Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Accommodation
Accommodation in Brazil covers the full
range, from hostels and basic lodgings
clustered around bus stations to luxury
resort hotels. You can sometimes find
places to sleep for as little as R$35 a
night, but, more realistically, a clean
double room in a basic option will set you
back upwards of R$50-60. A good,
comfortable hotel varies according to the
city - Rio being one of the most expensive
in the world when it comes to hotels - but
R$200 a night will get you better accom-
modation than you'd expect for that price
in Europe. As is so often the case, single
travellers get a bad deal, usually paying
almost as much as the cost of a double
room. In whatever category of place you
stay, in tourist spots - both large and
small - over New Year and Carnaval you'll
be expected to book a room for a
minimum of four or five days.
the spare), and make sure there's a jack, warning
triangle and fire extinguisher: the police will check
for these if you get pulled over. All cars have front
and back seatbelts; their use is compulsory, and stiff
on-the-spot fines are imposed on drivers and front-
seat passengers found not to be wearing them.
CAR RENTAL AGENCIES
Avis W avis.com.
Budget W budget.com.
Dollar W dollar.com.
Hertz W hertz.com.
Interlocadora W interlocadora.com.br.
Localiza W localiza.com.br.
Unidas W unidas.com.br.
Taxis
There are enormous numbers of taxis in Brazilian
cities, and depending on where you are, they are
relatively cheap, though rates have risen a lot in
recent years. City cabs are metered, and usually
have two rates : 1 is cheaper, 2 more expensive. The
rate the taxi is using is indicated on the taximeter,
after the fare. Rate 2 is automatic on trips to and
from airports and bus stations in big cities, after
8pm, and all day Sunday and on public holidays.
Many cities give taxi drivers a Christmas bonus by
allowing them to charge Rate 2 for the whole of
December . Occasionally, drivers will refer to a sheet
and revise the fare slightly upwards - they are not
ripping you off, but referring to price updating
tables that fill the gap until taximeters can be
readjusted to reflect the o cial annual increases.
Taxis in small towns and rural areas do not often
have meters, so it's best to agree on the fare in
advance - they'll be more expensive than in the
cities. Most airports and some bus stations are
covered by taxi cooperatives , which operate under
a slightly different system: attendants give you a
coupon with fares to various destinations printed
on it - you pay either at a kiosk in advance, or the
driver. These are more expensive than regular taxis,
but they're reliable and often more comfortable.
Tipping is not obligatory, but appreciated.
Hotels
Hotels proper run the gamut from dives to luxury
apartments. There is a Brazilian classification
system , from one to five stars, but the absence of
stars doesn't necessarily mean a bad hotel: they
depend on bureaucratic requirements such as the
width of lift shafts and kitchen floor space as much
as on the standard of accommodation - many
perfectly good hotels don't have stars.
A quarto is a room without a bathroom, an
apartamento is a room with a shower (Brazilians
don't use baths); an apartamento de luxo is normally
just an apartamento with a fridge full of (marked-
up) drinks; a casal is a double room; and a solteiro
a single. In a starred hotel, an apartamento upwards
would come with telephone, air conditioning ( ar
condicionado ) and cable TV; a ventilado r is a fan.
Even cheaper hotels now have wi-fi ( sem fio ) in the
lobby at least, and three-star hotels upwards have
wi-fi and/or cable ( cabo ) in rooms as standard
(though English-language channels are rare).
Most hotels will usually include a breakfast buffet
with fruit, lots of cheese, ham/chorizo, bread, eggs,
cakes and coffee (this line-up is remarkably similar
throughout the country), but no other meals,
although there will often be a restaurant on-site.
Hotels usually have a safe deposit box , a caixa ,
which is worth asking about when you check in;
they are free for you to use and, although they're
By ferry and boat
Boats and ferries are important forms of transport
in parts of Brazil. Look out for the ferry to Niterói,
without which no journey to Rio would be
complete; Salvador , where there are regular services
to islands and towns in the huge bay on which the
city is built; in the South between the islands of the
Bay of Paranaguá; and most of all in Amazônia .
 
 
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