Spanish or English?

Before I came to Brazil I always wondered what would work best as I don't speak Portugese but speak an advanced level of Spanish. So, would they understand me more if I spoke Spanish (because it's similar to Portuguese) or if I spoke English? Well after 2 weeks in Brazil I think I found the answer...in short, Spanish is usually better but English occassionally is. There was more English in Rio or Sao Paolo for example, and less in Salvador and Praia de Forte (even in the tourist information office). In a mid range hotel or high end restaurant I would try English first, in most places e.g. a low end hotel or street food vendor or non-tourist shop just go straight for Spanish.

For the most part, people did understand me in Spanish, even with some concepts that were not that simple. For example I went into a pharmacy and said that I had too much ear wax and wanted a liquid drop treatment to soften the wax so it would fall out. That was understood. However, a little tricky concept like that would be hit and miss. Very basic things "I want to buy x" would work more often than not. I tried to speak slowly, and repeat things two different ways if possible.

Of course, understanding what they say in response was more tricky, and requires being really alert and thinking outside the box in real time to run through the possibilities of what they might be saying by cross refrencing with Spanish and English as they talk. The difference in pronunciation means that generally, I cannot understand spoken Portugeuse, even though I can make a good stab at reading it. With experience, I was improving, but very slowly.

I did learn a few words in Portuguese of course, like Obrigado, as a courtesy. I also realized that, hypothetically, if I were to move and live in Brazil, I would speak Portugese by speaking Spanish and over time replacing more and more words with the Portugese one. That would, inevitably, be the way to do it.

Of course, I am assuming you really can speak Spanish to a good level not a basic level. Obviously if your Spanish is barely intelligible in a Spanish speaking country they you've got no chance in Brazil!

If spoken clearly, many if not most Portuguese speakers can make out Spanish. My Spanish is fairly basic but I can get by because I speak Portuguese and reading it is a pretty simple exercise. To a certain extent it sounds like Portuguese as spoken by someone with a speech defect and a cognitive learning disability, which more often than not is true. ;-) What many native Spanish speakers report is that whilst they can make themselves understood more often than not understanding the response is a more difficult proposition. There are also more than a few false cognates between the two languages.

There are some locales and some hotels where you will find a lot of people who understand and speak Spanish. Neighbouring countries still provide the overwhelming bulk of foreign visitors, Santa Catarina is practically overrun with argentinos in summer. There are a couple of hotels in Salvador, whose principal trade is with argentinos and chilenos, so naturally all the staff speak Spanish but nobody there spoke English.

I'd always read that Spanish is more intelligible to Portuguese speakers than Portuguese is to Spanish ones - a question of TV exposure? At least, perhaps, in Europe.

In any case, by far the best course of action if you have the desire to do so is learn some Portuguese. It is a startlingly beautiful language (much easier on the easier than European Portuguese, which still sounds awful to me even as a relatively fluent Portuguese speaker) and speaking it opened many doors for me in my time there. Well worth the effort!!

You may be understood more using Spanish, especially in the south (e.g., lots of Argentinian visitors), but the problem will be understanding what the Brazilian says. Spanish maybe closer to Portuguese than is, say, English, but they are not all that close. Some words similar, some completely different. My wife, who is Brazilian, feels that a Portuguese speaker will understand most of what a Spanish speaker says, but feels the reverse is not true. She actually finds Italian easier than Spanish to understand. Many in the service sector, especially hotels and such, are trying to learn English. I'd probably try Spanish first and then, if that doesn't work, English. Why do you need to decide in advance? Spanish as spoken in Argentina would be better than that spoken in Spain.

Best thing would be to learn a bit of survival Portuguese in advance.

Getting your Spanish language skills to a good enough level to understand Portuguese is easy enough. There are many websites out there that try to link related languages. I can't really recall any for Spanish-Portuguese, but they are relatively easy to find. I homeschooled my boy and girl on the road. They are now fluent in Spanish and English. Since these are foreign languages to them I would say that they did a great job with them. English courses online and Spanish ones really are simple and easy to follow.