The New York Times gets it right about Belo’s bar scene!

A Town Where All the World Is a Bar
Lalo de Almeida for The New York Times

BELO HORIZONTE, in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais, has managed to become the country’s third-largest city while remaining almost completely unknown to the outside world. If tourists more drawn to the sybaritic pleasures of Rio de Janeiro or the urban clamor of São Paulo know it at all, it is because they may pass through it on their way to Ouro Preto and Diamantina, treating it as a little more than a refueling stop as they head toward those picturesque colonial-era mining towns.

Its international anonymity was born of no coastline and thus no beaches, no famous Carnival and thus no February madness, and no big attractions save a few buildings designed by Oscar Niemeyer that pale next to his famous works in Brasília.

But Beagá, the city’s nickname (from the pronunciation of its initials in Portuguese), does have a claim to fame: as the bar capital of Brazil. Not bars as in slick hotel lounges or boozy meat markets, but bars as in botecos, informal sit-down spots where multiple generations socialize, drink beer and often have an informal meal. If you believe the local bluster, there are 12,000 bars in the city, more per capita than anywhere else in the country. Why, no one is completely sure, but one theory has turned into a popular saying: “Não tem mares, tem bares.” Loosely: “There are no seas, thus there are bars.”

[Read the whole article]

Brazil Flag

ATMs in Brazil are everywhere and you won’t have any problems using them with a US or EU ATM card.

Banco Bradesco, HSBC, Banco 24 Hors and Banco de Brazil all work well.

Banco 24 Horas tends to charge high fees – their rate is about 10% higher than the interbank rate (R$2.44 versus 2.64).

Bradesco is somewhat better – about 5% over interbank rate.

Banco do Brazil is perhaps the most fair – usually charging at the interbank rate itself.

Banco Itaú is normally a bit of a problem. They don’t always except foreign carts well. Avoid if possible.

Note that at most ATMs, you can’t get more than R$100 after nine PM, so don’t plan on paying big bills after that time! This is for security reasons to prevent robbery.

If you’re switching flights at GRU in Sao Paulo, you will NOT need to clear immigration. So if you’re flying Sao Paulo-Buenos Aires, you don’t need to go through customs in Brazil at all.

This is great if you’re short on time. But on the down side, the airport is pretty boring – there are a lot of shops but nothing really exciting, so bring reading material.

There is a United Red Carpet Club too – you might want to consider buying a one day pass at the counter for < USD$50 if you have a few hours to kill. You can go inside, shower, and get free drinks. Not a bad deal.

Most flights land at the main GIG/Tom Jobim airport, also called Galeao. This airport is about 13 miles out of the city but it easily accessible by taxi or bus.

Alternately, there is the Santos Dumont airport in the city center, by the Guanabara Bay. This is mostly serviced by low cost airlines like TAM and GOL.

Air-conditioned bus service operated by depart every 30 minutes and runs between both airports and further to Zona Sul (along the beachfront in Copacabana, Ipanema, and Leblon) and Barra da Tijuca. A single ticket costs about $3.

Taxis, though more expensive, are also a convenient way to reach the tourist areas. A taxi ride will cost about $10 or $12. Be careful to get reals in the airport since many taxis cannot easily take credit cards.

(portions of this are from wikitravel.org and used under the creative commons license)

Now that Google Maps has launched Brazil, it’s really easy to find maps of the major destinations and to find your way between them. Check out the links below for ideas:

Rio de Janeiro Map. Satellite view is great here too to see both the favelas and the beaches like Ipanema!

Brasilia Map.

Sao Paulo Map. Check out the location between the airports or how the neighborhoods are laid out.

Florianopolis Map. You can see the small connector going to the island.

Porto Alegre Map. Great beachfront.

Salvador Map. Beautiful beachfront – click the “satellite” button to see the real photos.

Belo Horizonte Map. Check out the cool layout of city streets.

From the Google Maps API Blog:

Google Maps has launched in Brazil with streets and satellites. This is great for finding your way around Sao Paulo and other major cities in a familiar format. While it doesn’t seem to have things like driving directions, it’s great for seeing where hotels are and where you’ll be going!

You can find tons of interesting pictures of Brazilians, for free, on Flickr. Check it out – it’s an amazing site:
Brazil pictures

Of the travel books, Lonely Planet are the best I have found. They have a deal now for $43 for the three book Brazil pack, including free shipping. This has a valuable Portuguese phrasebook too, in addition to the regular Lonely Planet books. See the link here and just search on Brazil to see it.

Free shipping for orders over $40

If you’re really ambitious and trying to save serious money, the best deals are on the low cost carriers. Besides GOL which lets you book in english, there is also BRA and Webjet. These have websites in Portuguese only, but you can at least get prices usually then book them through a Brazil travel agent that speaks english.

BRA flies many places like Salvador (SSA), Porto Seguro and other fun places. Webjet flies far fewer places but is good for the Carnival Rio-Salvador route (GIG-SSA).

You can try searching for Brazil Travel Agent, look at the ads here or try someone like rbrazil.com – phone: 1-877-231-5596 Fax: 305-379-6845

Porto Seguro, Bahia is a wonderful little beach town.. It’s very quiet and not developed at all – it feels like it hasn’t changed in 50 years.

The best part is that it’s cheap and close. Try TAM and fly to BPS – Porto Seguro Airport. Fares are around $150 US roundtrip from Sao Paulo. You won’t be disappointed.

Arraial d’Ajuda Eco-Resort (Ecoresort) is a great resort there, at pretty low prices. It’s right on the beach and is full-service. They are about 20 mins from the airport, including a quick ferry ride over the bay.
http://www.arraialresort.com.br/Resort.aspx

Aeroporto Pinto Martins (Fortaleza) shown.

When flying to Brazil you should really check out TAM airlines. They have a suprisingly good business class and great fares versus American or European carriers.

Here’s an example seatmap

For those that were wondering, Gol is reputable and flies nice planes that are fairly new and well maintained. This pic from CGH-Congonhas shows them lined up.

Connecting between the two isn’t very hard but it takes patience since they are about 13 miles apart and require fighting traffic across town. There are buses between that run about hourly and cost around $10 US. Alternately, you can take a metered taxi which runs about $25 US. Be sure to use an ATM and get reals first since not all taxis take foreign currency. There are taxi stands where you can prepay for your taxi too and use credit cards.

Gol (voegol.com.br) is the best deal for intra-Brazil flights so if you’re planning a trip to other locales served by no international carriers, consider switching airports to save lots. Especially if you’re going to Brasilia, Florianopolis, Belo Horizonte, or Salvador, you can save tons.

There are two major choices of destination: Rio and Salvador. Rio is known for the festivals, parades and art; Salvador for the parties. If you are looking for the wild times you hear about, you want Salvador.

Salvador airport (airport code: SSA) is served by TAM and GOL. Varig also serves them but given their recent state of finance, I can’t really recommend that.

If you’re an American or European, your best bet is to fly a regular carrier to Sao Paulo or Rio, then hop a short flight to Salvador. Sao Paulo and Rio both are served by Delta, American, United and Continental (with a Northwest codeshare). You can use frequent flyer miles on these too if you book far enough in advance.

GOL is a low cost carrier like Southwest for intra-Brazil flights. They have flights roundtrip between Sao Paulo GRU to SSA for around $150 roundtrip and the same for Rio’s GIG airport.

are all now live!

If you want bars, clubs and night life, you should look around Paulista Avenue. This is in central Sao Paulo and where the finance companies are located. Fun. The Renaissance and Intercontinental are here.

The Morumbi Hilton and Grand Hyatt are way outside down town in the Nacoes Unidas district. However that’s where most of the multinational companies are and where you’d be doing business. The Morumbi Blue Tree is also here and convenient to the Mall and many big buildings.

Outside the chains there are some smaller botiques in downtown. Look at the Hotel Unique

http://www.hotelunique.com.br/home.htm

and the Faisano.

http://www.fasano.com.br/