Brazil

The one thing to settle before anything else: Brazil reintroduced visas for US, Canadian and Australian visitors, with the e-visa live since 10 April 2025. It’s applied for on the official VFS-operated portal (about US$80.90, valid 10 years for Americans and 5 for Canadians and Australians), needs proof of roughly US$2,000 in funds and a return reservation, and is now linked to airline boarding — so don’t arrive without it. UK, EU and Irish citizens stay visa-free for 90 days (up to 180 a year).

On health, yellow-fever vaccination isn’t usually required to enter (unless you’ve come from a risk country within 90 days) but is strongly recommended for most of the country — Rio, São Paulo, the Amazon, the Pantanal and Iguaçu included. Have it at least 10 days ahead and carry the certificate. Dengue is widespread (Brazil had large outbreaks in 2024), and malaria is a risk in the Amazon but not in Rio, São Paulo, Brasília or the coastal cities.

Keep the yellow-fever certificate with your passport if you’re travelling onward from Brazil: a number of countries (parts of Africa among them) require proof of vaccination precisely because you’re arriving from a yellow-fever country, even though Brazil itself didn’t ask for it on the way in.

Across the long legs — Rio–Manaus, Rio–Iguaçu, Rio–Salvador — you fly. For shorter, within-region hops, the long-distance buses are comfortable, with sleeper “leito” seats on overnight runs. In the cities, use Uber or the local 99 app rather than hailing taxis off the street — it’s both safer and more transparently priced, and it’s the default advice for getting around at night.

Self-driving is possible but wants caution: watch for theft at stops, and avoid driving at night or near the land borders (see safety). Rio and São Paulo have metros for the core; and the top sights increasingly use timed, pre-booked tickets, so reserve Christ the Redeemer and the like online before you go.

For the cities, the standing advice from the UK is to use ride-hailing apps (Uber or 99) rather than hailed street taxis — the route and driver are tracked, the fare is fixed, and you avoid the overcharging and occasional set-ups that street cabs can bring.

The postcard is Rio de Janeiro — Christ the Redeemer over the bay, Sugarloaf, Copacabana and Ipanema — and the spiritual home of Carnival, shared with Salvador and its Afro-Brazilian Bahian culture. On the Argentine border, Iguaçu Falls is among the most spectacular waterfalls on Earth (the Brazil side for the panorama, the Argentine side for the up-close Devil’s Throat).

Then the wild interior: the Amazon, reached via Manaus and its Meeting of the Waters and belle-époque opera house; the Pantanal, the world’s largest wetland and the best place anywhere to see wild jaguars; the surreal dune-and-lagoon Lençóis Maranhenses; and the capped island paradise of Fernando de Noronha. Brazil holds 26 UNESCO World Heritage sites — a measure of how much there is, and why you pick a corner and go deep.

In Rio, Christ the Redeemer (one of the New7Wonders) is reached only by the official cog train or Paineiras vans on a timed online ticket — there’s no same-day gate sale — and Sugarloaf is a two-stage cable car. The Iguaçu national park charges a straightforward entry on each side of the border. The table has the headline prices.

The one to plan hardest is Fernando de Noronha: the archipelago caps visitor numbers and layers a daily environmental-preservation tax (around R$106 a day, so roughly R$670 for a week) on top of a separate marine-park fee — so it’s a book-and-budget-ahead trip, not a spontaneous one. Across Brazil, these fees are dynamic, so confirm on the official portals.

Christ the Redeemer is prone to cloud — book the earliest slot you can and check the webcam before you set off, because the statue vanishes into mist on a bad day and the ticket is timed. And take the official van or train up, never the Corcovado walking trail (see safety).

For Rio and the southeast, the summer (December–March) is hot, humid, peak and pricey — the beach-and-Carnival season — while cooler, drier April–June is arguably lovelier, and the northeast coast (Salvador, Recife, Fortaleza) is warm and beach-ready almost year-round. The southern winter (June–August) is mild rather than cold.

The wild side flips the calendar. The Pantanal’s dry season (July–October) concentrates wildlife — the prime window for jaguars — the Amazon is easier to travel in its drier June–November half, and the Lençóis Maranhenses lagoons are fullest June–September once the rains have filled them. The swaps below are how to keep landing in the right Brazil.

• Rio in peak summer feels too hot and crowdedSkipDec–Feb on the southeast beachesGothe Apr–June shoulder in Rio, or the warm-year-round northeast
• You want wildlife, not beachesSkipthe wet Nov–Mar PantanalGothe Jul–Oct dry season for jaguars, and the Jun–Nov Amazon
• Chasing the Lençóis lagoonsSkipthe dry, empty basins outside the windowGoJune to September, when the rains have filled them

If Carnival is the goal, treat it as the fixed point the whole trip is built around and book Rio or Salvador several months ahead — hotels and flights sell out and rates multiply. Rio’s headline is the Sambadrome, where the samba schools parade for ticketed grandstands; the free, citywide blocos (street parties) are the other half, and in Salvador the street party is the event.

It’s also the one time the safety advice tightens: huge crowds mean pickpocketing and phone-snatching spike, so carry almost nothing, keep your phone zipped away, and treat the bloco as a place to bring a little cash and nothing you’d mind losing.

Carnival moves every year with the church calendar, so don’t assume last year’s dates — it’s 8–9 February in 2027, but confirm the year you travel. Non-refundable Carnival-week bookings are the norm, so lock your dates before you commit.

The cautions are specific rather than vague. The land border zones are off-limits — the US rates everywhere within 160 km of Brazil’s neighbours “do not travel” (with Iguaçu and the Pantanal parks the exceptions), and the UK flags remote Amazonas river areas. In the cities the everyday threats are opportunistic robbery, phone-snatching (worst in the late afternoon and evening) and express kidnapping — forced ATM or Pix withdrawals. The standing advice: carry little, use hotel safes, prefer app rides, use ATMs by day, and never resist a robbery — hand the valuables over.

Two Rio specifics: armed robberies have been reported on the walking trail up to Christ the Redeemer, so take the official van or train, not the trail; and theft clusters around Copacabana, Ipanema and Lapa. And favela tours are not a routine tourist activity — both the US and UK advise against entering favelas at all, even with a guide, as conditions shift by the day and people have been shot after wandering in by accident. None of this should deter you — millions visit safely — but read the current advisories before you go.

A note on the land borders: the 160 km “do not travel” band is about smuggling routes and armed groups in remote frontier areas, not the tourist sights near them — Foz do Iguaçu and the Pantanal are explicitly carved out and visited normally. It’s the empty backcountry near the lines, not the parks, that the warning is about.

It’s Portuguese, not Spanish — and Brazilians feel that distinction, so a few words of Portuguese (obrigado if you’re male, obrigada if female) land far better than Spanish. English is limited outside tourist hotspots and smart hotels, so a translation app earns its keep. The culture is warm, tactile and relaxed about punctuality, and football is close to a religion (five World Cups, more than any nation).

Day to day, Brazil is easier and more modern than its reputation: the real is soft (around R$5 to the dollar), so it’s good value, and Pix and cards mean you rarely need much cash — the big line item is the flying between regions. For data, an eSIM sidesteps the local-SIM hassle (a prepaid SIM usually wants a CPF tax number). Same-sex marriage has been legal nationwide since 2013 and the big cities have huge, visible LGBTQ scenes, though acceptance thins outside them.

Emergency numbers: 190 for police, 192 for an ambulance (SAMU) and 193 for the fire brigade. Dialling 911 or 112 does work from a mobile — it reroutes to the services free of charge — but know the local three-digit numbers too. Rio has a dedicated tourist police unit (DEAT, in Leblon) with English-speaking officers.