Are you contemplating or already started planning a trip to Brazil? Brazil is such vast country that you may easily get overwhelmed by the numerous attractions it offers. Where to go? What to do? What to see? These 10 tips are sure to provide helpful planning information to get you started in putting together your trip.
1.
Driver’s Licence: If you’re going to drive, you need an international drivers licence, or a translated and authorized copy of your local licence. A translation is only valid for 6 months. If your international licence doesn’t have Portuguese, it has to be translated too.
2.
Learn Portuguese: Brazilians are very friendly, open and hospitable people. Being able to speak and understand at least basic Portuguese (preferably a little more than that), will bring great enhancement to your trip. Especially in the remote, non touristic and poorer areas, you will NOT find people who speak anything else than Portuguese
3.
Make sure you have enough cash with you. Lots of remote places don’t accept cards.
4.
Hitchhikers : The safest thing to do is to NOT pick them up. Especially in poorer areas, LOTS of people are trying to get a free ride. I myself – trusting my gut feeling – picked up hitchhikers on 4 occasions. A little old man on a jungle road, An elderly woman on her way to her family, a worker on his way home, and another elderly lady with a little boy. All these people were really nice and gave me good advice about the places that I was planning to go to. If you trust your gut feeling, go for it, if you don’t, better not pick up anybody
5.
Avoid the bigger roads. They are loaded with trucks. BIG ONES, up to 30m and 60 tons. These things are fast, loaded to the maximum (probably over capacity in some cases), loaded badly, causing them to tip over to one side and a lot of them drive dangerously. They will overtake at high speeds with poor or no visibility on oncoming traffic or block the entire road on ascents when they are supposed to keep to the right side….
6.
Business Hours. Banks are open 10am - 4pm., Monday through Friday in most of the country. Most malls are open from Monday to Saturday, 10am-10pm. Some malls in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro are open on Sundays, from noon to 8pm. Most stores in Brazil are open 9am-6:30pm. on weekdays, and 9am-1pm on Saturdays
7.
Dress. Brazilians tend to dress casually outside workplace. Most restaurants do not require a tie or sport jacket, however, a few fancy clubs and restaurants do. If you plan to travel to São Paulo, you will encounter a cosmopolitan city, where fashion matters.
8.
No Hand Gestures . In most countries in the world the ‘OK’ symbol made using one hand means just that – OK. In fact, in all South American countries that speak Spanish, the OK sign is OK. Here in Brazil it means something much much worse and is shockingly offensive.
..Don’t do it or you may just get a punch in the nose or worse.
9.Leave your jewelery at home. Don’t wear any jewellery, cheap or expensive. What you really don’t want is to attract some attention by those who’re looking for potential targets.
10.Always travel in groups. Avoid wondering around in places you’ve never been before, particularly in the night. Use local transport rather than walk in the night. Cabs are a bit risky too and you should avoid them unless you speak some Portuguese. Either you will end up paying too much money or you don’t know where you will end up. Personally, I prefer buses to cabs as most Brazilians do
These tips along with a handy English to Portuguese dictionary should help you and your travel mates have a safe and enjoyable trip to Brazil.
