Here’s our anual rewrite of our list of our list of favourite places in Brazil (previous editions include Top 10: favourite places in Brazil and 10 must-see places in Brazil). Here is the 2010 ranking of my 10 must-see places in Brazil. Click on the names of the places to go to their full destination cards here at the blog, and find out more about them. Some of the destinations are really well-known. Others fall within the hidden jewel description. I have only included places I have been to (places I’ve read/heard about but I haven’t visited didn’t make it into the ranking).

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1. Fernando de Noronha (Pernambuco)

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2. Paraty (Rio de Janeiro)

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3. Lençóis Maranhenses (Maranhão)

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4. Ilha Grande (Rio de Janeiro)

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5. Iguaçu falls (Paraná and Argentina)

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6. Brasilia (Distrito Federal)

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7. Boipeba (Bahia)

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8. Bonito (Mato Grosso do Sul)

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9. Inhotim (Minas Gerais)

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10. Rio de Janeiro

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RELATED POSTS:
Brazil 12 months 12 destinations
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To complete the information given at destination: Brasiila we are publishing the following map prepared with the help of Google Maps. You will find on the map the location of the most important sights in Brasilia. The satellite images for Brasilia are in high resolution, you will be able to appreciate the details of most buildings and locations.

View Brasilia on a bigger map

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RELATED POSTS:
destination: Brasilia

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A short month is over and it’s time to look at the blog posts we published during February.

Right at the beginning of the month we explained how to go from Guarulhos international airport in São Paulo to town.

We presented a new link with information on bus travel in Brazil: Linhas Rodoviárias, a site with bus travel information.

Back to Noronha, we visited the notorious staircase at Sancho bay.

A new destination was covered on the blog at destination: Brasilia.

And we have details and links on a destination we haven’t visited yet: links: Ilha do Mel.

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To make up for the absence on this blog of a specific destination card devoted to Ilha do Mel, I am publishing a blog entry with links to sites of interest.

HOW TO GET TO ILHA DO MEL

Boats for the island depart from Pontal do Sul. During the high season there are also boats from Paranaguá. To get there, you either take a bus from Curitiba or, if you have an entire day to spend, the Trem da Serra (train that links Curitiba and Paranaguá). The links I’m showing below containg full schedules for the boat and the buses and train.

ACCOMMODATION

Our Accommodation in Brazil blog has a full list of hotels and pousadas in Ilha do Mel

PORTALS

The government of the state of Paraná has a website devoted to the coast of the state. Within the site, a section on Ilha do Mel.

There are also some private portals, including Ilha do Mel.net, Ilha do Mel.com.br and Ilha do Mel.com.

WEATHER

Average rainfall and temperatures for Ilha do Mel (data from nearby Paranagúa) at weather.msn.com

VOLTAGE

Voltage on the island is 110.

VISITOR RESTRICTIONS

There is a limit to the number of tourists that can stay in the island at any given time: 5,000. If you’re heading to the island during the holiday season, make sure you do so with your accommodation booked in advance. That will prevent you from being stranded in the continent if the limit is reached.

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Brasilia, the capital of Brazil, is a unique and spectacular city. Hardly visited by locals and foreigners alike, its World Heritage Status should grant it the recognition it deserves. It is a true Brazilian jewel. Brasilia is 50 years in 2010, the perfect excuse for a trip there.

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1. HOW TO GET THERE:

Brasilia is quite isolated from the big Brazilian cities. Our advice is to reach it by plane. Brasilia’s international airport is on the outskirts of the city. The main Brazilian airlines fly to Brasilia.

By bus it’s a 16-hour journey from São Paulo. Both Real Expresso and Rápido Federal go to Brasilia. The links explained at bus transportation in Brazil will help you find departures from other cities.

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2. WHEN TO GO:

There is hardly any rain in Brasilia between May and September. Heat can be high and relative humidty reach extreme low values. Due to the lack of rain, the vegetation turns yellow. We advice you to avoid Brasilia during the period between May and September.

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3. CAREFUL WITH:

The heat during the dry season. If you are on foot, distances are long, always carry water with you. There are hardly any shops along the Eixo Monumental, where most monuments are found. Brasilia was not designed for the pedestrian.

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4. WE LIKE THE MOST:

The feeling of being on a planned city, a extremely rare occurrence among the chaotic urban growth in Brazil.

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5. WE LIKE THE LEAST:

As soon as you leave the planned sections of the city, you come across a Brasilia full of large mansion houses and further away, a Brasilia of never-ending misery.

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6. FAVOURITE PLACES:

The Metropolitan Cathedral, the Praça dos Três Poderes, the Eixo Monumental, the Dom Bosco Sanctuary, the JK bridge, the building of the Procuradoria Geral da República.

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7. PIECE OF ADVICE:

• you can see all the basic sights on one day. If you have two days at your disposal you can see pretty much everything.
• if you can, visit Brasilia during the weekend. Hotel prices drop, the heavy traffic of the week is gone and if you are driving a rented car you’ll find parking spaces everywhere.
• most hotels in Brasilia are concentrated on the North and South Hotel Sectors, two areas quite close to each other, near the TV tower and well located if you are planning on visiting the city – which you certainly are.
• Brasilia is one of those cities where hiring a car is an excellent idea. Distances are too short for public transportation but too long for walking. A car will allow you to visit a bigger number of sights on the same day. And you’ll be able to go to places where the public transportation system won’t take you.
• finding your way around Brasilia is not difficult. Most sights are found along the Eixo Monumental. Interpreting Brazilian addresses is quite another skill. Brasilia’s streets sport names like Shn Qd 5 Bloco I, Asa Norte or SCE/Sul, Trecho 2, Conjunto 35. In case of doubt, ask for directions, locals know how to read those addresses.
• most monuments can be visited for free. Check out the times and other restrictions in advance. The Palácio do Planalto (presidencial palace), for instance, can only be visited on Sundays. Alvorada Palace can only be visited on Wednesdays.
• for those not keen on hiring a car, there is a hop-on hop-off tourist bus called Brasília City Tour. It will take you to the most important tourist sights.

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9. ACCOMMODATION:

During the week, political activity in Brasilia keeps the hotels packed. During the weekend, the rooms empty and the hotels lower their prices considerably.

You can search for accommodation in Brasilia through our Hotels Combined search engine, a unique free tool that searches multiple hotel reservation websites simultaneously to help you find the lowest rate instantly. It eliminates the need to search major websites one by one in order to compare prices and availability. An amazing time and money saver!

The results open on a new page.

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10. HEALTH:

You don’t need any vaccines if you are planning to visit Brasilia. However, cases of yellow fever are regularly reported on the areas around the city, so if you are thinking of getting out of town, it might be a good idea to get the shot.

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11. LINKS:

The best official page is Brasilia e Região Convention & Visitors Bureau. It has no English version. On the tourism section you will be able to download a few guides with relevant material.

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12. WEATHER FORECAST:

The weather in Brasilia for the next 10 days.

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13. CLIMATE:

Average temperatures and rainfall in Brasilia at weather.msn.

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14. GOOGLE MAPS:

map of the Brasilia.

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15. PHOTO ALBUM:

Brasilia photo album (click on the link to go to the album)

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RELATED POSTS:
map of the Brasilia
World Heritage Sites
Website on the Cultural World Heritage Sites in Brazil

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The best things in life are free, to a point. To reach the most beautiful beach in Brazil, Sancho bay at the Fernando de Noronha archipelago you either take a boat and approach the beach from the sea or face the two sets of staircases inside a crack on the cliff and go down the beach that way. The following video shows the way down the cliff. Flip-flops/thongs are not a great idea, by the way. A secure foot goes a long way granting you security as you descend through the stairs.

To the administration of the archipelago: it would be nice if a minute fraction of the money collected through the environmental tax was used to mantain the staircase in pristine order.

Our main post on Noronha is destination: Fernando de Noronha.

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RELATED POSTS:
destination: Fernando de Noronha

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Brazilian summer time comes to an end at midnight on Saturday 20. This change applies to the South, Southeast and Centre-West regions of the country (the states affected by the change are: Rio Grande do Sul, Santa Catarina, Paraná, São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Espírito Santo, Minas Gerais, Goiás, Mato Grosso and Mato Grosso do Sul, as well as the Distrito Federal). Clocks will have to be put back one hour.

The easiest way to find out what time it is on any Brazilian state at a given time is to use the tool I explained at What time is it in Brazil?

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Carnival 2010 is here. We are going to be visiting a couple of Brazilian destinations during the carnival break –you will read about them in the coming months. We’ll be back on Wednesday 17.

In the meantime, to all of those who will be spending the carnival in Brazil, have a whale of a time!

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RELATED POSTS:
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Linhas rodoviárias is a new website with information on travel routes around Brazil. It is quite easy to use. For the time being, it only contains information on both domestic and international routes departing from São Paulo.

Busque seu destino! is your search window. ORIGEM (origin) has São Paulo selected as a default (you can’t change it). At DESTINO (destination) you have to select the state or country you are travelling to and at CIDADE (city, town) the name of your destination.

The interesting thing about this website is that the search results shows not only the details of the company or companies (empresa) travelling the route. You will also find the schedules (horários de embarque), fares (preço da passagem), duration of the trip (tempo de viagem), distance (distância em kilómetros), number of stops (previsão de paradas) and the number of the ticket office (guichê de venda) at the bus station where you will be able to purchase tickets.

We take the system is fed manually with all the data coming from multiple sources. We don’t know how often the information is updated. For that reason, we encourage you to use this website as a starting point on your research. But double-check any information with the bus company you will be travelling with.

We hope new departure cities will be fed into the system soon. When that happens we’ll promptly let you know here.

Our main blog entry on bus travel in Brazil is bus transportation in Brazil.

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RELATED POSTS:
bus transportation in Brazil

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You are landing at Guarulhos international airport in São Paulo and need to get to town. Unless you have a friend in São Paulo giving you a lift, you have three options available:

1. take a taxi. They are safe, they are reliable and they are expensive. We gave details of how the taxis operate at taxis from Guarulhos int’l airport in São Paulo.
2. take the shuttle bus. It costs R$30 and has lines serving different parts of the city: it goes to Congonhas Airport, to Praça da República (downtown), to Avenida Paulista / Circuito dos Hotéis (serving the main hotels in the Avenida Paulista area), to Itaim Bibi (in the south of the city), to the Barra Funda bus station and to the Terminal Tietê bus station. There is more information on schedules and itineraries at the service’s website. All buses depart from the external side of the airport, right after you leave the terminal. Each line is clearly identified. The buses are safe and reliable and can carry big amounts of luggage.
3. take a local bus to metrô Tatuapé (on the red line of the São Paulo underground). From there you will have to navigate your way to your destination making the most of the smallish subway system. The bus costs R$3,65 and we only advise it if you are not travelling with heavy luggage (it is not a bus designed to carry luggage). The bus can be very crowded as it is taken by the locals. Also bear in mind that São Paulo’s underground system is one of the busiest in the world. You can check schedules here.

It is absolutely impossible to venture travel times between the airport and your destination in town (and viceversa). Traffic conditions in São Paulo can be horrendous and its traffic jams are something of a legend. A ride from the airport to Avenida Paulista can take anything between 45 minutes and 2 hours. The roads connecting the airport to town are some of the most congested in the city.

São Paulo must rank, without any doubt, among the most unfriendly large cities of the world when it comes to transportation between its international airport and the city. For years there have been talks of a train connection but so far nothing good has come out of it. The government promised the rail connection would be up and running in 2008, then in 2010 and now the date has been postponed to 2014. Affordable public transportation has never been a priority for São Paulo.

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from Guarulhos airport to São Paulo’s bus station
accommodation at Guarulhos airport in São Paulo
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São Paulo getaways
youth hostels in São Paulo.

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