Brazil Travel Guide

Brazil has a reciprocal visa policy with many countries, meaning that when visa fees and restrictions are applied to Brazilian visiting a country, Brazil generally adopts the same measures for that country's visitors.

Brazil's unit of currency is the real (pronounced 'hay-AHL'), plural reais ('hay-ICE'), denoted "R$" (ISO code: BRL), commonly referred to as a "conto" (slang) or "pila" (a slang term for the currency in Rio Grande do Sul). One real is divided into 100 centavos.

Travelling between major cities in Brazil can take a lot of time. Air service covers most of Brazil. Many flights make many stops en route, particularly in hubs such as São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro or Brasilia. Some airports with regular passenger traffic are still operated by state-owned company Infraero, although many international airports already had their operation privatized.

The official language of Brazil is Portuguese. Brazilian Portuguese is remarkably different from European Portuguese. For instance, there are a number of pronunciation differences, some words are written differently, some words have a completely different meaning in Brazil, and there are numerous loanwords from English, French, German, Italian, and Japanese.

By law, everyone must carry a photo ID at all times. For a foreigner, this means your passport. However, the police will mostly be pragmatic and accept a plastified color photocopy. Not carrying a photo ID can lead to problems and delays if stopped by police or in case of a medical emergency.

When visiting the Midwestern states of Brazil, the relative humidity can be below 30% during the dry season from June to September. It is important to drink plenty of water to avoid the unpleasant effects of dehydration.

]] Brazil has international telephone code 55 and two-digit area codes, and phone numbers are eight or nine digits long. Some areas used seven digits until 2006, meaning you might still find some old phone numbers which won't work unless you add another digit. (Mostly, try adding 2 or 3 at the beginning, or if it's an eight-digit number starting with 6 to 9 try adding a 9 at the beginning).

Generally speaking, Brazilians are passionate, curious, welcoming conversationalists.

Communication style

Brazilians tend to be transparent; it's common for them to freely talk about their problems and subjects that are usually seen as shockingly private in other parts of the world.