Brazil Travel Guide: 12 Essential Tips for First-Time Visitors

Just like its land mass, Brazil looms large in the imagination of travelers. With its enticing mix of kinetic, lively celebrations like Carnival, world-class cities packed to the brim with dining, shopping, art, and culture, and awe-inspiring natural wonders like the Amazon rainforest and the Pantanal wetlands, it’s no wonder everyone wants to follow the sound of the samba and discover Brazil’s charms.

But as the continent’s largest country and the fifth-biggest country in the world — as well as one of the longest — that’s a lot of ground to cover. And with so many things to do and experience, it can be hard for first-time travelers to know where to start. Our destination specialists have explored Brazil from top to bottom and everywhere in between, gaining invaluable expertise to make your first trip to Brazil as unforgettable as possible. With our top tips for visiting Brazil for the first time, we’re here to work together and plan a trip you’ll talk about for years to come.

Why Brazil Should Be at the Top of Your Travel List

It may be a bit of a cliché, but Brazil truly does have a bit of everything. Cities like Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo are globally recognized hubs for arts and culture, with exceptional dining, refined hotels, and truly cosmopolitan energy. If you’re after wildlife sightings, Brazil is home to many rare and majestic species like jaguars and colorful macaws. The country’s great outdoors is unparalleled, from pristine white-sand beaches for lounging to rugged national parks like Chapada Diamantina where you can hike to your heart’s content. Culture is also everywhere, from historic small towns to tasting Brazil’s melting-pot heritage in classic dishes. 

12 Essential Tips for Your First Brazilian Adventure

Make the most of your inaugural trip to this one-of-a-kind country with our Brazil travel guide for first-time travelers.

1. Choose Your Brazil Travel Goals

Before your trip planner can craft your dream Bravel travel itinerary, you first need to decide what you want to do on your trip. Brazil offers many different types of experiences, so first-time visitors should start by identifying their interests and travel goals to help streamline the planning process. Do you want to spend most of your time out in the wilderness searching for rare wildlife? Are you an art-lover who prefers street art-filled neighborhoods, galleries, and museums to the great outdoors? Whatever your interests are, we can plan a trip around them.

2. Familiarize Yourself With Brazil’s Top Destinations

Along with identifying your interests, learning more about Brazil’s most popular and best-known places to visit can help you decide where to travel in Brazil. Our destination specialists are intimately familiar with all the top spots, from outdoor destinations like the Amazon, Pantanal, and Iguaçu Falls to big cities like Rio and São Paulo to the country’s most charming small towns like Trancoso, Paraty, and Ouro Preto. 

3. Go Beyond Brazil’s Traditional Highlights

While your trip to Brazil should definitely include plenty of the country’s greatest hits like Rio and the Amazon, we also recommend looking beyond the standard “Top Ten” list and seeing what else Brazil has to offer that isn’t as well known. Our expert trip planners know all the best up-and-coming places you can visit before they get too famous, like the Cerrado savannah or the lagoon-filled dunes of Lençóis Maranhenses National Park. We can also recommend cool, unusual activities like taking a capoeira class, learning to cook traditional Brazilian dishes in a culinary workshop, or ending a day in the Pantanal with a sunset canoe ride while sipping a craft beer. Going beyond the ordinary yields unique memories and experiences.

Keep Reading: The Best Things to Do in Brazil

4. Decide When You Want to Visit

Due to variable factors like weather, seasons, and dates for specific events and festivals, there is no single best time to travel to Brazil. Once you’ve figured out which destinations you want to visit, you can then determine when is the best time of year for each stop. For example, if you want to experience the grand spectacle that is Carnival, let our trip planners know. That way, they can plan your trip around its dates in February and March. Want to swim in the seasonal lagoons of Lençóis Maranhenses National Park? The prime time is from June to September, which can be arranged.

If you’re unsure when the best time of year to visit a specific part of Brazil is, ask our destination specialists! That’s what we’re here for. We can tell you the pros and cons of visiting the Amazon in the rainy season versus the dry season, or how to take advantage of shoulder season to avoid the big crowds during summer or winter breaks. With chances to explore flooded forests by boat in the rainy season or see more wildlife in the Pantanal during the dry season when animals congregate at water sources, there are definite benefits to visiting some destinations during different seasons — it simply comes down to your personal preference. Even if you have to sometimes deal with rain showers during the rainy season, the unique experiences you can have far outweigh getting a bit wet.

Keep reading: The Best Time to Visit Brazil: A Month-By-Month Guide

5. Leave the Planning to the Professionals

From hotels to experiences, your first trip to Brazil should be as unforgettable and extraordinary as possible. Working with Extraordinary Journeys Brazil specialists, who spend months vetting properties, tour guides, activities, and more to find the best of the best, your trip will go above and beyond. After discussing your travel goals and interests, leave the rest to us as we craft the perfect bespoke itinerary for you, from transportation to excursions.  Instead of stressing over logistics and planning, we take care of everything for you down to the tiniest details. All you need to do is show up at the airport with your luggage and passport, follow the itinerary, and have the trip of a lifetime. 

6. Get Trip Planning Started Well in Advance

Brazil is one of South America’s most popular travel destinations, especially during peak tourist season at the height of summer, so planning ahead is essential. We recommend contacting us well in advance of when you want to visit, giving us plenty of time to organize the perfect itinerary, book rooms at your properties of choice, and arrange your top-pick activities. We can also arrange special deals with our network of partner hotels, tour operators, and other Brazil travel professionals, from savings to exclusive perks.

7. Don’t Try to Do Too Much Brazil Travel at Once

Brazil is massive, with so many amazing places worth visiting. It’s natural to want to pack as much as possible into a single trip, but we highly recommend pacing yourself and managing your expectations. First-time visitors shouldn’t try to squeeze everything into one visit because doing too much at once can quickly tire you out and diminish the overall experience. If you’re too busy rushing from place to place, you’ll have less time to enjoy each stop on your itinerary. We plan our trips to include as much as possible without overloading the itinerary. Choose your top destinations and experiences to start and remember that you can always come back in the future.

8. Don’t Hesitate to Mix It Up

Even though choosing your travel goals and interests is a great way to focus your trip on top-priority destinations and activities, it’s also a good idea to include some different experiences to get a full, well-rounded experience. Even if your trip is mainly focused on spending time outdoors and being in nature, you can still discover different sides of Brazil by staying at a wilderness lodge with a great culinary program or spending a night or two in São Paulo or Rio de Janeiro to get a taste of big-city life. Including experiences that fall outside the main theme of your trip helps give you a better sense of everything Brazil has to offer.

9. Cut Down On Travel Time by Grouping Close-by Destinations

By organizing your itinerary to hit all the highlights of a specific region before moving on to the next one, we help you spend less time in the air flying between different stops and more time on the ground actually enjoying your trip. If you’re exploring Rio, we can include a few days at the beaches of Buzios or an offshore getaway on Ilha Grande before heading elsewhere in Brazil. Pair São Paulo with a stop in Paraty or explore northern Brazil’s Amazon rainforest and the western Pantanal wetlands all in one fell swoop. By prioritizing geographic proximity in your trip planning, we ensure that you spend less time on planes and more time with your toes in the sand or searching for jaguars deep in the wilderness.

10. Give Yourself Plenty of Time at Each Stop

Due to Brazil’s breadth, flying between different destinations can take up a lot of time; for example, it takes four hours to fly from Rio to Manaus, the gateway to the Amazon. While we understand that you want to make the most of your trip, you also want to give yourself plenty of time to truly discover and explore each spot. We plan ample time at each stop to balance out the transit time with rest and experiences. If you’re unsure how long to stay in a specific city or region to get the full “experience,” our destination specialists can advise you.

11. Pack Smart

With weather varying by season and region, it’s important to pack accordingly for your trip to ensure that you stay comfortable and safe. Due to its tropical climate, lightweight daytime clothes and nighttime layers can work throughout most of the year and for most destinations. But you always want to pack weather-specific items, like rain gear and sun protection including hats and sunscreen.

Our destination specialists also provide packing lists and other pre-travel information to help you plan your packing list. And don’t forget to leave some room in your suitcase for souvenirs to take back home!

12. Get Access to Assistance

One of the best parts of travel is its spontaneity, but that also means that sometimes plans go awry because of weather delays or other small issues. When problems arise while you’re on the ground in a new, unfamiliar country, it helps to have someone you can contact for assistance. Traveling with Extraordinary Journeys, you have 24/7 access to a concierge in case you run into issues while traveling. Knowing where to turn in case something goes wrong and you need help gives you peace of mind when you’re far from home in a new place.

Brazil Travel FAQs

We’re sure you still have plenty of questions about traveling to Brazil, which is why we’ve answered some of the most frequently asked questions we receive from clients. Anything not answered here, we can answer directly when we start your trip-planning process or will be included in our pre-trip Brazil travel guide materials.

Make your first visit to Brazil an extraordinary one

Using our Brazil travel guide for first-timers, we ensure that you make the most of your maiden trip to this alluring and exciting South American nation, where city streets are alive with the sashaying rhythms of samba and wildlife lurks in steaming rainforests. Our destination experts are here to help you plan an unforgettable trip tailored just to your desires, complete with luxury hotel stays, immersive experiences, and the sorts of thoughtful touches and details only the most knowledgeable tour operators can provide.