Up until recently Brazil counted with no official accommodation standards. Attempting to define a Brazilian hotel by its number of stars was pretty much meaningless. In an attempt to put an end to this messy situation, the Brazilian Ministry of Tourism launched recently the Sistema Brasileiro de Classificação de Meios de Hospedagem (Brazilian System of Classification of Types of Accommodation). It is an initiative that attempts to establish objective and straightforward criteria to help define the types of accommodation. Whether it will have any real impact on the tourist sector, it remains to be seen.

If you go to the official website, in Portuguese, you will find lengthy descriptions of each of the new categories. Here’s just a brief summary.

• Hotel. It can have 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5 stars.
• Resort. Defined as a hotel with leisure infrastructure. There are 4 and 5 stars resorts.
• Hotel Fazenda. Defined as a hotel in a rural setting. It can have 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5 stars.
• Cama e Café. A rough equivalent of the popular bed and breakfast. It can have 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5 stars
• Hotel Histórico. A hotel in a historic or listed building. It can have 3, 4 or 5 stars.
• Pousada. Defined as a building horizontal in its layout with a maximum of 30 rooms. It can have 3, 4 or 5 stars.
• Flat/apart-hotel. It can have 3, 4 or 5 stars.

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Rio de Janeiro’s mayor has just made a worrying announcement. This coming summer Rio is to face its worse dengue fever epidemic in history. The conclusion was reached through the comparison of current and old data. So far this year, and long before the summer months when most cases are recorded, Rio has seen 160,000 cases of dengue fever with 121 deaths.

An informed traveler is the best possible traveler and for that reason we want to refer you once again to our blog post 10 facts about dengue fever in Brazil. It was written with the help of a medical specialist on the disease and it contains information on dengue fever.

Thinking of cancelling your trip to Rio because of the upcoming dengue fever epidemic? We don’t feel you should necessarily do that. Get the information and understand the risks associated to dengue fever before you take such decision.

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If you’ve been reading us for a while you’re probably aware by now that we are big fans of Google Maps and its use to support travel planning (we talked about it at GoogleMaps on the Brazil Travel Blog).

Google has just added a new weather layer to its Google Maps (you can read the official announcement at Rain or Shine, see the weather on Google Maps).

If you enter Google Maps and go to the widget on the top right corner where you select the different view modes (Map, Earth, Traffic, Photos and so on) you will see there is a new layer called “Weather”. If you select it, you will see weather-related symbols appearing on your map. We’ll be using Rio de Janeiro as our example:

If you click on the symbol next to Rio (sun and cloud) you will see a pop up window with the forecast for the coming days (as my settings for the Google Apps are in Spanish I’m seeing the info in Spanish, you will see it in English).

If you click on 10 days you will get yet more weather information.

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An article from Tribuna do Norte (we saw it mentioned at the blog Guia Natal) reflects on increasing living costs in Natal, capital of Rio Grande do Norte. Prices have gone up to the point where Natal is today the most expensive capital in Northeast Brazil, surpassing Recife, Salvador and Fortaleza. The reason for the high cost of living would be a rapidly increasing population putting pressure on a limited housing and services market.

Destination: Natal is our main blog post on the popular destination of northeast Brazil.

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Michael Sommers, author of the Moon Travel Guide to Brazil, published recently a blog post with the title The World’s Most Overvalued Currency reflecting on how expensive Brazilian has become in recent years – for those coming to visit the country but for those living in Brazil too!

Essential reading, as it is the case with anything written by one of the best-informed travel writers on Brazil.

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For anyone planning an Amazon riverboat trip finding reliable information on schedules / timetables has become something of a quest for the Holy Grail. If a few days ago we pointed at some tips on Amazon riverboat trips, today we’re going to look at the scheduled services across the Amazon region.

There isn’t a single unified site consolidating information from the different companies sailing the Amazon. As a matter of fact, you’d be pressed hard to find a single website belonging to a sailing company listing its schedules and fares.

Navegando e Lendo (“Sailing and Reading”) is an NGO trying to promote reading across the Amazon. Their website contains a wonderful page listing most of the big boats sailing the Amazon. The list is here: Barcos.

The information is grouped according to the three different boarding points in the city of Manaus (there are three). For the three piers (if you could call them that) the following information is offered:

• On the column Barco, the name of the boat.
• On the column Destino, the destination, including the different ports of call along the way.
• On the column Saída, the days of the week with scheduled departures.
• On the column Hora, the departure time.
• On the column Fone, the contact telephone number.
• On the column Tempo de viagem previsto, the length of the trip.

As it is not an official list, we encourage you (and so do the authors of the listing) to contact the company to confirm the departures and schedules. Do not plan your trip based on the information that appears on the list or, if you do, make sure you have a plan B in hand. Schedules are changed, navigations can be cancelled.

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From the New York Times travel section (and the history vault!), a video with the quest for the perfect cup of coffee in Rio de Janeiro.

Watch it here: wired in Rio.

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“Brazilian hotels, the most expensive in the world”.
“Rio de Janeiro, the most expensive city of the Americas”.
“Accommodation in São Paulo or Rio de Janeiro is more expensive than in Berlin”.

The media headlines tell the story of how expensive Brazil has become in recent years. An overvalued local currency means foreign tourists will discover today Brazil is a very expensive country. Price of accommodation in particular will be a sore issue in all traveling budgets.

O Globo magazine published recently a cover where the comparisons are established between prices in Rio de Janeiro and elsewhere in the world.

Haircut more expensive than in London.
Croissant more expensive than in Paris.
Bellini more expensive than in Venice.
Cupcake more expensive than in New York.
Movies more expensive than in Madrid.
Bicycle hire more expensive than in Amsterdam.
Yoga lessons more expensive than in Hollywood.
Gym more expensive than in Madonna’s gym in Mexico City.
Trip up to the Corcovado Mountain more expensive than the boat to the Statue of Liberty.
Trip up the Sugar Loaf Mountain more expensive than reaching the top of the Eiffel Tower.

Let’s reach for another source. The ranking of the most expensive cities in the world by XPatulator. It takes into account cost of living and on its April 2011 edition it includes the following cities on its top 15:

1. Tokyo (Japan)
2. Caracas (Venezuela)
3. Hong Kong (China)
4. Geneve (Switzerland)
5. Zurich (Switzerland)
6. Osaka (Japan)
7. São Paulo (Brazil)
8. Nagoya (Japan)
9. Vaduz (Liechtenstein)
10. Oslo (Norway)
11. Rio de Janeiro (Brazil)
12. Sydney (Australia)
13. Yokohama (Japan)
14. Brasilia (Brazil)
15. Canberra (Australia)

Three Brazilian cities appear in the list.

Brazil has become such an expensive country for tourism than even Brazilian themselves are choosing to travel abroad rather than spending their own holidays home – expenditure by Brazilian tourists abroad is breaking all records (Turistas brasileiros gastam US$ 4,7 bi no exterior em 2011).

Let’s hope for better times for foreign tourism in Brazil. The current price situation is anything but encouraging.

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RELATED POSTS:
since 2003, the value of Brazilian real has increased 122 percent against the once mighty dollar

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The main car rental multinational companies operate in Brazil. They can be found at the largest cities and most important airports in the country. As well as the international companies, there are Brazilian companies that also operate throughout the country.

Check locations, services and rates for:

• Avis
• Budget
• Hertz
• Localiza
• Locar Alpha
• Unidas

We’ve rented from Avis and from Localiza in the past. Our experiencie with Avis was truly unhappy, we were handed a car with more than 50,000 miles and in a poor state of maintenance. From what the employees of the company told us some Avis units in Brazil operate an ancient fleet. Not up to the Avis standard.

Our experiences with Localiza have been positive so far.

As well as the companies mentioned here, there is a myriad local companies you will find at the most important Brazilian tourist destinations. Many of them offer very competitive rates. We’ve rented from local companies several times, always hassle-free.

We encourage you to read the rental conditions paying extreme attention to detail. Getting proper insurance cover and understanding how far it goes is essential.

D Airfare, our blog on all things related to commercial aviation news and ticket deals and promotions, is finally on Twitter. Follow all our announcements at our Twitter profile and don’t miss any last-minute deals to fly to Brazil or within the country.