Brazil
Top Tips
Cultural Hits
Ouro Preto (Minas Gerais), Parati (Costa Verde), Salvador (Bahia)
and Olinda (Pernambuco) are Portuguese colonial gems boasting fine
Baroque architecture and historical museums.
Nightlife
The Lapa district in Rio has some of the country's finest live
samba and bossa nova. Búzios near Rio is packed with trendy
bars and nightclubs, while the cobblestone streets of historic
Pelourinho in Salvador are lined with cafés and bars
offering life music.
Festivals
Rio's Carnaval in February is one of the world's biggest
parties, with colourful parades, outlandish costumes and samba
beats filling the streets for days. Other Brazilian cities host
carnivals that are cheaper and more relaxed, including Salvador and
Olinda, and there are hundreds of smaller, more unusual
celebrations - such as Parati's annual mud festival - throughout
the year. Rio also boasts spectacular New Year's celebrations, when
thousands of revellers clad in white gather on the beach to party
through the night.
Wildlife
The Amazon is unbeatable for boat trips and rainforest exploration.
Further south, the Pantanal is a massive swamp, larger in size than
France, with remarkably varied wildlife, including iguanas,
jaguars, wild boar, crocodiles, anacondas, anteaters and exotic
birds. Iguaçu, on the border with Argentina, is home to
monkeys, caimans, toucans, coatis and a kaleidoscope of
butterflies. Marine life is similarly impressive: from December to
March thousands of turtles come ashore at Praia do Forte in Bahia
to lay eggs, and Santa Catarina in the south offers
whale-watching.
Natural Spectacles
The monstrous Iguaçu Falls, straddling Brazil's border with
Argentina, are a natural phenomenon, bigger than the Victoria Falls
and higher than Niagara. They're surrounded by unspoilt tropical
forest, which can be explored by foot, bike, helicopter or
boat.
Best Beaches
Head to Ipanema and Leblon in Rio for people-watching, to Ilha
Grande on the Costa Verde and Ilhabela near São Paulo for
unspoilt beaches and mountain backdrops, and to Bahia for white
sands, calm warm waters and palm trees.
Watersports
Rio and its surrounds (especially Saquarema), Porto do Galinhas in
the north and Santa Catarina in the south are top surfing spots.
Jericoacoara has excellent windsurfing (best from July to
December), and Ilha Grande is a wonderful place to explore by sea
kayak. Búzios, Angra and Ilhabela are great for sailing, and
Fernando de Noronha, a group of islands off the northeast coast,
offers Brazil's best diving.
Hiking
Chapada Diamantina (Bahia) has great hiking and biking trails in
lush highlands. The hills surrounding Ouro Preto and Tiradentes in
Minas Gerais also offer day hikes. Tijuca National Park - a 120sqkm
rainforest on the edge of Rio - is criss-crossed with hiking
trails, all easily accessible from the city centre yet surprisingly
tranquil.
Football
Watch a football game at Rio's Maracana Stadium, the largest
stadium in the world.
Train Journeys
The ride from Curitiba to Paranagua is spectacular, across stunning
mountains. The steam train from Tiradentes to São
João runs along a scenic 13km route, in operation since
1881.