Please help with 15 day Brazil itinerary
 

We are a couple in our early 50's, and avid travelers. We like architecture, culture, foreign cuisines, nature walks etc. This will be our first trip to South America, being planned for Dec 2011/Jan 2012. We are planning a 15-day trip to Brazil (not counting the flight time in reaching Brazil and back). Our first cut proposed itinerary is :

1. Land at Rio ; spend 4 days (with possible side trips)
2. Go to Manaus; spend 3 days
3. Go to Salvador (Bahia); spend 4 days
4. Go to Iguazu Falls; spend 2 days
5. Go to Sao Paulo; spend 2 days and fly out.

Is the above itinerary doable ? Would you recommend anything different ? We have deliberately left out Pantanal, as we were very recently on a wildlife safari trip to East Africa, and have had our fill of wildlife viewing for a few years ! We are hoping to see some of the Amazon rainforests when we visit Manaus. I don't know if it is a good idea. Rio, Salvador and Iguazu are an absolute must.

Would appreciate as much advice as you can give, including logistics of traveling around to the above destinations (I presume we have to fly from one place to another ?). What is the best and cheapest way to move from one destination to another in Brazil ?

I've just started planning a similar trip at the same time - I have come across advantageous Air Passes that make the internal flights quite reasonable. If you are flying in via one of the airlines the prices are even lower. Good interactive flight builder here

http://www.brol.com/air%20passes/

You haven't factored in travel time. Rio to Manaus is about 5-6 hours flying time. By the time check in/check out of both accomodation and flights plus transit to and from airports you will have killed the better part of two days. Flying from Manaus to Salvador almost invariably involves flying via SP so add more time.

Manaus in and of itself, isn't really worth the trip. It's a rather unpleasnt city, if truth be told and flying there just to see the teatro seems like a poor use of time. Presumably you want to visit a lodge in the forest? In which case you probably need to allocate more time to make it worth your while as any 'jungle experience' requires some time getting out of Manaus itself. You could kill a day doing the meeting of the waters trip but again it's a long and expensive trip just to do that.

Leaving out the Pantanal is wise given your time constraints.

Personally I'd incline to adding an extra day to either Rio or Salvador. Iguaçu can be seen in two days but there are a lot of pleasnt sidetrips from Rio and/ or Salvador.

São Paulo is a matter of taste. Some people love it, others prefer to limit their exposure. Two days seems a sensible compromise if you must see the place. Do be conscious when booking your flights about the incredible traffic problems that present and that the inernational airport is a long way out of town.

The best and cheapest way to travel is to fly. In your case it's also the only practical option. Distances are vast. Rio to Salvador alone is a 24 + hour bus trip. As it happens flights these days are generally as cheap if not cheaper than long haul bus trips. Some of the cheaper fares can be found on Webjet the Rio/Salvador trip in particular. Azul and Avianca are also worth looking, Azul has occasional promotions that give you multiple trips for a set low cost for a given time frame. You can look at the regular online promotions on Gol and TAM.

Other alternatives are to get an airpass from TAm when you buy your ticket to Brazil ( must be bought outside Brazil) or to look at packages with local agencies like CVC who do a lot of short stay packages which are often cheaper than airfare alone. These involve accomodation and transfers. We've used them on more than one occasion and often use them for bench marking prices for our holidays.

Enjoy your trip, If you have any more questions, in particular, info on Salvador, I'm happy to assist.

Thanks Carlos69, your reply is most helpful. This is exactly the kind of advice I am looking for, as the itinerary is completely flexible at this stage.

So if I understand you correctly, you are suggesting leaving out Manaus, and making it Rio - 5 days, Salvador - 5 days, Iguazu - 2 days and Sao Paulo - 3 days ; is that right ? What side trips would you recommend out of Rio and Salvador ?

Is there no easy way to get a feel for the Amazon and the rainforests ?

Really it's a matter of what premium you place on seeing the Amazon. You won't see much of it in Manaus itself, which is a large, rather dirty and fairly uninteresting city. Two days spent travelling there really merits a longer trip to see the forest. The Teatro Amazonas is worth seeing but that can be accomplished inside of an hour and hardly merits a 5-6 hour flight. Brazil is an immense country and sometimes less really is more.

Me? I'd rather not spend three days in São Paulo but I'm not especially enamoured of the place. It's not really a tourist town. A couple of days should suffice.

When in Salvador, consider doing an overnight trip to Cachoeira and São Felix. You don't state when you are going to Brazil but if you happen to be there in early August you could see the Festa da Boa Morte in Cachoeira. They are lovely little towns and well worth visiting anyway. You might also want to consider a trip up the coast. Most tourists seem to spend at least a day in Praia do Forte but consider a trip to the beach in Guarajuba or visit Imbassai. Another great day trip is taking a ferry over to Itaparica. If you take the ferry to Bom Despacho, you can take a kombi or taxi up to the town of Itaparica itself. It's a really lovely part of the world, largely unvisited by foreign tourists, great place to just relax and explore.

In Rio you really should consider making a side trip to Petropolis and do visit the sitio Burle Marx in Grumari, it;s the former home of Brazil's greatest landscape architect a man who worked hand in hand with Niemeyer. Do take the ferry across to Niterói to see the MAC gallery and consider lunch either upsatirs at the fish markets or on the waterfront at Jurujuba.

Enjoy!

Just to offer a fan's view of São Paulo: it has great restaurants, amazing galleries and museums, and great architecture.

Just some of the architectural highlights are:

Lina bo Bardi's MASP and the sport centre at Pompéia are both really worth seeing. http://www.institutobardi.com.br/eng.../historia.html

Niemeyer's series of building Ibirapuera Park and the Latin American memorial: http://www.galinsky.com/buildings/me...ina/index.html