaianas – popular Brazilian brand of flip-flops and other beach wear & accessories. I’d say it’s customary to wear a pair of Havaianas if you’re in Brazil. I also really liked the Kenner brand of flip-flops that I saw at Maresia store in Goania bus station (I think it’s a chain?).

Suggestion Itineraries:

• 14-days –
• 30-day north to south
• 30-day south to north

Customs:

• Cheers – after you do a cheers (and say “saude” [sah-oo-jee]), you take a sip before putting the cup back down on the table.
• Eye contact during clubs – kissing strangers. It’s also very common that strangers come up and almost immediately ask “do you want to kiss?” and they kiss each other.

Food to try:

• pao de queijo
• feijoada
• picanha
• moqueca (both pesce and camarao)
• pamonha
• tambaqui
• arepa
• acai
• pirau
• camarao do cocobongo
• pastel
• cafeteria
• churrasqueria
• frango frito
• brigadeiro / brisadeiro

Safety tips:

Hate to say this but Brazil is definitely more dangerous than other countries I’ve been. More than Mexico, more than Argentina or Uruguay. While violent crime isn’t so much a big issue, petty theft definitely is. You should be on alert almost all the time, especially in big cities.

• Don’t flash (clothing, accessorities, or items)
• Beware of pickpockets or flash robberies
• Beware of people sitting near you at the beach
• Roll up windows when in taxi or Uber
• Don’t walk the street at night in places where you see nobody else out. Take a taxi, even if it’s just 5min walk away.
• Favela rules – don’t go without an approved guide, don’t bring cameras or take photos of what you see (without permission), don’t do illegal stuff (as police can kill you thinking you’re a criminal/gang-member).
• When they say “don’t go/walk alone”, they don’t mean like have a buddy and you’re safe. Your group should be bigger enough to deter a group of 5-10 criminals. I’m serious.
• Watch out for group of tan/dark skin teenage-age kids (and with blond-dyed hair)…anywhere from 13-19 year old is the sweet spot to watch out for.
• If you want to buy a money belt (aka slim hidden fanny pack), you can ask around for “porta-dolar” which translates to “cash door”, and is a small slim fanny pack usually worn by streetsellers or people who want to hide values under their shirt. It’s only like 80rs and sold at sporting stores like Decathlon or Centauro.
• How to spot favelas on a map – when you look on Google Maps, anytime you see many curved squiggly streets like the top view of a mountain neighborhood, that’s a good chance it might be a favela. Another possible sign is many alleys and little dead-end streets.

Safety links:

• https://www.worldbyisa.com/is-rio-de-janeiro-safe-how-to-stay-safe-in-rio/x

Robbery stories:

Sharing these not to scare you but to give you an idea of what things CAN and DO happen. Stay ready! These are all things that happened to me, or friend, or somebody staying in same hotel/hostel, or happened to friend of theirs.

• Beach swipe – somebody sitting nearby at the beach. They dig a hole in the sand, then working alone or with the help of an accomplice (to distract you), grab your bag and quickly search for valuables before discarding the rest in the hole and running off.
• Beach mob – 20 on 1. Like rabid wild dogs coming at you from every corner, grabbing at your bags and even dragging you until you let go.
• Bear hug – somebody hugs you from behind pinning your arms down, while his accomplices pick your pockets as you’re busy fighting off the hugger’s arms.
• Surprise attack – iron bar or bottle. Sometimes with knife. They just come up and attack you (hitting you in the face), then rob you as you’re in shock. This attack can also happen if they ask for money and you say you don’t have any.
• Guns drawn – they pull up on a motorcyle or walk up to you with a gun, demand your items and run away quickly.
• Bus mob – a gang enters the bus and jumps all over you.
• Window grab – they reach in through your car, uber, or taxi window and grab the phone as you were texting on the phone and not paying attention with your window down. For this reason, many drivers will insist on you keeping your window up. Even being on a bus can be risky if the window is open, a thief can run up the sides of the bus, jump and reach in through your window
• Street grab – they run by and grab your items and run away. This can happen even on streets with police on every corner. Just 10 meters away on the wrong small street, this can happen.
• Cop stop – corrupted cops can stop your car as you pass by popular tourist places. And search you, looking for drugs or anything, or making up a reason for you to pay their bribe. Pay them no more than $10 USD per person. Or insist to be taken to the station as paying bribes are illegal. (I also feel many Uber drivers might be in on this scam.)
• Hiking hostage – tied up, robbed, and told to stay for 2 hours (or be shot).

Brazilian cities (* = recommended, ** = must see):

• South – most common tourist area, lots of European influence and English-speaking.
  • Rio de Janeiro** – #1 tourist stop for foreigners. Fans of Rio say it’s the most beautiful city in the world, best place for carnival, most beautiful beaches, best nightlife. Detractors complain it’s expensive, dangerous, arrogant or superficial people, or overrated in other ways.
    • Arraial do Cabo* –
  • Sao Paolo** – kind of like the New York, Mexico City, Buenos Aires, Madrid, Milan of Brazil. Big concrete space far from the usual nature and beach image of Brazil. Tourist areas much safer than Rio with far more bars and restaurants, much better nightlife than Rio. Wider range of people and mentalities. And unique in that it’s not all other typical Brazil beach/nature destinations. I like SP for city comforts.
    • Ubatuba –
    • Ilhabela –
  • Curitiba – smaller, cleaner version of Sao Paulo. Known for parks, eco-friendly, LGBT-friendly, very green, mild weather, and capybaras. Nice to live,
  • Ilha do Mel
  • Morretes
  • Florianopolis* – aka “Floripa”.
    • Blumenau – German town
  • Porto Alegre
    • Rio Grande do Sul – far south region and coldest area of Brazil (especially in JUNE).
      • Cassino
    • Foz do Iguacu – Iguazu Falls, one of the largest waterfalls in the world.
• Central
  • Belo Horizonte – low in tourism value but nice place to be. Friendly people, good food (strong influence in Brazil’s overall food culture), vibrant Carnival (arguably best in Brazil). Their own accent.
    • Ouro Preto – nice colonial town nearby here. Often recommended because it’s close and convenient.
    • Tiradentes –
  • Goania – low in tourism value, but friendly folks. All you can do is bars and restaurants. Nice to live. Similar vibe and accent to BH.
    • Jalapao (state park) –
    • Chapada Dos Veadeiros (park) –
  • Brasilia – capital
• North
  • Salvador –
    • Morro de Sao Paulo** – the party beach town, most touristy, best food and nightlife. Lots of young and sexy people, foreigners, and native tourists running around everywhere.
    • Boipeba* – much quieter and smaller beach town. Not as pretty and touristic as Morro. It’s more if you want a very chill, quiet, local vibe. It’s not dead.
    • Itacare**
    • Chapada de Diamantina
  • Jericoacoara
    • Lencois
  • Fortaleza
  • Natal
  • Recife – no
    • Olinda –
  • Amazonias
    • Manaus
    • Belem – I would say no.

Nearby countries:

• Colombia – big country and cheap, not so developed in most parts.
• Argentina – big country and very cheap (much cheaper than Brazil), with many parts worth visiting. When Brazilians travel, Argentina and Colombia are typical places since it’s cheaper than Brazil.
• Uruguay – big country but most of it won’t be visited.
• Peru** – mountain country with lots of different foods and culture to explore. Developed, safe, and fun.

Unfiltered notes:

• How dangerous is Rio de Janeiro? – Quora
• Best weather cities in Brazil – Quora
• Places between Rio and America – Quora