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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RELATED POSTS:
Amazon riverboat trips
an Amazon adventure: trips around Alter do Chão
“cheia” and “seca” on the Amazon region
tourism on the Amazon region is a foreign affair
destination: Algodoal
destination: Belém
destination: Ilha do Marajó
destination: Manaus
the Meeting of the Waters and the Janauary Ecological Park, near Manaus

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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.

Up until recently foreigners were required by law to present a sworn translation of their driving licence along the original document every time they intended to drive a car in Brazil. A new resolution (you can read the details in Portuguese at Fim da tradução para carteira de motorista estrangeiro no Brasil) puts an end to that requirement and allows tourists to simply present their original driving licence along with an ID card (preferably your passport).

Rental car companies are celebrating the news, anticipating an increase in their volume of business. Good news for everyone!

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There are at least three websites informing the approximate cost of taxi rides in Brazil. While each one of them presents approximate prices, they are handy tools to help you have an idea how how much a taxi ride will set you back. The three pages make use of Google Maps and as well as the fares they provide itinerary information.

At our blog post taxis we gave an overall view of how taxis work in Brazil and explained the difference between Bandeira 1 and Bandeira 2.

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TAXI.com.br

With data for the cities of: Aracaju, Belém, Belo Horizonte, Boa Vista, Brasilia, Campinas, Campo Grande, Cuiabá, Curitiba, Florianópolis, Fortaleza, Goiânia, João Pessoa, Macapá, Maceió, Manaus, Natal, Niterói, Palmas, Petrópolis, Porto Alegre, Porto Velho, Recife, Rio de Janeiro, Rio Branco, Salvador, Santo André, Santos, São Luís, São Paulo, Teresina and Vitória.

To use the search engine first select your city. Then type your origin at Informe seu Ponto de Partida and your destination at e agora seu Destino.

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CALCULADOR DE TARIFA DE TAXI

With data for the cities of: Aracaju, Bauru, Belém, Belo Horizonte, Brasilia, Campinas, Canoinhas, Caxias do Sul, Chapecó, Cuiabá, Curitiba, Florianópolis, Fortaleza, Goiânia, Ilhéus, João Pessoa, Joinville, Londrina, Manaus, Maringá, Natal, Pelotas, Porto Alegre, Recife, Rio de Janeiro, Salvador, Santos, São José dos Campos, São Paulo and Vitória.

To use the search engine first select your city. Then type your origin at Origem and your destination at Destino.

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TAXÍMETRO ONLINE

With data for the cities of: Belo Horizonte, Rio de Janeiro, Recife, Salvador, São Paulo and Vitória.

To use the search engine first select your city. Then type your origin at Origem>Endereço and your destination at Destino>Endereço.

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Comparison

We ran a fare comparison throughout the 3 engines.

1. Rio de Janeiro. We simulated a ride from Avenida Atlântica, 1000 (Copacabana) to Estrada do Corcovado, 1 (on the way up to the Corcovado mountain).

Fare class / Taxi.com.br / Calculador de Tarifa de Taxi / Taxímetro online
Bandeira 1 / R$ 22,35 / R$ 24,03 / R$20,50
Bandeira 2 / R$ 25,95 / R$ 27,98 / R$23,74

2. São Paulo. We simulated a ride from Avenida Paulista, 100 to Avenida Vital Brasil, 1500 (Instituto Butantan).

Fare class / Taxi.com.br / Calculador de Tarifa de Taxi / Taxímetro online
Bandeira 1 / R$ 21,61 / R$21,19 / R$21,19
Bandeira 2 / R$ 28,09 / R$26,50 / R$26,49

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It is important to understand that the three search engines only show estimates. These estimates don’t include variables such as the time spent on the ride, which can considerably increase the cost. For that reason, a higher value than the one shown on any of the engines doesn’t necessarily imply the taxi driver is trying to cheat on you. Take those values as a rough minimum estimate.

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RELATED POSTS:
Taxis

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Linhas rodoviárias is a new website with information on travel routes around Brazil. It is quite easy to use. For the time being, it only contains information on both domestic and international routes departing from São Paulo.

Busque seu destino! is your search window. ORIGEM (origin) has São Paulo selected as a default (you can’t change it). At DESTINO (destination) you have to select the state or country you are travelling to and at CIDADE (city, town) the name of your destination.

The interesting thing about this website is that the search results shows not only the details of the company or companies (empresa) travelling the route. You will also find the schedules (horários de embarque), fares (preço da passagem), duration of the trip (tempo de viagem), distance (distância em kilómetros), number of stops (previsão de paradas) and the number of the ticket office (guichê de venda) at the bus station where you will be able to purchase tickets.

We take the system is fed manually with all the data coming from multiple sources. We don’t know how often the information is updated. For that reason, we encourage you to use this website as a starting point on your research. But double-check any information with the bus company you will be travelling with.

We hope new departure cities will be fed into the system soon. When that happens we’ll promptly let you know here.

Our main blog entry on bus travel in Brazil is bus transportation in Brazil.

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RELATED POSTS:
bus transportation in Brazil

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This is a summary of the most recent posts published at D Airfare, our blog on Brazilian aviation news with tips on how to find the best deals to fly to Brazil.

Great news, we are seeing cheaper fares to the US.

On the news section we read that Pluna is increasing its frequencies to São Paulo, that Tam got official permission to fly to Portugal, that Azul is announcing a new flight from Campinas to Maringá, that Delta is postponing its LA – São Paulo and that Air China changing its mind again once again!

Gol is offering flight deals once again (and twice in a short space of time, new Gol deals) and so is Azul (that run yet another promotion days later: Azul, new promotion for flights on Tuesdays and Wednesdays). Copa has excellent deals to South America and the Caribbean. Lufthansa and Swiss offered deals to Europe.

American is resuming its daily flights to Recife and Salvador.

And Varig is going to fly to Aruba.

Tam and Air Canada signed an agreement.

On the video section we landed in Fortaleza, and took off from Congonhas airportin São Paulo.

This is a summary of the most recent posts published at D Airfare, our blog on Brazilian aviation news with tips on how to find the best deals to fly to Brazil.

On the new flights section we learned of uncertainties about the Turkish initial flight as well as the Air China initial flight . We learned that Delta has plans for Brasilia.

Flight deals are always important and we mentioned Lan’s deals to Argentina, Chile and Peru.

Azul is announcing new shuttle buses to the airport.

And at the video section we landed in Florianopolis.

This is a summary of the most recent posts published at D Airfare, our blog on Brazilian aviation news with tips on how to find the best deals to fly to Brazil.

On the news front, Tam is announcing it will fly to South Africa, El Al announced its fares for the Tel Aviv / São Paulo flight, Air China is flying again from São Paulo to Madrid, Swiss will no longer fly to Santiago, Pluna will fly to Porto Alegre in June and Continental and US Airways are en route to Rio de Janeiro.

Tam will only enter the Star Alliance only in 2010.

New low-cost Azul is on its way to Rio and Manaus.

A we saw of a video of a landing in Paraty in wonderful Paraty.

This is a summary of the most recent posts published at D Airfare, our blog on Brazilian aviation news with tips on how to find the best deals to fly to Brazil.

With our direct flights charts you can see at a glance all the international direct flights from your desired Brazilian location.

We gave details of the TAM’s South America Airpass that allows you to fly through TAM’s South American network at reduced prices.

New airline Azul annnounced its next destination, Recife, and we gave all the details about the new flight: Azul begins flying to Recife on 18 February.

What with the end of the operations of Air Europa, the Brazilian Northeast states are chasing flights from Europe.

On the airline news front we mentioned US Airways might fly to Brazil, spoke about the new Alitalia on the air and about Programa Amigo: OceanAir finally publishes its rules.

At large is an interesting link with info on internet access at the airports worldwide.

At our media centre we saw a video of a landing in Congonhas airport, São Paulo and a photo of tiny photos: Barreirinhas airport.