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Brazil Tourism - Travel to Brazil

        

Brazil is the largest country in South America.

Table of contents

1 Regions 2 Cities 3 Other destinations 4 Understand 5 Get in 5.1 By plane 5.2 By car 5.3 By bus 5.4 By boat 5.5 By train 6 Get around 6.1 By plane 6.2 By bus 6.3 By boat 7 Talk 7.1 Body language 8 Buy 9 Eat 9.1 Cuisine 9.2 Restaurants 10 Drink 10.1 Liquor and beer 10.2 Coffee and tea 10.3 Soft drinks 11 Sleep 12 Learn 13 Work 14 Stay safe 15 Stay healthy 16 Respect 17 Contact 18 External links

Regions in Brazil

Brazil is the fifth largest country on earth. The country is divided in five regions, more or less following natural, economic and cultural borderlines.

• The North -- the Amazon, the rain forest and frontier life
• The Northeast -- where Brazil's music, folklore and cuisine was born
• The Central West -- isolated savannahs, grasslands and swamps
• The Southeast -- the country's economic and industrial hub
• The South -- the highly developed land of pampas and gauchos

See also: List of Brazilian states

Cities in Brazil

Brazil has many cities; these are a few of the more prominent travel destinations.

• Belem -- The mouth of the Amazon
• Brasilia -- The capital of Brazil, and an architectural spectacle
• Olinda -- A small town, but popular for its culture, and a Carnaval that rivals Rio.
• Porto Alegre - The city of the World Social Forum
• Rio de Janeiro -- World famous, beautiful city
• Salvador -- The heart of Brazil's African culture
• Sao Paulo -- Brazil's largest city

Other destinations - Travel to Brazil

• Iguaçu Falls -- The world-famous waterfall
• Pantanal -- Big swamp, lots of ecotourism, snorkeling with crocs, piranhas etc.
• Minas Gerais -- A rugged inland state rich in colonial history
• Chapada Diamantina -- Fantastic green filled canyons and mountains. A waterfall so high that doesn't hit the ground.
• Chapada dos Veadeiros / Alto Paraiso -- Small scale eco-park. Good vibe. Drugs, flying saucers.

Understand Brazil Tourism

Following three centuries under the rule of Portugal, Brazil became an independent nation in 1822. By far the largest and most populous country in South America, Brazil has overcome more than half a century of military intervention in the governance of the country to pursue industrial and agricultural growth and development of the interior. Exploiting vast natural resources and a large labor pool, Brazil is today South America's leading economic power and a regional leader. Highly unequal income distribution remains a pressing problem.

Get into Brazil

Travel to Brazil By Plane

Most travelers from other continents will land in Sao Paulo or Rio de Janeiro. Some regional airports such as Belem are also served by flights from Florida.

Travel to Brazil By car

Travel to Brazil By Bus

Long-distance bus service connects Brazil to its neighboring countries.

Travel to Brazil By Boat

Amazon river boats connect northern Brazil with Peru.

Travel to Brazil By Train

Train service within Brazil, let alone from other countries, is almost nonexistent.

Get around in Brazil

Brazil Tourism By plane

Air service connects all major areas of Brazil. Note that not all air routes are as direct as they would seem on a map, and are often required to go through hubs such as Brasilia.

Brazil Tourism By Bus

Long-distance buses are the most convenient, economical, and if you pay for it, comfortable way to travel between regions.

Brazil Tourism By Boat

In the Amazon region, boat travel is often the only way to get around.

Brazil Talk

The official language of Brazil is Portuguese. Brazilian Portuguese has a number of pronunciation differences with the language spoken in Portugal, but speakers of either can understand each other.

Spanish speakers should be able to get by easily in Brazil. Many Brazilians have a good grasp of English.

Body language

• The thumbs up gesture is used everywhere and all the time in Brazil.
• The OK gesture (thumb and finger in a circle) has obscene connotations in Brazil.

Buy

Brazil's unit of currency is the real (pronounced 'hay-AHL'), plural reais ('hay-AYS'). Prices are written as R$1.50, for example.

Bank Machines do not often take VISA or other non-Brazilian credit cards. Check for the Cirrus/VISA logo. Shell Petrol/Gas stations with a shop may have an ATM which does.

Eat - Travel to Brazil

Cuisine

Brazil's cuisine is as varied as its geography and culture. On the other hand, some may find it an unrefined melange, and everyday fare can be bland and monotonous. While there are some quite unique dishes of regional origin, many foods were brought by overseas immigrants and have been hybridized through the generations. In Brazil, Italian and Chinese food can often be as baffling as Amazonian fare.

Regional cuisines:

• Southern - Churrasco is Brazilian barbeque, and is usually served "rodizio" (all-you-can-eat). Waiters carry huge cuts of meat on steel spits from table to table, and carve off slices onto your plate. Traditionally, you are given a small wooden block colored green on one side and red on the other. When you're ready to eat, put the green side up. When you're too stuffed to even tell the waiter you've had enough, put the red side up.
• Mineiro is the "miner's" cuisine of Minas Gerais, based on pork and beans, with some vegetables.
• The food of Bahia, on the northeast coast has its roots across the Atlantic in West Africa. Coconut, dende palm oil, and seafood are the prime ingredients.
• Amazon cuisine draws from the food of the indigenous inhabitants, including various exotic fish and vegetables. There is also a stupendous variety of tropical fruits.

Brazilian cuisine also has a lot of imports:

• Pizza, quite popular in Brazil, usually has no tomato sauce. Instead, ketchup and mustard are added at the table.
• Middle-eastern and Arab food is widely available in Sao Paulo and Rio.
• Sao Paulo's Japanese restaurants serve up lots of tempura and sushi, but it can be quite a departure from the real thing. The same can be said of Chinese food. Cheese-filled spring rolls, anyone?

Be a meat-eater. Churrasco is good here. Like Asado. Cafezinho is their espresso. Markets will have food stalls with Italian(ish) pasta, lots of rich creamy cakes, fruit drinks. Coconut straight from the shell. Cashew sellers, and Corn-on-the-cob.

You're expected to take a straw when you buy a bottle of juice or soda, since the water used to cool the bottles is sometimes not fit for consumption.

Restaurants

Many inexpensive restaurants are buffet-by-weight, or por kilo. You pile up your plate with whatever you want, then place it on a scale at the counter, and pay by weight.

Brazilian restaurants often serve only for two, and you can't order a portion for a single person. It's usually not even indicated on the menu, so you may have to infer from the price or just ask. Also, a Brazilian couple sitting at a restaurant table usually sits side by side, rather than across from each other.

Drink

Liquor and beer

Brazil's most famous alcoholic drink is cachaça, an extremely potent sugar-cane liquor known to knock the unwary out quite quickly. A great place to visit in Rio de Janeiro's neighbourhood of Leblon is Academia da Cachaça. There are also tours of distillers in Minas Gerais, much in the same way as you'd tour vineyards in Sonoma Valley or in France, with the added bonus of their famous regional cuisine.

The strong flavor can be tempered (hidden?) in cocktails like the famous caipirinha, a combination of cachaça with sugar and lemon juice. The city of Paraty gave its name to the drink: parati is a synonym for cachaça. Other words for it include: pinga, caninha, branquinha, malvada, aguardente ("burning water"). The same mixture using vodka is called a caipiroshka; with white rum, it's a caipiríssima.

Beer in Brazil has a respectable history thanks to German immigrants. Draft lager beer is called chopp ('SHOH-pee'), and the most popular domestic brands are Brahma, Antarctica and Skol.

Coffee and tea

Brazil is recognized world-wide for its high-quality and strong coffee. Cafezinho (little coffee) is a small cup of sweetened coffee which is usually served for free after meals on restaurants. Breakfast in Brazil is called cafe da manha (morning coffee), while cafe com pão (coffee with bread) is a synonym for a light evening meal.

Mate is a type of tea that's very high in caffeine, and often served chilled. It has been loosing popularity over time, but is still consumed all around the country.

Soft drinks

If you're on the beach on a hot day, nothing beats coconut water, or água de côco.

If you want a Coca-Cola in Brazil, ask for coca, as "cola" means "glue", in Portuguese.

Guarana is a carbonated soft drink made from a berry (the guarana) native to the Amazon area; It is as popular as Coca-Cola and the major brands are Antarctica, Kuat and Brahma.

Sleep - Brazil Tourism

Learn

Work

Stay safe - Brazil Tourism

One of the unfortunate sides of travel in Brazil is the epidemic of violent street crime. Brazil's large cities are notorious for attacks against foreigners and locals alike. Take extra precautions to keep yourself safe while travelling in Brazil.

Use your hotel's safe for any valuables, or, better yet, leave anything you don't really need safe at home. Avoid carrying large amounts of cash, wearing expensive or expensive-looking jewelry, and carrying any unnecessary electronic gear, loose purses or bags. Try to stash some extra money in a hidden spot on your person -- such as a shoe or money belt -- to make sure you can get back to your hotel.

Stay Healthy While You Travel to Brazil

Respect

Contact

Brazil has international country telephone code 55 and two digit area codes. Most phone numbers are eight digits long, but some are still seven digits long. The number of digits was increased from seven to eight recently in some areas, meaning you might still find some old seven digit phone numbers which won't work unless you prepend another digit (which depends on the area code and the first digit of the original number).

Eight digit numbers beginning with digits 2 to 6 are land lines, while eight digit numbers beginning with digits 7 to 9 are mobile phones.

Most places use the following emergency numbers:

• 190 - Police
• 192 - Ambulance
• 193 - Firefighters

To dial to another area code or to another country, you must chose a carrier using a two-digit carrier code. Which carriers are available depends on the area you are dialing from and on the area you are dialing to. Carrier 21 (Embratel) is available in all areas.

The international phone number format for Brazil is +55-(area code)-(phone number)

• To dial to another area code: 0-(carrier code)-(area code)-(phone number)
• To dial to another country: 00-(carrier code)-(international phone number)
• Local collect call: 90-90-(phone number)
• Collect call to another area code: 90-(carrier code)-(area code)-(phone number)
• International Collect Call: 000111

Public payphones use a prepaid card with a number of credits. The cards cannot be recharged. Some payphones might not be able to do international calls.

External Links for Brazil Tourism

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