I live in Sao Paulo, Brazil, and I'm planning to take a trip to Bali. What is the best itinerary to do so, as regards flights and costs? Through Europe or the US? My search over the Net showed me very complicated conexions from the US to Bali, some flights taking more than a day (that leg only).

fcabral, I don't know when you are planning to go but from October Emirates start Sao Paulo to Dubai "non stop", so you could either fly Emirates Sao Paulo-Dubai-Singapore and then connect to Singapore Airlines to Bali or you could fly Sao Paulo-Dubai-Kuala Lumpur on Emirates and then connect with Malaysia Airlines 'or' Air Asia (budget airlines).
That gives you a same airline / one stop to either Singapore or Kuala Lumpur and from there to Bali is easy.

You could also use Japan Airlines (JAL) from Sao Paulo direct to Tokyo and from their with their Jalways ( part of JAL I believe ) section to Bali, that gives you another way, call japan Airlines local, though whichever way you fly is quite a journey.

If it's before they start flying then as you say it is not so easy, apart from the usuals you could look at over Johannesburg ( about 9 hrs from SAO ) and from there you can pick up Singapore Airlines or Malaysia Airlines who then fly non stop to SIN / KUL from where again you can then get to Bali quite easily.
From LAX you can get Singapore Airlines non-stop to Singapore.
If it's from October that Emirates via Dubai could be interesting for you.
Others will have ideas via West Coast.

Many thanks. Your information was quite helpful.
I would probably schedule my trip for post-October.
Thanks again.

great routing james!!..the usual arrivals into bali involve a transfer from singapore but there are also some direct flights to bali from places like germany at certain times of year...

hiring a driver in bali is a great way to see the whole island....many of us have hired putu....you will see quite a bit written about him on this forum

Cabral, moro no Rio e estive em Bali em Janeiro agora.
se quiser algumas dicas entre em contato.
[email protected]
ou então na minha pagina:
http://members.virtualtourist.com/m/ba5ec/

Any way you look at it, it's a long flight with at least three separate flights. It's pretty much equidistant whether you go east or west, but I prefer going through Europe. (Actually my first choice would be to use the non-stop from Newark to Singapore, but I don't think you can get a good connection from SP to Newark.)

I'd suggest that you try Lufthansa to Frankfurt then connect either on Lufthansa or Singapore to Singapore. From there you can connect on Singapore to Denpasar Bali. LH and SQ are both part of the Star Alliance and therefore may offer a reasonable fare.

Another option would be to get yourself to Hong Kong and then connect from there.