--- title: "Brazil travel guides, city by city | Wimup" description: "Brazil on Wimup: Top 10 city guides, where to go region by region, what to know before you go, and the food, faces and films worth your time." url: https://wimup.com/country/brazil type: Country guide updated: 2026-10-06 publisher: Wimup (https://wimup.com) --- # Top 10s across Brazil Half a continent under one flag: Atlantic beach cities, the **Amazon** basin, colonial gold towns and the **Pantanal** wetlands. Brazil is not a country you cross, it is a country you choose a corner of. ## Quick answer Open in **Rio de Janeiro**, then pick one more region and commit to it. North for **Salvador** and the Bahian coast, where the food and the music are strongest. West for the **Pantanal** and the clear rivers around **Bonito**, where the wildlife is. **Manaus** or **Belém** for the Amazon, each a leg of its own. South for the falls at **Foz do Iguaçu**. Distances are continental, so fly between regions and travel slowly inside them. ## Quick facts - **Best months:** Apr · May · Sep · Oct - **Ideal length:** 14–21 days - **Budget per day:** $55–110 - **Language:** Portuguese - **Getting around:** Domestic flights & long-distance buses - **3** City guides - **213,421,037** People - **1** Video guide - **26** States Brazil is the size of a continent and travels like one, so a first trip works best built around two or three bases rather than a loop. Rio is the natural opening, and the coast north to Salvador, the falls at Foz do Iguaçu and the Amazon each justify a leg of their own. ## 3 Brazil city guides 1. [Rio de Janeiro](https://wimup.com/city/rio-de-janeiro.md): South America · 10 picks 2. [São Paulo](https://wimup.com/city/sao-paulo.md): South America · 10 picks 3. [Florianópolis](https://wimup.com/city/florianopolis.md): South America · 10 picks ## Know before you go - **Population:** 213,421,037 - **Area:** 8,509,360 km² - **Density:** 25.1 / km² - **Capital:** Brasília - **Major cities:** São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Brasília, Fortaleza, Salvador - **Tourism board:** Official site - **Currency:** Real (R$) The Brazilian real, BRL. Cards are taken almost everywhere, and Pix, the central bank’s instant transfer system, has largely replaced cash in daily life. Carry some notes for markets and small towns. - **Language:** Portuguese Brazilian Portuguese, and the only Portuguese-speaking country in the Americas. English is limited outside hotels, airports and the bigger tourism operators, so a phrasebook earns its weight. - **Calling code:** +55 - **Power:** 127V and 220V, 60Hz, plug types N and C The Type N socket is standard, and a Europlug fits it. Much of the southeast runs at 127V, parts of the north, northeast and Brasília at 220V, so check the label before plugging in. - **Emergency:** 190 police · 192 ambulance · 193 fire Three separate numbers, all free and answered around the clock. Calls to 911 and 112 are redirected onto the same lines. - **Visa:** By nationality US, Canadian and Australian passports have needed an electronic visa since 10 April 2025. EU and UK passports stay visa-exempt for tourism, 90 days at a time. Confirm with a Brazilian consulate. - **Getting around:** Flights, then coaches Domestic flights do the long legs, and there are many. Long-distance coaches cover the rest comfortably, and ride apps work in every city. Driving is easy on main highways and slow elsewhere. - **Tipping:** 10% service, usually on the bill Most restaurants add a ten percent service charge. It is customary but not compulsory, and normally the whole tip. In a taxi, round up. - **Time zones:** Four, UTC−2 to UTC−5 Brasília time covers the populated east. The Amazon sits an hour behind it, Acre two, and the Atlantic islands an hour ahead. Brazil no longer observes daylight saving. - **Health:** Yellow fever vaccination recommended Recommended for most of the country, and it must be given at least ten days before travel to count. Take a travel clinic’s advice for your specific route. ## When to visit - **Jan** (peak) - **Feb** (peak) - **Mar** (good) - **Apr** (best) - **May** (best) - **Jun** (good) - **Jul** (peak) - **Aug** (good) - **Sep** (best) - **Oct** (best) - **Nov** (good) - **Dec** (peak) ## Fun fact Brazil borders every South American country except Chile and Ecuador. Counting French Guiana that is ten land neighbours, more than any other country in the Americas. ## Stereotypes, sorted out - **Myth:** Brazil is carnival and beaches **Reality:** Carnival is five days a year and the coast is a thin strip of a very wide map. Inland sit the colonial gold towns of Minas Gerais, the world’s largest tropical wetland in the Pantanal, a purpose-built modernist capital, and a southern wine country with cold winters. - **Myth:** They speak Spanish **Reality:** Portuguese, and it is the only Portuguese-speaking country in the Americas. Spanish earns goodwill and very little comprehension. Learn bom dia, obrigado and quanto custa before you land. - **Myth:** It is too dangerous to visit **Reality:** Risk in Brazil is a question of neighbourhood, and it changes by the hour and the street. Carry little, book a ride app after dark, and ask your hotel which blocks to avoid. That advice is most of the work. - **Myth:** Two weeks is enough to see it **Reality:** Brazil covers more than eight and a half million square kilometres and holds four time zones. Two weeks buys you one region done properly, plus the flights either side. - **Myth:** The Amazon is a day trip from Rio **Reality:** Manaus, the usual gateway, is a long flight from the southeast, and the lodges are hours further by boat. The rainforest is a leg of its own, and it rewards the days you give it. - Greetings are physical. Handshakes turn into embraces, cheek kisses are standard, and the number of kisses changes by region, so follow whoever moves first. - Punctuality is elastic socially and firm professionally. Turning up well after the stated hour for dinner is normal. A meeting is not. - Pix, the instant bank transfer built by the central bank, now runs day-to-day payments. Cards are widely taken, and cash matters most in small towns and at markets. - A ten percent service charge appears on most restaurant bills. It is customary, though not compulsory, and it is usually the whole tip. - Sunday belongs to the beach and the family lunch. Cities thin out, and plenty of shops stay shut. - Do not photograph inside a favela without a guide who lives there and has asked on your behalf. - Portuguese first, always. Even a few words shift a conversation, and English is far less common outside hotels and airports than visitors expect. ## Famous Brazilian faces - **Pelé**: Three World Cups, in 1958, 1962 and 1970, a record no other player holds - **Ayrton Senna**: Three Formula One world titles, and the driver Brazil still measures the sport against - **Oscar Niemeyer**: The architect of Brasília, and of Brazilian modernism in concrete - **Antônio Carlos Jobim**: Composer of the bossa nova songbook, "The Girl from Ipanema" included - **Marta**: Six FIFA World Player of the Year awards, more than any other footballer - **Machado de Assis**: The nineteenth-century novelist who founded the Brazilian Academy of Letters - **Clarice Lispector**: Novelist and short-story writer, and the strangest voice in Brazilian modernism - **Sebastião Salgado**: Documentary photographer, behind the Genesis and Amazônia series - **Garrincha**: The winger who won the 1958 and 1962 World Cups alongside Pelé - **Zico**: Flamengo’s playmaker, and the creative heart of the 1982 side - **Sócrates**: Captain of that 1982 team, and a qualified medical doctor while he played - **Ronaldo**: Two World Cups, and top scorer of the 2002 tournament - **Ronaldinho**: The 2002 winner who made a decade of football look improvised - **Neymar**: Brazil’s record goalscorer, and the penalty that won Olympic gold in Rio - **Emerson Fittipaldi**: The first Brazilian Formula One world champion, in 1972 and again in 1974 - **Gustavo Kuerten**: Three French Open titles, and world number one at the end of 2000 - **Rebeca Andrade**: Brazil’s most decorated Olympian, with gymnastics gold in Tokyo and in Paris - **João Gilberto**: The guitar and the whisper that turned bossa nova into a form - **Gilberto Gil**: Tropicália founder, exiled in 1969, and later the country’s culture minister - **Caetano Veloso**: The other half of Tropicália, and still writing - **Chico Buarque**: Songwriter and novelist, whose lyrics outran the dictatorship’s censors - **Elis Regina**: The voice Brazilian popular song is still measured against - **Carmen Miranda**: The Portuguese-born, Rio-raised singer who carried Brazil to Hollywood - **Milton Nascimento**: The Minas voice behind Clube da Esquina - **Anitta**: The Rio singer who took funk carioca onto the global charts - **Jorge Amado**: The Bahian novelist who put Salvador on the world’s shelves - **Carlos Drummond de Andrade**: The poet of Itabira, and the plainest voice in Brazilian verse - **Paulo Coelho**: Author of The Alchemist, one of the most translated novels of the modern era - **Fernanda Montenegro**: Central Station, and the first Brazilian nominated for a Best Actress Oscar - **Walter Salles**: Director of Central Station and I’m Still Here, Brazil’s first Oscar winner in 2025 - **Fernanda Torres**: Nominated for Best Actress in 2025 for I’m Still Here - **Glauber Rocha**: The Cinema Novo director behind Black God, White Devil - **Tarsila do Amaral**: Painter of Abaporu, the image Brazilian modernism starts from - **Roberto Burle Marx**: The landscape architect who drew the Copacabana promenade - **Lygia Clark**: Neo-Concrete artist, whose works asked to be handled, not hung - **Hélio Oiticica**: Installation artist, and the man whose work gave Tropicália its name - **Alberto Santos-Dumont**: The aviation pioneer whose 14-bis flew before a Paris crowd in 1906 - **Oswaldo Cruz**: The physician who cleared yellow fever out of Rio in the 1900s - **César Lattes**: Co-discoverer of the pi meson in 1947, at 22 ## Must-try Brazilian food - **Feijoada**: Black beans and salted, smoked pork, with rice, greens and orange. A Saturday lunch dish. - **Arroz e feijão**: Rice and beans, at almost every lunch in the country. The base of every plate. - **Farofa**: Toasted cassava flour, often fried with bacon and egg, scattered over a plate for crunch. - **Picanha**: The rump cap, salted heavily and grilled over coals. The cut a churrasco is judged on. - **Pão de queijo**: Cassava-starch cheese rolls, hollow and elastic. Baked all morning in Minas. - **Feijão tropeiro**: Mule-driver beans fried with cassava flour, sausage, egg and collard greens. - **Frango com quiabo**: Chicken stewed with okra over angu, a soft cornmeal. The Sunday plate in Minas Gerais. - **Moqueca baiana**: Fish stewed in coconut milk, dendê palm oil and peppers, in a clay pot. - **Acarajé**: Black-eyed pea fritters fried in dendê and filled with vatapá, sold by Bahia’s baianas. - **Vatapá**: Bread, shrimp, peanuts and coconut milk cooked to a thick paste. Acarajé’s filling. - **Baião de dois**: Rice and black-eyed peas with coalho cheese and dried beef. The northeast in one pan. - **Carne de sol**: Salted, air-dried beef, grilled and served with butter beans and cassava. Sertão cooking. - **Tapioca**: Cassava starch set in a hot pan into a soft crêpe, filled sweet or savoury, for breakfast. - **Cuscuz nordestino**: Steamed cornmeal for breakfast with butter, cheese or eggs. Not the North African kind. - **Tacacá**: Tucupi broth with dried shrimp and jambu, a leaf that numbs the mouth. Belém street food. - **Pato no tucupi**: Duck poached in tucupi, the fermented juice of wild cassava. Belém’s festival dish. - **Açaí**: In the Amazon, thick, unsweetened and eaten with fish. The sweet frozen bowl is southern. - **Pirarucu**: One of the world’s largest freshwater fish, salted, dried and shredded into stews. - **Churrasco**: Beef, sausage and chicken hearts on skewers over coals, carved at the table, gaúcho style. - **Barreado**: Beef slow-cooked overnight in a sealed clay pot on the Paraná coast. Eaten with banana. - **Coxinha**: Shredded chicken in a teardrop of dough, breaded and fried. The default snack. - **Pastel**: A thin fried pastry filled with cheese or beef. Market food, taken with sugarcane juice. - **Pão na chapa**: White bread split, buttered and pressed on the griddle. Breakfast at any padaria counter. - **Brigadeiro**: Condensed milk and cocoa cooked down, rolled in sprinkles. At every birthday party. - **Quindim**: Baked custard of egg yolk, sugar and coconut. Portuguese origin, Brazilian execution. - **Pudim de leite**: Condensed-milk flan under dark caramel, kept on every lanchonete counter. - **Romeu e Julieta**: Guava paste with fresh white cheese. Two ingredients, and no notes. - **Caipirinha**: Cachaça, lime and sugar muddled over ice. The national drink, built on sugarcane spirit. - **Guaraná**: Soda made from an Amazonian berry, and the local answer to cola. - **Cafezinho**: A small, strong, sweet coffee, offered constantly and refused rarely. - **Chimarrão**: Hot yerba mate through a metal straw from a shared gourd, across Rio Grande do Sul. ## By theme - [Wildlife & safari](https://wimup.com/wildlife.md) ## Films - [Rio in 10](https://wimup.com/watch/rio.md), 3:34:45 ## FAQs ### Do I need a visa for Brazil? It depends on your passport. Citizens of the United States, Canada and Australia have needed an electronic visa since 10 April 2025, applied for online before travel. Holders of European Union and United Kingdom passports remain visa-exempt for tourism, normally 90 days at a time and no more than 180 days in any twelve-month period. Confirm the current rules for your own nationality with a Brazilian consulate before you book. ### When is the best time to visit Brazil? April, May, September and October suit most first trips: dry across the southeast and the northeast, and quiet between the holiday waves. December to February is the Brazilian summer, hottest, wettest in the southeast and most expensive on the coast. The Amazon and the Pantanal run on their own calendar, with the drier months from around June to October giving the best wildlife viewing. ### Is Brazil safe to travel in? Millions of visitors arrive each year without trouble, and the risk is local. It varies by city, by neighbourhood and by hour. Carry a phone and a little cash, use a ride app at night, keep valuables out of sight on the beach, and ask your accommodation which streets change after dark. Check your own government’s travel advice before you go. ### Do I need vaccinations for Brazil? Yellow fever vaccination is recommended for most of the country, including the Amazon, the Pantanal, Iguaçu and the southeast, and it needs to be given at least ten days before travel to count. Some onward countries then ask to see the certificate. Talk to a travel clinic six to eight weeks before departure and take the advice for your route, not for the country as a whole. ### How do I get around Brazil? Fly between regions and travel slowly inside them. The country is wider than the contiguous United States, so a Rio to Manaus leg is a flight, and domestic routes are frequent and competitively priced. Long-distance coaches are comfortable and cover the country densely, and are the sensible choice for anything under about eight hours. Ride apps work in every city of any size. ## Related countries - [Argentina](https://wimup.com/country/argentina.md) - [Colombia](https://wimup.com/country/colombia.md) - [All of South America](https://wimup.com/south-america) Part of [South America](https://wimup.com/south-america.md) ## Sources - [Tourism board](https://visitbrasil.com/en/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral) - Rankings are Wimup editorial picks. Prices, durations and budgets are editorial estimates, not live quotes; check the official site before you go.