With an area of more than 8.5 million square kilometres, Brazil is the largest South American country. Its population is very diverse: decades of mass immigration from different countries made it mix of ethnic groups and cultures that added to the indigenous tribes.
A Portugal colony for more than 300 years until 1808, the official language in Brazil is Portuguese. The local currency is the Brazilian Real and the capital is Brasilia, even though the largest city is São Paulo.
There are many airlines flying to Brazil, including Tap, British Airways, Alitalia and Lufthansa from Europe, American Airlines and Delta from the the US, or Qatar Airways, Etihad or XiamenAir from Asia.
Check out TripAdvisor or SkyScanner to compare prices and airlines to Brazil from different parts of the world.
With a large range of hotels, guest houses, homestays, it’s not difficult to find the perfect Brazil accommodation for your trip.
Whether you are travelling to big cities like Rio de Janeiro, Fortaleza, Sao Paulo or smaller towns such as Jericoacoara, the hotel choice is very rich and diverse.
Check out comparison websites like TripAdvisor or HotelsCombined to compare different prices and deals or Booking if you want to directly book your hotel.
Brazil is not so safe. Street crime is very present in most largest cities and also in smaller towns, so try not to lower your guard, especially in crowded places or if you take the public transport. I was mugged in Fortaleza and it wasn’t a pleasant experience.
When planning a trip to Brazil we highly recommend you pack safety clothes where to carry your money, credit card, ID papers and other personal belongings when you are around.
Another important precaution is to purchase a travel insurance. World Nomads is a very good option, with a wide range of activities covered.
Some other safety measures to keep in mind are to leave your passport in your hotel room and carry only a copy around, or try to have little cash with you or just forget your purse or backpack and wear a fanny pack instead.
If you want to visit Brazil without do all the planning but just relax and enjoy, then delegate a trusted tour company for all the logistics.
Some of the best tours are organised by GAdventures and Intrepid Travel, and you can visit places such as the Amazon rainforest, Rio de Janeiro, the Iguazu Waterfalls. Alternatively, you can peruse TourRadar website to compare the package deals for Brazil from different tour operators.
Brazil is a huge country and boasts a very diverse landscape. Nature-wise, it’s one of the very favourite destinations. The Amazon rainforest, the Iguaçu Falls, the Pantanal and the dune lagoons of the Lençóis Maranhenses are only some of the country’s natural wonders.
Other places to visit in Brazil are the gorgeous city of Rio de Janeiro, by far my favourite so far, Fortaleza as well as other cities in the northeastern state of Ceara like Jericoacoara, Beberibe and Canoa Quebrada, or São Paulo, Curitiba, Florianopolis and Porto Alegre in the south, and obviously Salvador de Bahia to learn about the African-Brazilian culture.
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Brazilian dishes are a mix of European and African flavours that influenced the indigenous cuisine. Among the most common ingredients used in the local foods are coconut milk, manioca used in many ways, including the flour often used to make delicious farofa, rice, black beans, fresh cheese.
Meat lovers will enjoy every bit of Brazilian culinary tradition. All over the country, you will find plenty of restaurants that do the typical “churrasco”, different types of barbecued meat. In some restaurants they adopted the all-you-can-eat formula totally Brazilian style with waiters passing through the tables with the skewer and cutting a piece on your dish. Each customer is given a little card red on side, green on the other: until you turn yours with the red side up, the waiter will drop meat on your plate. Usually these restaurants have a huge veggies buffet included in the price. A very famous one, and rather expensive, adopting this style is Marius in Rio de Janeiro. He has both a meat and a fish restaurant, both with the same formula, the fish one is delicious. Read here some reviews.
Some typical dishes to try in Brazil are:
On top of the main dishes, Brazilian fruits are delicious, so don’t leave before trying their coconut (drinking the water first), mango, avocado, fruta do conde, pineapple, açai, papaya (mamão), maracujá (passion fruit), guava (or goiaba, very popular as a jam to eat with queijo mineiro cheese from Minas Gerais), guaraná as an energy boost available also in powder, and their delicious cashew nuts.
Despite their homonymy, the statue of Iracema doesn’t sit on Iracema beach but in Mucuripe, a beautiful stretch of white sand where fishermen every morning moor their jangadas, traditional fishing boats, after a night spent off the Atlantic shores. Here they sell their daily catch to early customers who rush off no later than 6 am …
In Brazil, natural wonders are literally around every corner. While visiting the northern state of Ceara, I enjoyed a tour around the coastline of its capital, Fortaleza. Few words can describe the awe you feel when staring at the views of Jericoacoara, a hippie-like resort at about 300 km from the city. Wherever I watched, be it a …
When I booked my ticket to Rio de Janeiro, I had only one thing in mind (well, apart from the handsome surfers hanging around the beach): Ipanema’s Feira Hippie, the artisan market that every Sunday sets its stalls in Praça General Osorio, in the exclusive Ipanema district. I’m a big fan of open markets, and …
Wandering about beautiful Fortaleza, the capital of the Brazilian state of Ceará, I stumbled on this church that captured my attention for its elegant simplicity. Its bright white and light blue tones, inevitably reminding Portuguese Catholic style, are a clean, pleasant sight to be enjoyed against the azure sea on the horizon. This is Igreja …
The gorgeous Iguazu Falls lie within Argentinian territory in Misiones province on the border with Brazil. Covering the border between three states, Brazil, Argentina, and Paraguay, Iguazu waterfalls are spectacular and often a must in the best South American tours. These falls are made up of 275 individual waterfalls that stretch for over two miles. The thundering …
“Abacaxi, óleo de coco, camarão, lagosta!” Pineapple, coconut oil, grilled shrimps, lobster. These the main products offered by the noisy and familiar street vendors populating Brazilian beaches and exploring Fortaleza you are bound to experience that. Everything about them seemed to shout, their colorful hat, their dancing-like allure under the unforgiving sun and their broad …
Even after getting mugged and deciding I wasn’t going back to the beach, I had a quick trip to the cultural pride of Fortaleza in northern Brazil, the Dragão do Mar, or Sea Dragon, where I always enjoy hanging around and just observe what they have planned for the day. Dragão do Mar, in fact, …
On my very second day in Brazil I was mugged in Fortaleza while strolling along one of my favorite beaches, Beira Mar. Before you think “You should have known Brazil is dangerous”, let me tell you that yes, I know many Brazilian cities bear a very sad record when it comes to street crime, but …
It does look unusual for a market, but at first sight you probably won’t imagine this colonial building was created as the city’s public jail, nonetheless. Today Fortaleza’s Emcetur – Centro do Turismo, in Rua Senador Pompeu 350, hosts the Museum of Art and Culture of Ceara and a handicraft market mainly devoted to textiles. Along …
My stroll around Mercado Central, the essence of Ceara’s art and craft in the heart of Fortaleza, northeastern Brazil, right next to Nossa Senhora da Assunção. Rest assured that here you can find literally anything, from food to clothes to shoes to hammocks to kitchen towels.
The last time I was in Brazil I visited as much as I could of the region I was. Every morning is my fixed date with the beach close to where I live, and when I didn’t go it meant I was hitting the roads to discover yet other natural wonders of this state of Ceara, …
I’ve already written about the tragic story of Iracema, so yesterday, while I was vagabonding around Fortaleza city center, finding a tribute to the very much cherished writer José de Alencar was a true moment of joy. I would have liked it to be a cozy one, between me and the writer, but being in …
If you are moving to Fortaleza or staying there for longer than a holiday, then you can find your way to a good quality of life starting from having long walks on the beach every morning and carrying on to discovering its local delicacies. One of the Fortaleza foods you can’t miss is the delicious …
What can I do, Brazil is inspiring me the healthiest of the lifestyles. Ok, let’s spill it out, I’ve been becoming increasingly obsessed with a healthy lifestyle, from diet to alternative medicine to walks on the beach, which happen every day, first thing in the morning, at 6am. For some reason I still need to …
I’ve already mentioned that the history of Brazil has left indelible marks still visible today, signs that have reached to us through literary pieces, traditions and architectural work. During one of my frequent expeditions aimed at unearthing Fortaleza, I “stumbled” on the huge church of Nossa Senhora da Assunção. Obviously, since this is the church …