Hi everyone!
Has anyone traveled Brazil as a solo female traveler or in a small group of women? I have friends in Parana that I can stay with, but I also want to branch out and see more of the country. Any advice on how to get around safely and what to do/where to go? I have seen Iguacu Falls (it was incredible) so I would like to see other sights this time.
Thanks!!
tk,
You may want to read the Safety & Security section on these government websites.....
A few more websites to have a look at....
Good luck!
If you have not already check to Lonely Planet Forum it has a much broader audience as far as travel to South America is concerned. You know already be careful in Rio and Salvador (my friend got chased by bunch teenagers that tried ambush to rob him last February, 2 people I know got robbed at knife point in broad daylight and so on). Traveling solo any gender in Brazil it may be better to stay in hostels to meet other people so you can go on excursions in a group.You absolutely need the Lonely Planet travel guide Brazil or something comparable, it has all the bus and airline info and suggested itineraries. I. I don't understand how you consider that your friends in Parana can not give you advice that you look for it on Rick Steves.
A little late, but I hope still in time.
I'm from Brazil, so I think I can answer this. First of all, Brazil is a dangerous country. Pickpockets here (we call people who pickpocket "trombadinha". If you ever got robbed like this, just yell "trombadinha" and someone will at least try to tackle whoever stole your wallet or phone) are more rare than in Europe, for example, but violent robbery (with guns, knives or just physical intimidation) are way more usual, specially in the major touristic hubs (Rio, São Paulo and the northeast capitals). NEVER use your phone in an empty alley (or better, try to avoid those alleys), use it with a lot of caution in busy streets. If you take a bus, watch out for the windows, since it's not rare to see people stealing cellphones of unadvised people. The same applies if you rent a car, always close the window when stopped. If you take a cab, ask for the taximeter, taxi drivers loves to scam tourists, brazilian and foreign. Hide your phone, don't use gold or shining jewels on the street, avoid dark secondary streets (or some major streets at night) and always ask a police officer for information. Even if he or she don't speak english, they'll direct you to someone not suspicious (at least to our standards).
I said all of this for precaution, but, even if Brazil is a dangerous country, it isn't the war zone people talk about. I was in Rio during the last Worker's Day, I spend the whole weekend there and no one tried to do anything with me. As far as I can read, I think the european scam hassle is more annoying than the safety threat here. And, I know I don't know anything outside Brazil (yet), but you'll be hard pressed to see a sight more beautiful than Ipanema's beach, or seeing the Rio skyline on the Christ statue.
Well, Brazil is big, so you need to specify which sights you're interested. Beaches? History? Nature?
Rio is an all-world city, with history (a fort between Copacabana and Ipanema, the old presidential palace, the old port, the Monastery in downtown, the Christ) and nature (world-class beaches, the Pão de Açúcar peak and the Tijuca jungle), with a lovely day trip option in Petrópolis (old imperial city, way more warm than Rio); São Paulo is the culture center, with a large and never quiet downtown, our major museum (MASP) and secondary sights (also close to Aparecida, our equivalent of Fátima in a way. The 2nd largest Catholic Church in the world is there, only St. Peter's Basilica is larger); my home state capital, Belo Horizonte, has one UNESCO site (the artificial Pampulha's lake) and tons of pubs and bars, but the huge tourism hub are in the preserved colonial cities (Ouro Preto, Tiradentes, Mariana, Congonhas and São João Del Rei) with awesome XVIII churches and in nature (the caves close to Belo Horizonte and the national park in Santana do Riacho, with dozens of hikes and waterfalls), also in the Brazil's most important Modern Art museum, in Inhotim. All of those are reachable as day trips (Tiradentes and São João Del Rei are the furthest cities, 3h30min on bus); since you talked about the Iguaçu Falls, your friends probably live close to Curitiba. Curitiba has a lot of parks, so, if you're into this, you can spend a day or two there; close to Paraná are Santa Catarina and Rio Grande do Sul, with a strong european presence and Brazil's 2nd favorite winter city (Gramado). Close to the Uruguay border, you have São Miguel das Missões, ruins of a jesuit church, built to convert the indigenous people (and, later, protect them from the Bandeirantes).
Going up and getting warm, you have the northeast beaches, our favorite summer travels. In Salvador, the focus is the preserved historic centre, and the same applies for Recife and Olinda (the Brazilian Venice nickname is not 100% accurate). If you want beaches, you must go to Maragogi, Maceió (both very close to each other, but watch out: Maceió is as violent as Salvador and Rio), Porto de Galinhas (close to Recife), Trancoso and Morro de São Paulo (both somewhat close to Salvador). Porto Seguro is the middle ground: you have historic heritage (specially close to Cabrália, where Cabral "found" Brazil and the portuguese first settled) and 2 amazing beaches (Arraial d'Ajuda and Coroa Vermelha). I'm not a beach guy, so I probably missed some hidden highlights, but those are the most known here. Oh, Fernando de Noronha is probably beautiful as well, but it is really, really, really expensive for us. I don't know how far the dollar goes there, but for brazilians is a prohibitive place, unless you're really rich (or willing to get a huge debt).
Last but not least, the Amazon and the Pantanal. I never traveled to any of those, but I'm aware that Bonito is a common base to explore the Pantanal, but you can also pick a smaller city. You'll need to land in São Paulo or any other major capital (Curitiba can work), fly to Cuiabá or Campo Grande and, there, pick a bus or a transfer to the base cities. About the Amazon, I would recommend staying either in Manaus (you can know Brazil's most luxuous theater, the Teatro Amazonas) or Belém (if you do, please go to Santarém and Alter do Chão. They're so beautiful, and so, so overlooked), or even both, if you can spare a week. São Luís is not so far (on a plane travel) and it's one of the few cities in Brazil with french heritage. Also, close to Campo Grande and Cuiabá (on a plane, again), is Brasília, our current capital. It's a planned city, exotic, but I don't recommend you planning to visit it. With our current political situation, protests are usual and they can turn violent easily in Brasília. Leave it for a more quiet political period
GACG,
Thank you so much for th advice!! That is so helpful. I have heard of Fernando de Noronha but getting there is very expensive- maybe someday I'll get there!
Do you have any further advice for seeing the Amazon? Is this a relatively safe place to go, or not so much?
Just a couple of notes:
Since the political crisis began (again), the dollar went to the skies. With US$ 1, you can buy R$ 3,49 right not (2 months ago, it was around R$ 3,05). So, it's cheap for an american to visit Brazil (and rather expensive to go the other way around);
You probably know this already, but you'll probably need a visa to come here. Brazil uses a two-way policy about tourism: countries that doesn't demand a visa from us, can enter freely as well. Since the US (and Canada) demands a visa from brazilians, try to visit the Brazilian embassy closer to your hometown in order to see the procedure;
English is not common in Brazil, even in touristic hubs. At attractions, you'll be able to find information, but it's a 50-50 chance to find someone who can talk on the streets and a 30-70 in a small city. Like I said, priorize asking information to police officers: the majority of people will try to help you the best they can, even if you need some mimic, but you can find a scammer that'll try to take advantage from you. Better safe than sorry;
Forget about travelling on a train here, such thing doesn't exist, except on a few places (Belo Horizonte to Vitória and scenic short routes in the colonial cities in Minas Gerais and Paraná). You'll need to choose between buses or planes for long range trips. Almost always you can buy a bus ticket right before departure;
Ressarch about typical foods in the region you'll go. If there's one thing that Brazil is good, is food.
You have brazilian friends, but, if there's someone else reading this and planning to visit us: our capital is neither Buenos Aires, nor Rio AND WE DON'T SPEAK SPANISH...I mean, everyone can understand bits of spanish, specially if said slowly, but we speak portuguese. A "Eu não falo português, me desculpe, há alguém que fala inglês por aqui?" ("I don't speak portuguese, sorry, is there someone here that speaks english?") will do wonders, trust me.
Again, our political situation is rather unstable. Protests are common, and they always impact public transport. If you land here, pray for Lula (our ex president). When (it's not a matter of if, anymore, but when) he's arrested, Brazil will blow up and some violent riots will happen. But, the trick is, no one knows when Lula's sentence will become public ("Lula arrested tomorrow" is a common meme here, along with associations between Aecio Neves and coke).
Watch a soccer match. Ask if your friends are Coritiba or Atlético Paranaense supporters, and ask them to go with you to a match. It's our favorite weekend program. If they support another team, like Paraná or Londrina, you'll go to a Série B match (think about NBA's summer league, but with different clubs and the possibility of promotion and relegation), which I don't recommend if you're not a soccer fan. But don't go to a derby, they get violent.
And, most of all, Brazil is a beautiful, beautiful country. Violent? Yes, but don't people take 1001 precautions in order to go to Barcelona, or take a long detour in order to go to the Sacre Coeur and avoid the scammers? Brazil deserves those precautions, trust me. Whatever is colonial cities, nature or beaches, you'll love Brazil. Even us, that live with crime, unemployement and awful politicians, we all love our country.
About the Amazon, it's not dangerous. I mean, there is a crime rate in Manaus and Belém, but not as much as Rio's slum, for an example. You need to know that both are poor cities, specially Belém, so you'll see beggars, theft and such. But it's not a deal breaker, by far.
I never traveled to the Amazon, but we all know the highlights. You can land in Manaus, take a boat ride (24h+, think it's a cruise) down the Amazon River to Santarém and Alter do Chão and, from there, you can either go on boat or plane to Belém. A week or 8 days should be enough, specially considering Belém itself doesn't have a lot of highlights. You probably can find a tourism agency that can prepare the boats (CVC is the most famous in Brazil, but there are a lot of local companies, cheaper than CVC). If you want to spend less days, you can find trips within the Amazonas state, boat rides to indigenous tribes or up the 2 famous rivers in the Amazon's heart.
It's quite expensive for a brazilian to go, but, like I said, the dollar is valued right now, at least here, so, I wouldn't bother too much with money if I were you. Oh, and I know the government demans vaccination, against Malaria and the Yellow Fever, when you go or return from the Amazon. Since the small Yellow Fever outbreak in the southeast region this february, I heard police officers are enforcing this law, even turning back non-vaccinated people.
Oh, and I forgot: I don't know if there's still talks about Zika virus over there, but there's no danger anylonger. Dengue and the Zika is a summer disease, there's no risk from late April until early December. If you come here during summer (between January and March, specially), you can worry about this. Dengue can put you in bed for 5 days easily, ruining your trip.
I do have a Brazilian tourist visa from my trip in 2016. I also went in the height of the dengue/Zika scare, and I wore long sleeves and pants and used repellant, and I was never bitten and didn't have any problems, so it doesn't scare me off from visiting again! Glad to hear the problem isn't as big anymore.
if you have any further ideas regarding what an American should do in Brazil to really experience the culture and get to know the country better, please don't hesitate to share! All your advice has been so helpful.
Culture is a tricky question, because every state have a different culture. My way of life is completely different from the way of life in Rio, in São Paulo, in Bahia, in Ceará, in Paraná...the difference between the California's culture and New York's culture exists in every brazilian state. So, it depends on which aspect you want to live. Southerners (like at Paraná) are more reserved, almost european, so, maybe, you want to live a more extroverted experience, and you'll find this in Rio and in the northeast (close to beaches). In Minas, you'll find a cozy experience: smaller cities, more home made food, open people, but not so extroverted. In the North, close to the Amazon, you'll find a more humble, poor society, but very proud of their indigenous relations.
You'll need to see which culture you want to live here, but, if you can fit São Paulo, Rio, one colonial city (you can go to Paraty, in Rio, or Ouro Preto, in Minas), one northeast capital (I would suggest either Salvador or Recife, thanks to the historical value) and one northeast beach, you would at least feel a little bit of our diversity before going to Manaus. Maybe São Paulo -> Rio de Janeiro -> Belo Horizonte (to Ouro Preto) -> Recife -> Porto de Galinhas -> Manaus will fit. Or, São Paulo -> Paraty -> Rio (by bus) -> Maceió -> Maragogi -> Manaus.
I will definitely try out this itinerary!
How would you say most Brazilians feel about Americans?
Pretty much neutral. I mean, there are a couple of people that, for ideological reasons, despise the US, but usually they differ the country from the habitants, and they're a minority, anyway. The US is a place the majority of Brazil admires and sees as a country of hard workers and with respectable and serious politicians, although this changed since Trump was elected (this is not my opinion, by the way. It's just how some of the country sees the US). You'll probably hear a couple of "Is life good there?" and one or other "Oh, I lived in the US in 20XX...". Living in the US is a high standard here, so as living in any 1st world country, no matter how briefly it was.
Long story short, you'll not have any problems. We don't have issues with any nationality, except if it involves Argentina or Uruguay and soccer. But I recommend you to not dive yourself in politics conversation: right now, this is a mine field here, and you're obligated to either love or hate one side. This includes your opinions on Trump: although the majority of Brazil couldn't care less about Trump, part of society hates him ("a xenophobic that represents US evil and imperialist side") and other part loves him ("a true patriot that don't care about manipulative media, we need someone like him in Brazil"). No need to ruin your vacations diving into this (specially because, and you can trust me on this, if you comment about our current political situation, you WILL be asked about your thoughts on Trump).
