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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bus transportation in Brazil

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You are landing at Guarulhos international airport in São Paulo and need to get to town. Unless you have a friend in São Paulo giving you a lift, you have three options available:

1. take a taxi. They are safe, they are reliable and they are expensive. We gave details of how the taxis operate at taxis from Guarulhos int’l airport in São Paulo.
2. take the shuttle bus. It costs R$30 and has lines serving different parts of the city: it goes to Congonhas Airport, to Praça da República (downtown), to Avenida Paulista / Circuito dos Hotéis (serving the main hotels in the Avenida Paulista area), to Itaim Bibi (in the south of the city), to the Barra Funda bus station and to the Terminal Tietê bus station. There is more information on schedules and itineraries at the service’s website. All buses depart from the external side of the airport, right after you leave the terminal. Each line is clearly identified. The buses are safe and reliable and can carry big amounts of luggage.
3. take a local bus to metrô Tatuapé (on the red line of the São Paulo underground). From there you will have to navigate your way to your destination making the most of the smallish subway system. The bus costs R$3,65 and we only advise it if you are not travelling with heavy luggage (it is not a bus designed to carry luggage). The bus can be very crowded as it is taken by the locals. Also bear in mind that São Paulo’s underground system is one of the busiest in the world. You can check schedules here.

It is absolutely impossible to venture travel times between the airport and your destination in town (and viceversa). Traffic conditions in São Paulo can be horrendous and its traffic jams are something of a legend. A ride from the airport to Avenida Paulista can take anything between 45 minutes and 2 hours. The roads connecting the airport to town are some of the most congested in the city.

São Paulo must rank, without any doubt, among the most unfriendly large cities of the world when it comes to transportation between its international airport and the city. For years there have been talks of a train connection but so far nothing good has come out of it. The government promised the rail connection would be up and running in 2008, then in 2010 and now the date has been postponed to 2014. Affordable public transportation has never been a priority for São Paulo.

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destination: São Paulo
from Guarulhos airport to São Paulo’s bus station
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São Paulo getaways
youth hostels in São Paulo.

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This is one of the few times that an entry about the Lençóis Maranhenses in this blog will not be accompanied by beautiful pictures. Instead of pictures of this natural paradise, we bring you a story published by newspaper O Globo, explaining how the construction of luxury homes threatens the environmentally protected region.

When we visited Barreirinhas a few years ago we did not like what we saw. But, according to the newspaper, the situation is now out of control, with the construction of mansions everywhere and ridiculous actions, such as the person who not only built a mansion in an environmentally protected area, but also diverted the river to build his own private beach. Reading this story is very upsetting, due to both the agressions against the environment and the fact that the authorities cannot or will not do anything about it.

Will we be alone in denouncing this?

More and more frequently we find that the Brazilian travel blogosphere -with some notable and well known exceptions- will avoid any criticism towards the tourist destinations in Brazil. But as long as we have the energy, we will continue to pay attention and condemn these problems.

It might be unpleasant for the authorities, but discussing these issues and demanding solutions demonstrates commitment towards sustainable tourism in Brazil. Talking about Paris Hilton or Madonna on social networking sites does not.

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destination: Lençóis Maranhenses
Maranhão, images of a Brazilian paradise
Brazil in pictures: Lençóis Maranhenses

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February’s here and it is time to have a look at some of the topics we covered during January here at the Brazil Travel Blog.

We began the month informing on the situation in Ilha Grande after the tragedy. And went on a virtual tour around the island on Ilha Grande on Google Earth.

We let you know that the tickets for the São Paulo 2010 carnival at the sambadrome were on sale.

We have a new destination card, devoted this time to Belo Horizonte.

The Manaus photo album is ready.

We gathered a few tips on how to choose your jungle hotel at Jungle Lodges in the Amazon.

We mentioned new accommodation listings at the entry new Portuguese-language project: Hospedagem no Brasil.

There’s a new free guide out there: gay São Paulo.

The São Paulo Indy 300 2010 earned a special report.

Finally, we issued a health alert, as dengue fever is back.

We want to wish everyone spending their carnival in Brazil a smashing time here!

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On 10 facts about dengue fever in Brazil, our main entry devoted to dengue fever on this blog, we explained how the dengue epidemic coincides with the rainy season. What with the rainy season well under way, dengue is back to the headlines: Risco de dengue deixa em estado de alerta 17 capitais, diz ministério. Alert on 17 capitals due to the risk of dengue fever. Among the capitals mentioned there are plenty of important tourist destinations such as Aracaju, Belém, Belo Horizonte, Brasilia, Fortaleza, Maceió, Manaus, Natal, Rio de Janeiro, Salvador de Bahía, São Luís, Recife or Vitória.

Our advice:

1. Do not panic. Dengue fever is endemic. It appears every year in most of the country.
2. Be informed. Read 10 facts about dengue fever in Brazil to know more about the disease and to learn how to prevent becoming a victim of dengue fever.
3. When you reach your destination, seek up-to-date information locally. There isn’t a single online source with up-to-date information on dengue fever on all the destinations mentioned above.

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Welcome to the Brazil Travel Blog and our special report on the São Paulo Indy 300 race.

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1. THE DATES

The São Paulo Indy 300 race will be held on Sunday 14 March 2010 (training sessions on the previous day). There is a full schedule of events at the race’s official website.

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2. THE CIRCUIT

The race will take place on a makeshift circuit on the north of the city of São Paulo. Among other places, the drivers will race their cars through the São Paulo sambadrome (the carnival will be over by the time of the race).

View Larger Map

Take a virtual lap at the circuit with the following video:

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3. HOW TO GET TO THE CIRCUIT

The circuit is close to the blue line of the São Paulo subway system. The nearest station is Tietê, right next to São Paulo’s main bus terminal, terminal Tietê.

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4. TICKET SALES

Tickets will be sold from the beginning of February. Check the official website for more information. Ticket prices from R$100 to R$500 (on the left sidebar of the blog you can check the current exchange rate of the Brazilian real).

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5. WHAT TO DO IN SÃO PAULO

Our main entry on São Paulo is Destination: São Paulo. At São Paulo’s top ten I pointed out a few outstanding highlights in the city. And if you have a few days to spare, you could do much worse than having a look at our suggestions of São Paulo getaways.

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6. ACCOMMODATION IN SÃO PAULO

You can search for accommodation in São Paulo through our Hotels Combined search engine, a unique free tool that searches multiple hotel reservation websites simultaneously to help you find the lowest rate instantly. It eliminates the need to search major websites one by one in order to compare prices and availability. An amazing time and money saver!

The results open on a new page.

We have also published a blog post on youth hostels in São Paulo.

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São Paulo’s tourism authorities have launched the LGBT guide, a subsection under the city’s official website. It’s got an English version.

The guide contains maps and information on accommmodation, shopping, food and fun in São Paulo. As well as the online guide, you can download a PDF guide here. It is a bilingual Portuguese/English edition.

It is São Paulo rightly claiming its place among the top gay destinations in the world.

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São Paulo’s top ten
São Paulo getaways
youth hostels in São Paulo

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I have recently launched a new project, Hospedagem no Brasil, the Portuguese-language companion to Accommodation in Brazil and Alojamiento en Brasil, our projects in English and Spanish respectively.

These are times when the url of a hotel has become a commodity (Trip Advisor is charging hotel owners a fee if they want their url to show up along the reviews). For that reason we understand that having as complete as possible listings is of great help to travelers. More often than not, the listings we come across are quite limited and only include a small number of hotels and pousadas.

We hope the project will be of help to Brazilian readers.

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New listings at Accomodation in Brazil

We have now a handful of new listings at Accomodation in Brazil. Hotels and pousadas in Canela (Rio Grande do Sul), Guarapari (Espírito Santo), Ilhéus (Bahia), Itacaré (Bahia), Maceió (Alagoas) and Pirenópolis (Goiás).

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1. Jungle Lodges in the Amazon are for rich foreign tourists.

The name itself used by many hotels, “Jungle Lodge”, in English, says it all. Most jungle hotels cater for the foreign English-speaking crowd and quote their services in dollars or euros. Reaching Manaus and staying at a jungle lodge is not within the reach of most Brazilians. And those Brazilians that could afford it are frankly not too interested on nature experiences, they’d rather spend their holidays at a luxurious pousada at the beach or shopping in Miami.

Unfortunately, Jungle Lodges do not have the backpacking crowd in mind.

2. Location, location, location.

It pains me to say so, but there are some beautiful jungle lodges, highly recommended in many guides, that are just a few miles from that eyesore that it is Manaus. Anyone staying at those hoteles will see the city lights at the end of the day, will hear the boats up and down the river and even the planes approaching Manaus international airport. If they wander too far from the hotel they might hit a paved road.

Few hotels give precise details of their location. For that reason I decided to spend some time researching the location of most hotels and making it available on a Google Maps mash-up. I haven’t been able to locate precisely some hotels (either because there aren’t high-res images available or simply because the information I could gather didn’t help me find the hotel). For those hotels I’m just giving its approximate location.

View jungle lodges on a bigger map.

I recommend you open the map on a full page.

The hotels for which I’m giving their accurate location are: Acajatuba Jungle Lodge, Amazon Ecopark Jungle Lodge, Amazon Rainforest Adventure Station, Ariaú Amazon Towers, Amazon Mainan Lodge, Pakaas Palafitas Lodge, Pousada Uacari and Tiwa Amazonas Ecoresort.

If you are going to spend a small fortune to turn your Amazon dream a reality it might help knowing where you are heading too. Needless to say, the further away from civilization, the likelier you are to encounter wildlife and experience a true jungle holiday.

3. Packages

As you can imagine, nobody turns up at a remote jungle lodge asking whether there are any rooms available. Most hotels offer packages to their guests, including accommodation, meals (you won’t find any bars or restaurants near jungle lodges!) and jungle trips. When you purchase your package, make sure you understand what it is and it is not included. Likewise, most hotels include the transfer in/out to and from the hotel on their packages, but do make sure this is included.

4. Not all jungle lodges are the same.

For the reasons explained at number 1, a few jungle lodges have developed a business model that will not thrill those seeking a jungle experience as authentic as possible. We are talking about hotels with plasma TVs and DVD players on all rooms, gyms, spas, business centre, internet café, souvenir and jewelery shops and the likes. Outstanding among them are the Ariau Towers hotel and the Jungle Othon Palace.

A jungle lodge for which I’ve only heard praise – coming from people with environmental concerns I trust – is the Pousada Uacari at the Mamirauá ecological reserva. Although it is not, by any means, a luxury resort, its remote location makes it a costly choice. It would definitely be my choice if money wasn’t a problem and you were after a genuine Amazon experience.

If you have stayed at a jungle hotel and want to send me your opinions, you can use this blog’s contact address.

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destination: Manaus
the Meeting of the Waters and the Janauary Ecological Park, near Manaus
Destination: Belém
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Destination: Ilha do Marajó

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Our collection of photos taken on our recent trip to Manaus can be seen at our Flickr album Manaus. Here’s a small selection:

the outside of the Teatro Amazonas

the inside of the Teatro Amazonas

wildlife at the Bosque da Ciência

the mighty river and its boats

the spectacular Meeting of the Waters

the Janauary ecological park

the precarious living conditions

And quite a few more things.

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destination: Manaus

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