Brazil travel tips

Brazil can provide a holiday adventure like no other, pulsating with the energetic tropical vibe of a sexy, joyous people living in romantic cities such as Rio de Janeiro or in the immense dark heart of the Amazon.

Pictured below are Copacabana Beach in Rio de Jainero on a normal day and Iguacu Waterfalls on the southern border with Argentina.

This is a great country for backpackers on a shoestring budget seeking a cheap vacation as it's possible to survive on less than US$20 a day. If you have enough money to enjoy yourself, budget about US$50 a day for food, travel, accommodation and entertainment.

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Note: Severe flooding has hit Brazil's north-east in early May, 2009, killing more than a dozen people and leaving about 70,000 homeless. State most affected by the flooding are Maranhao, Piaui, Ceara, Alagoas and Bahai.

Note: A dengue fever epidemic hit Rio de Janeiro in early 2008, killing almost 70 people and infecting about 50,000 others. Dengue causes high fevers, severe headaches and joint pains. Rio suffered serious dengue outbreaks in 1986, 1995 and 2002.

Visa is the most reliable credit card to have during your holiday in Brazil. Cambios (money exchangers) are widespread but it's worth cashing up to get through weekends when many close their doors.

It's also sensible to get as many small notes as possible at cambios as change is often scarce during your travel and small bills provide a cheap way to satisfy the never-ending demands for a tip.

Almost every service provider you encounter during your travel in Brazil will expect a tip, although taxis are an exception and restaurants mostly include a service charge on your ticket.

Be prepared to haggle and beat down the price for most purchases during your Brazil vacation, whether you be looking for a hotel room or shopping at the markets.

Be aware that corruption is a way of life in Brazil and about 50 million citizens aren't sure where they'll get their next meal. Street kids hassle for money in some areas. You're in South America.

Brazil's climate is mostly warm and comfortable throughout the year but the south of Brazil is very hot and sticky from December to February and experiences non-stop rain from June to August.

The famous five-day Carnival in Rio de Janeiro is usually held in February (starting at midnight on the Friday before Ash Wednesday). The Carnaval is celebrated in cities and towns throughout Brazil but none can match the Rio experience.

Although this giant street party is the biggest magnet for tourists, summer is an expensive and uncomfortable time to holiday in Brazil as the sticky heat can be unbearable and many Brazilians are on vacation, making accommodation scarce or crowded and tickets a little more expensive.

Many tourists believe the best time to buy airline tickets for perfect weather and cheap vacations in Brazil are September, October, April and/or May.

Rio is also the ultimate party town every New Year's Eve, when about a million people congregate around Copacabana Beach. There is nightlife everywhere but popular areas are Ipanema, Leblona and Leme. Since the 1990s, Lapa in the old quarter of Rio has restored its former glory as a nightlife haven for all forms of traditional Brazilian music. If you hope to impress a member of the opposite sex while in Rio, learn at the least the basics of samba before you begin your holiday.

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Before buying your airline tickets and embarking on your holiday, note that tourists must have a passport valid for at least six months from the date of entry to Brazil and citizens of most countries need a visa which is usually for 90 days.

A stamped entry card is also handed out upon arrival in Brazil. This should be guarded closely throughout your holiday travel as you will have major headaches if you lose it, possibly including a fine.

Various immunisations and medications are worth getting before you start your Brazil holiday or tour of South America, particularly if you're targeting remote jungle areas. Disease risks include malaria, rabies, meningitis, dengue fever and yellow fever.

Make sure your travel insurance provides comprehensive medical cover before you begin your South America holiday.

Tourists are advised to avoid the notorious favellas, or slums, of Rio de Janeiro. It might be tempting to experience "the real Rio" within these ramshackle, mostly hillside communities, but crime is rampant and naive tourists have always been a target.

Recent statistics suggest there are 13 murders every day in the Rio favellas, including the murder of children. Believe it or not, this is an improvement as the murder rate during the early 1990s was closer to 40 per day. In 2006, 4539 people were killed by guns in Rio. Drug cartels effectively own different favella communities and almost all residents have access to a gun.

About 35 thousand people in Brazil are killed by guns each year, more than any other country in the world, but the numbers have declined in recent years.

Despite these dangers, Rio de Janeiro, known to locals as Cadade Maravilhosa (Marvelous City), is a chaotic yet sophisticated city for holiday adventure.

Rio is nestled around Guanabara Bay, surrounded by verdant mountains and has a population around 14 million.

The city's fanatical beach culture is centred on Copacabana Beach, a 4.5 kilometre stretch of white sand backed by high-rise apartments. Small bikinis are the norm and women in one-piece bathers are usually assumed to be tourists. Beware the water currents and don't take valuables or more money than you need to the Rio beaches.

A must-see is the famous Christ the Redeemer statue overlooking Rio from Corcovado hill. The statue is 30 metres high and weighs more than a thousand tonnes, overlooking one of the world's great vistas. Most hotels have organised tours to the Corcovado and a taxi from the centre of town will cost about US$18.

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Apart from the sexy salsa-swinging nightlife, there are countless outdoor holiday activities in Brazil including windsurfing, surfing, fishing or swimming along the coast and rivers, or hiking to explore the remote jungle areas where native wildlife abounds.

Some tributaries of South America's interior Amazon basin are still unexplored. Intrepid travellers can find primitive locations in Brazil where dangers and adventure travel abounds.

Belem is the gateway city to the Amazon and is also a common route for travel into the rainforests.

The Federal Republic of Brazil is enormous, covering 8,514,215 square kilometres of the South America land mass with a population of 175 million.

Brazil is the 5th largest country in the world and huge areas remain unpopulated, although settlement is beginning to decimate some of the interior jungles.

About 30% of the world's surviving forest can be found in the Amazon basin of South America, which holds about one fifth of the world's fresh water.

Brazil's balmy north-east has almost 3,000 kilometres of virtually uninterrupted white beaches from Sao Luis to Salvador.

The country has three time zones plus daylight saving in different locations.

Just over half the people are of European descent and most of the remainder are of mixed blood with strong African connections dating back to the slave trade. About 200,000 are native Indians, concentrated inland.

Travellers to Brazil should learn at least a few Portuguese phrases before buying airline tickets for their South America holiday adventure.

In 2004 more than half the Brazilian population was aged under 21, so expect a young society.

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Portuguese settlement of Brazil began in 1500 when a fleet of 13 ships set sail from Lisbon and arrived on the Brazilian coast near what is now known as Porto Seguro.

On New Years Day in 1502, Portuguese explorer Goncalo Coelho landed at Guanabara Bay and, believing the bay was the mouth of a mighty river, named the location Rio de Janeiro - January River.

The Portuguese invaders established sugar cane farms and enslaved the native Indians, eventually seizing control of much of the northern interior of South America.

Brazil became an independent state in 1822. About 70% of Brazilians are Roman Catholic and superstitious customs remain strong.

A notable aspect of Brazilian society is the enormous gap between the haves and the have-nots. Brazil, the fifth largest country in the world, has the world's most unequal distribution of wealth.

A small number of powerful farmers own most of the arable land and laws introduced in 2004 aim to free tens of thousands of rural people from indentured slavery.

Particularly in major cities, you will often see expensive cars and wealthy locals sauntering past begging peasants, some of whom sleep on the footpaths.

Rio de Janeiro is Brazil's most spectacular and famous city but the cosmopolitan capital of Sao Paulo has what many consider a superior cultural life. With 20 million residents in Great Sao Paulo, this is the largest city in the southern hemisphere.

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Brazil's commercial and industrial centre, Sao Paulo is a teeming city of immigrants that is regularly compared to New York because of its sprawling size and constant traffic jams.

Like Rio, Sao Paulo is full of attractive people who work hard to maintain their sexy bodies. At the same time, it is a city where the rich live in walled mansions with guards while the poor live on the streets.

As a result, crime is rampant and tourists should take all necessary precautions with their travel baggage and holiday valuables. It's said that half the population of Sao Paulo has fallen victim to crime in the past five years.

About 170 kilometres north of Rio de Janeiro is the coastal town of Buzios, made famous in the 1960s when visited by French actress Brigitte Bardot. This town has been dubbed the St Tropez of South America. Buzios has about 10,000 residents, a Mediterranean character, long stretches of beach, rolling sand dunes and is popular with both artists and Rio weekenders.

Abut halfway between Rio and Sao Paulo is the gorgeous coastal port of Parati, nestled beside thick woods at the head of two craggy peninsulas surrounding a bay with dozens of islands boasting golden sands and Atlantic rainforests. Parati built its fortune on nearby gold discoveries during the 18th century. The richly decorated houses and churches built on that wealth are nowadays well preserved amid the town's maze of cobbled streets. Worth enjoying at Parati is the annual Feast of St Peter and St Paul staged each June. This is a day of music and dance where almost the entire town sails to the Ilha do Araujo, an island six kilometres offshore in the Baia de Ilha Grande.

Another entrancing city is Salvador da Bahia, capital of Bahia state and the country's capital from 1549 to 1763. The city is on a high bluff with a majestic outlook across the Bay of All Saints. About 80% of Salvador's two million inhabitants are Afro Brazilians, reflecting a strong African influence stemming from the millions of people brought in from Africa during past centuries to work on sugar cane plantations.

Brazil shares a border with all other countries in South America except Chile and Ecuador, so there are numerous exciting ways to travel into Brazil for a holiday if you don't have an airline ticket.

The most adventurous and educational way to cross the border into Brazil is via a slow boat journey down the Amazon from Peru or on the Rio Paraguay from Paraguay into Brazil.

Tickets for domestic and international route buses are fairly cheap and most buses are of a high standard. Airline tickets inside Brazil are expensive.

It can be worthwhile buying a Brazil Airpass ticket if you're planning several airline flights within the country, although these are purchased outside Brazil before your holiday and you should check the airline ticket's fine print regarding strict regulations on flight changes and timing.

Driving in Brazil is dangerous. It's worth taking diarrhoea medication and travelers should always be vigilant against unsafe food or drinking water during their holiday in Brazil.

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Wash everything before eating, buy bottled water for drinking and use liberal doses of insect repellent as there are plenty of tropical diseases flying around which could spoil your South America vacation.

Pharmacies in Brazil, which are known as "farmacia", are mostly open Monday to Friday from 8am to 6pm. The age, authenticity and quality of drugs should be closely monitored, particularly in regional areas. Staff usually don't speak English and sometimes don't have professional training.

The Brazilian currency is called the "real" and its ongoing devaluation since the late 1990s has made Brazil holiday tickets increasingly cheap for travelers.

Brazil uses metric measurements and tourists should be cautious about electricity supplies as the current is mostly 110 or 120 volts. Currents vary from 100 to 240 volts and power surges happen occasionally, so be careful with any electrical appliances you bring into Brazil during your holiday travel through South America.

It's well worth bringing a transformer on your holiday that can handle different voltages. Cheap socket adaptors are widely available in Brazil.

Internet cafes are found everywhere. English is not widely spoken and you may find communication difficult outside Brazil's tourist areas.

It's worth noting that public toilets in Brazil may be marked with the letters M or D for women and H or C for men, and it's usually worth carrying a few sheets of tissue paper with you during your South America holiday.

Crime can be a problem in major Brazilian cities and it's sensible to take necessary precautions: don't enter favelas (shanty towns, particularly in the low lying north side of the city behind the towering Christ the Reedemer statue), avoid public transport at night, don't wander too far from well-lit main streets, beware of pickpockets and don't extravagantly display your wealth while on holidays in Brazil.

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If you suffer an accident or fall victim to crime, police can be contacted on 190 and ambulances on 193.

Although smoking is widespread in Brazil, there are regulations banning fags in most public buildings and on long-distance buses and airlines.

You should buy a phone card from a news stand. Beware that the necessary dialing sequence can be complicated.

Brazil's national drink is the caipirinha, a potent blend of cachaca (sugar cane brandy), crushed lime and sugar.

The national obsession is soccer (called futebol) and the game permeates Brazilian life and conversation.

Brazilians know how to party like no other nation... alcohol can be purchased everywhere and music can be heard everywhere.

Tourists must carry photographic ID while on holiday in Brazil but it's a good idea to leave your passport and airline tickets in a secure place, and instead carry identification such as a driver's license.

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