Globe Countries Cities Itineraries World's Best Hotels Events Login
Rio de Janeiro from the air in haze, the Sugarloaf standing over Botafogo bay and the city running back into the hills
Rio de Janeiro from the air · the Sugarloaf over Botafogo, and the city running back into the hills
Country brief · 10.3333°S 53.2000°W · Updated

Brazil

Brazil's coast is the famous part. The interior is where it has no rival.

How long
Ten to fourteen daystwo regions, and a flight between them
Getting around
Domestic flightsLATAM, GOL and Azul; buses fill the gaps
When
May to OctoberPantanal July to October, the Lençóis lagoons May to September
Language
PortugueseEnglish about 5%, thin outside the tourist trade
Money
The real, BRLcards almost everywhere; the 10% service charge is the tip
Airports
GRU and GIGSão Paulo and Rio; Brasília BSB is the hub, and a regional strip sits near everything else
How long

How many days do you need in Brazil?

Ten to fourteen days for two regions. Every pairing is a flight, so a trip that tries for the coast, the Amazon and the Pantanal at once is spent in airports.

Getting around

How do you get around Brazil?

Domestic flights are the spine: LATAM, GOL and Azul between them cover the country, and Azul and GOL sell an airpass to visitors arriving on an international ticket. Buses fill the gaps, and a car earns its keep only inside a region.

When

When is the best time to visit Brazil?

May to October for Rio and the coast, July to October for the Pantanal, May to September for the Lençóis lagoons. The Amazon has two seasons, high water to about July and low water from August, each opening a different kind of trip. Rio's Carnival fills the Sambadrome and the streets in February or early March, depending on the year.

Language

What language is spoken in Brazil?

Portuguese. English is thin outside the tourist trade: about 5 per cent of Brazilians say they speak it at all (British Council, 2014), and the country sits in the low band of the EF English Proficiency Index.

Money

What money does Brazil use?

The real, BRL. Cards are accepted almost everywhere, and the 10 per cent service charge on a restaurant bill is the tip.

Airports

Where do you fly into Brazil?

São Paulo GRU and Rio GIG are the international gateways, Brasília BSB the central hub, and there is a regional airport near almost everything else: Foz do Iguaçu IGU, Salvador SSA, Recife REC, Manaus MAO, Cuiabá CGB for the Pantanal, Porto Seguro BPS for Trancoso, São Luís SLZ for the Lençóis.

Visa

Do you need a visa for Brazil?

US, Canadian and Australian passports have needed an e-visa since 10 April 2025, applied for online. UK and EU passports enter visa free for up to 90 days.

Why you should visit

Ninety seconds on the country

Brazil is the fifth largest country on earth, and the mistake is to treat it as one trip. Rio to Salvador is a two-hour flight and Rio to Manaus is four. It is a set of regions that happen to share a language, and the honest itinerary picks two of them.

The coast is why most people come, 7,400 kilometres of it from the equator to the Uruguayan border. The interior holds the things nobody else has: the largest wetland on the planet, the widest waterfall system, a desert that floods into lagoons every winter, and a capital drawn from nothing in four years.

It is the only Portuguese-speaking country on the continent, and it does not run on English. That matters less than it sounds. The vocabulary a traveller needs is small, and the card machine has made cash almost optional in the cities.

The calendar does the rest of the planning. May to October is the dry half of the year on the coast, and the only window in which the Pantanal shows its animals. Carnival, 5 to 13 February 2027, is the week to book furthest ahead: rooms and Sambadrome seats go months before.

Six Ways to Travel It

Start with the best of the country, or pick how you want to travel. The towns, the things to do and the map all change with it.

Christ the Redeemer on the summit of Corcovado at sunset, the granite peak lit orange above forested ridges and the edge of Rio below
Christ the Redeemer on Corcovado, above the forest of Tijuca. Book one of the first trains up the mountain, before the summit platform fills.

Best of Brazil

The Best Places to Visit in Brazil

Fly into Rio and give it four nights. Christ the Redeemer and Sugarloaf are the two views you came for, both quietest in the first hour after opening, so book a morning slot on the Corcovado train before you fly. Foz do Iguaçu is a direct flight from Rio, and two nights there covers the falls from the Brazilian side.

Then add one more region and give it the rest of the trip. Salvador's Pelourinho and the Chapada Diamantina make a natural pair in the northeast, and the lagoons of the Lençóis Maranhenses are fullest from about June to September. For the Pantanal, come in the dry months from July to October, and sleep in a lodge on the Transpantaneira, where the animals are out at dawn and dusk.

Plan the trip

Basemap OpenStreetMap
Loading the map
View on globe
Meridian Dispatch for iPhone

Start planning your trip
to Brazil.

The places on this page are in the app, each with a verdict: why to go, how far from your hotel, how long to stay. Forward your confirmations and the days fill themselves in.

Download on the App Store