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Rio de Janeiro Hotels: 4276 Reviews - 6623 Photos
São Paulo Hotels: 1094 Reviews - 1738 Photos
Fortaleza Hotels: 321 Reviews - 550 Photos
Salvador da Bahia Hotels: 689 Reviews - 1305 Photos
Foz do Iguaçu Hotels: 308 Reviews - 610 Photos
Manaus Hotels: 330 Reviews - 779 Photos
Porto Alegre Hotels: 275 Reviews - 460 Photos
Parati Hotels: 326 Reviews - 879 Photos
Recife Hotels: 174 Reviews - 341 Photos
João Pessoa Hotels: 97 Reviews - 110 Photos
Natal Hotels: 302 Reviews - 420 Photos
Jericoacoara Hotels: 163 Reviews - 467 Photos
Curitiba Hotels: 214 Reviews - 425 Photos
Ilha Grande Hotels: 153 Reviews - 221 Photos
Sao Paulo Hotels: 4 Reviews

Brazil Local Customs

Detail View of Showerhead, including...

by glabah

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Detail View of Showerhead, including...
by glabah
Fitas
by Kellyba1989
Moqueca Capixaba - Whiting and Shrimps
by ThiagoRamos
Moqueca Capixaba - Cação
by ThiagoRamos
The little duck is in the middle.
by MarioPortugal

Most Viewed Local Customs in Brazil

Beach Rio de Janeiro

33 Reviews When you are in Rio you quickly realize that we all love the beach, no matter if the weather is fine or not, but we always find any reason to be close by the sea. Even when the sea is flat you will...

See All 322 Local Customs in Rio de Janeiro

Portuguese needed... or not? São Paulo

6 Reviews it's difficult to travel here without knowing some rudimentary Portuguese (even Spanish helps a lot! for some reason most Brasilian/Portuguese people can understand Spanish, but not the other way...

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Bahian dress Salvador da Bahia

4 Reviews When you enter Pelourinho in Salvador you’ll be met by baiana women wearing traditional Bahian dresses. The outfit of a baiana woman is turban, starched skirts of colourful pattern, shawl over the...

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Thumbs Up! Speak Portuguese Manaus

4 Reviews Brazil is not a bilingual country and, in Manaus, as well as the rest of Brazil, most people are not fluent in English or any foreign language. In shops and turistic points you' ll probably find...

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Cachaça and Caipirinha Rio de Janeiro

4 Reviews Cachaca is a spirit native to Brazil and is distilled from fresh sugarcane juice. Considered a member of the rum family, it is lighter than other rums which are molasses based. Cachaca has a light,...

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Good food ! São Paulo

3 Reviews The city's Italian community is large and vibrant, and much of their culture has found its way into the daily lives of every paulista (i.e. someone from São Paulo). However, the Italian influence is...

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Bahian Food Salvador da Bahia

7 Reviews Bahian cuisine has the influence of Portuguese, African and Indian cultures with a predominance of local exotic ingredients. Is characterized by the generous use of malagueta chili peppers and dende...

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local people Manaus

4 Reviews from the Manaus Region, have become very much aware of their Heritage and try to preserve their way of life and culture. much of their land has been confiscated, burned and left the tribes on a knifes...

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Fitas Salvador da Bahia

5 Reviews I went to Salvador in 2007 and had my wrist covered in these beautiful Bahia Wish Bracelets. Long story short, I long ago forgot about them and the story behind them until I recently came across them...

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10.

fishing Manaus

1 Review fishermen at the port of Belem...the main income source for many in the 70s, has been still is I suppose, a spectaculare pasttime for tourist, when the Fishermen brought their catch home in the late...

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11.

Berimbau Salvador da Bahia

3 Reviews The Brazilian berimbau is a single-string percussion instrument, braced musical bow or African origin. It consists of a wooden bow (traditionally made from biribi wood) about 1,2 - 1,5 m long, with a...

See All 48 Local Customs in Salvador da Bahia

12.

Capoeira Salvador da Bahia

5 Reviews Capoeira is a unique Afro-Brazilian art form that combines elements of martial arts, dance, music and acrobatics. But capoiera is much more; it is a ritual and a philosophy, a cultural tradition and a...

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13.

Acaraje Salvador da Bahia

2 Reviews Acareje is street food eaten at any time as a snack. It consists of a patty, made from mashed feijao fradinho (black-eyed beans). The mash is deep-fried in dende oil (derived from a nut found on the...

See All 48 Local Customs in Salvador da Bahia

14.

Carnaval Salvador da Bahia

2 Reviews New info on the last 2005 Salvador Carnaval in my new Travelogue. Carnaval is Locura Total : for 6 day and 6 night million of people dancing, singing and drinking. The old carnival consisted of big...

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15.

Dance Salvador da Bahia

2 Reviews I stayed in Bahia from 16th until 25th June (S. Joao). Everywhere you could hear "forro", and in the night there are forro bands all over. You´ll have to learn and dance it (and very close one each...

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16.

Cafezinho Salvador da Bahia

2 Reviews At any time of the day you will see these little coffee-cars with with decorations beyond imagination especially in the city center. Some are very basic, but lots of them are equipped with fantastic...

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Reviews from VirtualTourist Members

How to Use an Electric Shower and Live Through It

by glabah

One of the popular 1960s guide books for American tourists in Brazil, of which I was able to find a copy in one of our local used book stores, says:"Western tourists may be confounded when presented with a Brazilian shower. Instead of a hot and cold water faucet, there is instead a deadly looking contrivance on the shower head with two wires sticking out of it. The adventurous tourist will discover, when the water is turned on, that the lights in the entire building suddenly go dim, that loud electrical sparking and sputtering sounds come from inside the shower head. and that the water gets very hot very fast."It should be fairly clear to anyone why a Brazilian would use one of these contraptions in their home over a large tank style water heater. It costs a lot of money to put both hot and cold water lines into a house, and other than for taking a shower Brazilians have learned to live...

Spiritist Cults

by traveldave

When I was birdwatching on the Theodoro Trail high in the mountains above Rio de Janeiro, I came across a tree whose trunk was surrounded by candles, cups of rum or cachaça, cigars, and fruit (pictured here). This was a place where the rituals of one of Brazil's spiritist cults were performed.Brazil's early economy was based on the production of sugar. Slaves from Africa were imported to work on the sugar plantations and in other industries, such as mining. Their owners forbade them to practice their African religions and converted them to the Roman Catholic faith. Although many of the slaves earnestly converted to Roman Catholicism, many continued to practice their African religions, either in secret nighttime rituals, or during rituals disguised as Roman Catholic mass.Over the centuries, several spiritist cults evolved in Brazil, including Umbanda, Macumba (and its subcult Candomblé),...

LANGUAGE. LET'S GET STARTED !

by DAO

The people of Brazil speak Portuguese as a legacy of their colonial past. Here are a few phrases to get you started! Olá Hi Bom dia Good morning Boa tarde Good afternoon Boa noite Good night Como está? How are you? Muito bem, obrigada Very well, thanks Obrigada Thanks (for a woman) Obrigado Thanks (for a man) Adeus Goodbye Tchau Bye Até logo See you later

English to Portuguese

by cwest03

Knowledge of a few Portugues words will be helpful to anyone traveling in brazil. Try to make a list of just a few of the essentials to bring with you as you travel around. There are many good English to Portuguese dictionaries available on the web and VT is a good source of info too.

Caipirinha

by ant1606

Cachaça, made from fermented sugarcane, is the most popular local liquor which is the main ingredient for "caipirinha" along with chopped lime, sugar and plenty of ice cubes.Any occasion is appropriate, but sipping a glass or two on the beach is a must!

Drinking beer and watching football.

by cachaseiro

Yes i know this sounds like something you do all over the world, but the little local football bars are a bit of an institution in Brazil.They are just hole in the wall bars where the local working class guys meet for a few beers after work and there will always be a TV and if there is any football game on then it will be shown.I just love hanging out in these places and talking to the locals while sipping beer and watching football.in my opinion this is one of the best ways of catching the heartbeat of the nation.

When you are having a beer on the beach.

by cachaseiro

In Brazil they generally serve large beers on the beach they are served in containers that keeps the beer cool.The little beach bars often only have a few of these beer coolers, so if you are let´s say 4 guys going there for a beer then you are expected to get 4 glasses and one large beer to start with.tis is often very weird to europeans who are used to having "their own beer", but in Brazil you share your beer with your friends so you better get used to it.And it is a very sociable way of drinking and that way they can keep your beer cool.

do i need to know portuguese to travel in brazil?

by rkearns

haha esperanto. i was wondering if my portuguese needed touching up (it's pretty bad) or if the above poster perhaps used a hybrid lingo. anyway, i have to agree with mccalpin. i have also stayed in remote areas and large cities. i went almost 3.5 months without hearing english in the remote area (of 7 months there, i heard it two or three times by tourists). in the city, you should definitely stay at larger hotels if you expect them to speak english. the polite thing to do would be to learn enough of the language to ask basic questions. it's just something you do when you go to another country. i would not expect them to understand spanish (although they do) because they speak portuguese there. as for getting out of rio for a few days, buzios is always nice. it's pricier. another option i tell everyone is to go on a boat excursion to itacuruca. you can look under my rio "things to do"...

Brasil's Buildings

by pepples46

in the Countryside have always been very pracmatic as well as realy nice to watch at and resemble which immigration background the area has, italian, portugues, german, polish and so on. often white painted, lots of windows for good ventilation, high ceilings.the rooms are generously laid out and not overloaded with furniture. the kitchen the main meeting place, friends sit around, have a meal afterward a game or two of canaster...erva mate..chimarao.. makes the round, and coffee, black, short and sweet.many immigrants brought of course their building skills and custom with them, here the house of my friends, which I had rented in Rio Grande do Sul..Boa Vista do Herval and Santa Catarinasure you'll find all the highrises you want in Sao Paulo or Rio. Architecture in Brasilia, the Capital, is an Artform

Eye contact

by cachaseiro

If you are talking to a brazilian then look them straight in the eyes.A lot of people will think that you don't like them or that you are not interested in talking to them if you avoid eye contact.This is unlike some other cultures in other parts of the world where staring at people is rude, but in Brazil they like when you look straight at them.If you don't look people in the eyes when you say cheers you get 7 years of bad sex according to some brazilian friends of mine so you better do it :O).

Top 3 Hotels in Brazil

Copacabana Palace Rio de Janeiro

21 Reviews and 355 Opinions A veritable Rio landmark, Copacabana Palace continues to enjoy a reputation as one of the most...

Hotels in Rio de Janeiro

Hilton Sao Paulo Morumbi São Paulo

4 Reviews and 200 Opinions ALL PICTURES ON PAGE 1 ( PICS 1 - 5 ) AND ON THIS PAGE # 6 AND 7 TAKEN IN SEPTEMBER 2003 , PICTURES...

Hotels in São Paulo

Aram Yami Hotel Salvador da Bahia

1 Review and 100 Opinions I did not stay at the hotel, but my good friends did and I visited them there, hung out in the...

Hotels in Salvador da Bahia

2,472 Hotels in Brazil

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Reviews and photos of Brazil attractions posted by real travelers and locals. The best tips for Brazil sightseeing.

Experience Brazil

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Questions and Answers

Q: Hi there! I am looking for people, who love dancing, have attended or are planning to attend Brazilian dance (Samba, Forro)...

A: I don't think that this topic belongs on a VT forum. This site is about sharing tips, vidoes and photos on travelling. It's not a site where you want to meet up with...

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