Introducing Brazil
One of the world’s most captivating places, Brazil is South America’s giant, a dazzling country of powdery white-sand beaches, pristine rain forests and wild, rhythm-filled metropolises. Brazil’s attractions extend from enchanting, frozen-in-time colonial towns to dramatic landscapes of red-rock canyons, thundering waterfalls and idyllic tropical islands. Add to that, Brazil’s biodiversity: legendary in scope, its diverse ecosystems boast the greatest collection of plant and animal species found anywhere on earth.
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Brazil offers big adventures for travellers with budgets large and small. There’s horseback riding in the Pantanal, kayaking flooded forests in the Amazon, ascending rocky cliff tops to breathtaking views, whale-watching off the coast, surfing stellar breaks off palm-fringed beaches and snorkelling crystal-clear rivers or coastal reefs – all part of the great Brazilian experience.
No less entrancing is the prospect of doing nothing, aside from sinking into warm sands and soaking up a glorious stretch of beach, caipirinha – Brazil’s national cocktail – in hand.
Brazil’s most famous celebration, Carnaval, storms though the country’s cities and towns with hip-shaking samba and frevo, dazzling costumes and carefree joie de vivre, but Brazilians hardly regulate their passion for revelry to a few weeks of the year. Wherever there’s music, that carefree lust for life tends to appear – whether dancing with Cariocas at Rio’s atmospheric samba clubs or following powerful drumbeats through the streets of Salvador. There’s the dancehall forró of the Northeast, twirling carimbó of the Amazon, scratch-skilled DJs of São Paulo and an endless variety of regional sounds that extends from the back-country sertanejo to reggae-loving Maranhão.
With so much going for them, it’s no wonder that Brazilians say ‘Deus e Brasileiro’ (God is Brazilian). How else to explain the treasure chest of natural and cultural riches sprinkled all across the country?
Ready to go?
These tours & activities make it easy:
- Experience the Amazon with four days in a treetop lodge
- Discover the heart and soul of Brazil in a week
- Explore the Pantanal wetland area and its wildlife diversity
- Take a tour to the spectacular Iguassu Falls
Last updated: Jan 10, 2013
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Brazil
Things to do
- All things to do (2,532)
- Activities (310)
- Entertainment (440)
- Restaurants (840)
- Shopping (221)
- Sights (646)
- Tours (75)
Make it happen
Our Top Picks For Brazil
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1 Salvador's beaches
So summer's over, and you're feeling flat, exhausted and samba-ed out. It's not too cold yet to escape to an idyllic beach and recharge. Catch a bus up the coast to Piatã or Itapuã beaches, where smooth white sands, calm seas and swaying palms will revive you.
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2 Iguaçu Falls
More than 250 spectacular waterfalls surrounded by Atlantic rain forest
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3 Ilha de Santa Catarina
Big surf, happening nightlife, succulent oysters, deserted beaches, quaint fishing villages and more
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4 Manaus
Gateway to jungle trips along the mighty Amazon, the once-glorious city has teeming markets and Amazonian culture
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5 Pantanal
Verdant wonderland with fantastic wildlife viewing coupled with trekking, horseback riding and boat trips
Fast Facts about Brazil
- Area
8,456,510 sq km (about the size of the continental United States
- Number of times the Brazilian football team has won the World Cup
five: 1958, 1962, 1970, 1994, 2002
- Capital
Brasilia
- Famous for
Carnaval, the Amazon, music, football, beaches, caipirinhas, supermodels, soap operas (telenovelas), Jorge Amado, corrupt politicians
- Languages
Portuguese and 180 indigenous languages
- Population
198 million
- Phrases
legal, bacana - cool; repugnante - disgusting; festa - party
- Artists who've covered "The Girl from Ipanema"
Astrud Gilberto, Frank Sinatra, Shirley Bassey, Eartha Kitt, The Supremes, Sammy Davis Jr & Count Basie, Sergio Mendes
- Estimated number of insect species in Brazil
10-15 million