25 CHAMPION ATTRACTIONS
With 11 days to go until the Fifa World Cup kicks off in Brazil, we pick 25 of the best things to do in the country. By Lizzie Porter
1. Watch the World Cup
There’s no denying that prices will rocket, and available accommodation will be scarce, when Brazil hosts the Fifa World Cup from June 12 to July 13, but the excitement throughout the country will be palpable. There are 12 host cities, and matches will take place at world-famous locations, including the Brasilia Stadium.
2. Soak up the atmosphere on Ipanema beach in Rio de Janeiro
Its name is an indigenous word for “Bad, dangerous waters” (and should you dip in the sea, the strong undertow might have you believe this), but Ipanema beach is the place to see and be seen in Rio de Janeiro. Subcultures on the sand are demarcated by postos — lifeguard towers. Arpoador, for example, is the city’s most popular surfing spot, while Posto 9, Garota de Ipanema, is the place for the tanned and trendy of Brazil to hang out. It gets very crowded at weekends. Join a beach team to learn how to play volleyball.
3. Party in Rio
The Rio Carnival arrives with a bang before Lent every year, and given that it sees two million people per day burst onto the city streets, it is considered the world’s largest carnival. Its origins come from the Portuguese, who brought the “celebration of carnival” to Brazil in about 1850. Black slaves became involved in celebrations, and were allowed to be free for five days during the festivities, which soon took on a uniquely Latin American feel. Expect flamboyant costumes and more excitement than you can shake a Brazilian bottom at. For more information, visit
rio-carnival.net .
4. Visit Lençois Maranhenses National Park
Although this area in northeastern Brazil, covering 1 500km², initially appears to be a desert like any other, the proximity to the Amazon basin means that it is actually subject to not insignificant rainfall, leading to the creation of alien-like lagoons among the white sands. Park residents work mainly as fishermen, moving to more urban areas during the dry season. Getting into the park is difficult (there are no direct access roads) but tour operators offer trekking trips, including Bespoke Brazil ( bespokebrazil.com ).
5. Escape from the city to an artist’s retreat
An antidote to the hubbub of Brazil’s big cities, Olinda is said to be the country’s best preserved colonial city, where artisans’ workshops crouch alongside colourful old houses and churches. The historic centre was declared a Unesco World Heritage Site in 1982. Visit the Sé de Olinda cathedral, originally a small mud chapel and now a baroque-style, haunting white, red-roofed building (open Tuesday-Sunday, 9am-5pm) and the Museu de Arte Sacra de Pernambuco, in a former Bishop’s Palace.
6. Climb Sugarloaf Mountain
This peak — Pão de Açúcar — soars to 395m above Rio’s harbour, and is one of several granite and quartz mountains around the city. You can reach the summit by cable car, on a line originally built in 1912, in six minutes, or tackle it on foot, which will take three hours, and involve downward views best avoided by vertigo sufferers.
7. Snorkel in Bonito
Known as the eco-tourism model for Brazil, Bonito, in the southwestern corner of the state of Mato Grosso do Sul, offers visitors the chance to snorkel in lakes in caves and past needle-like stalactite formations in rainforest. Try the Rio Sucuri, a 1 500m snorkel through glass-clear waters with subaquatic gardens, or the Abismo de Anhumas, a 72m drop bottomed by an underground lake where snorkelling and scuba diving are possible in waters with 30m visibility. For more information, visit bonitoweb.br.
8. Visit Christ the Redeemer
With an armspan of 28m, and a hei proportions of this statue on Mount Rio de Janeiro, are truly impressive 1931, Christ the Redeemer was desi engineer Heitor da Silva Costa, cho basis of his sketches of a figure wit one hand and the world in the othe
Today, more than 600 000 people the site, transported to the summit that is almost 100 years old. Tickets round train trip and admission to t are from R$50 (R226) for adults and children. For more, visit corcovado
9. Drive the Costa Verde
The world’s great road trips are do names such as Big Sur and the Gre Route, but Brazil’s Costa Verde eas Stop-offs on the 563km route betwe Rio de Janeiro include the pristine Grande, and the wilderness beyond cannot be ignored either.
When Chris Moss, Telegraph Tra America expert, visited last year, h “Everywhere the jungle is invading reclaiming territory”.
10. Board a riverboat up the Amaz
Starting in Belém or Manaus, a 1 58 up the world’s largest river-drainag about five days. The most authentic by traditional river boat, kitted out more than hammocks, a canteen an few decks. Don’t expect cruise-liner instead, revel in the surrounding hu and the overwhelming calm. You ca Monte Alegre to see prehistoric roc paintings. Amazon Clipper Cruises ( amazonclipper.com.br ) has sever
11. Get wet at Iguazú Falls
On the border between Argentina a Iguazú Falls stretch for 2.7km, with drop at 82m, making them taller th
12. Stay at an eco-lodge on the Ma
The beaches of Bahia are some of B and can be enjoyed from the tranqu the state’s finest eco-resorts, Butter the Marau peninsula, 250km south There are eight villas fitted with su sourced interiors, a honey-coloured the doorstep, and freshwater lakes Heritage listed rainforest to be expl more intrepid ( butterflyhousebah
13. Fly to a nature reserve archipelago
Twenty-one islands; 354km off the Brazilian coast; utter return-to-nature stuff. This is what the Fernando de Noronha archipelago offers, with its dense forest, dolphins and albatrosses. Little there today makes one think that these beautiful islands were once a prison, and later a military base; the environment is more congenial now to honeymooners and wildlife spotters hoping to see endemic birds and sea turtles. Today, visitor numbers are controlled and a daily tax is imposed on visitors for environmental protection.
14. See Brazil’s Big Five
Seeing Africa’s Big Five is a bucket-list topper, but South America’s lesser-known offering is just as appealing — although sightings are, of course, never guaranteed. Look out for the Brazilian tapir, giant anteater, maned wolf, giant river otter and jaguar in the Parnaíba Headwaters National Park and the 210 000km² of the Pantanal Wetlands.
15. Stay in a ‘pousada’
A pousada, a word for which there is no direct translation into English, is a small independent guesthouse or eco-lodge, where you will often find personal and personable service, characterful décor and mountainous breakfasts. Chris Moss describes the Pousada Portas da Amazônia, in São Luis, as “a beautiful 29-room property spread over two tall, connecting timber-framed 1830s town houses, reinvented with decorative touches using cipó (a creeper), wicker and bamboo”. See
portasdaamazonia.com.br .
16. Visit Florianopolis’s fig tree
This colonial city’s main square, Praça XV, has a 100-year-old fig tree at its centre, which is said to have magical powers. Circling it three times is supposed to encourage marriage, seven times counterclockwise to cause divorce, and hanging from its branches upside down to leave the fool in question widowed.
17. Trek through the Amazon rainforest
Covering 5.5 million square kilometres of the Amazon Basin, the eponymous rainforest is one of the world’s greatest sights from the air. But there is nothing greater than penetrating the depths of the forest itself, home to one in 10 known species on Earth, including the scarlet macaw and the giant leaf frog.
18. Ride through the Pantanal
The wet conditions mean that navigating the Pantanal on foot is not always a practical option; far better to go on horseback to search for birdlife (these wetlands provide better sightings for ornithologists than the Amazon).
Audley Travel offers a 15-day “Wild Brazil” itinerary, including two days in the Pantanal, with opportunities for horse riding, canoeing and exploration ( audley.co.uk ).
19. Listen to music in Salvador
Alongside the colourful churches and cobbled streets of the historic centre, Salvador is known for its music scene, particularly its drummers, who come out onto the streets at night with a beat and a thump that will put the mojo into the dopiest of tourists. Here you will feel the African influence on Brazilian culture.
20. Visit Brasilia’s cathedral
Designed by architect Oscar Niemeyer, this singular building was completed in April 1960. Unlike most cathedrals in the world, its outline curves gently inwards and spikes towards the skies; inside, visitors can admire blue stained glass and three angels that hang from the ceiling, the heaviest of which weighs 300kg. The cathedral is open every day to visitors, except during Mass, and welcomes nearly one million people per year. For more information, visit aboutbrasilia.com .
21. Take a trip to a modern mountain town
Belo Horizonte, the capital of Minas Gerais state in the southwest, might be surrounded by mountains but do not think this is the back end of nowhere: it is home to visionary architecture, including the St Francis of Assisi Church, also designed by Oscar Niemeyer. Depictions on its walls are in varying shades of cornflower blue, its circular outline curving and beautiful.
22. View art in Sao Paulo
Brazil’s cultural capital has enough art galleries and museums to keep you going for days. Try first the Museu de Arte de São Paulo ( masp.art.br), with works by Goya, Picasso and El Greco; the Pinacoteca do Estado ( pinacoteca.org.br ), housing works by 19th-century Brazilian artists; and the Parque da Luz, where you can stroll among tropical flowers.
23. Shop at Sao Paulo’s Art Déco Mercado Municipal
The city’s biggest produce market has tropical fruits you will recognise, such as mangos, papayas, and passionfruit, as well as some you might not, such as jabuticaba. Also try a pastei, a meat and cheese filled pastry that is a local speciality.
24. Party in Recife
The capital of Pernambuco state, Recife is the place for nightlife and frevo brass band music — so called because the players “boil” a frenetic rhythm. Expect bright lights, noise, and, once a year, a carnival that in some visitors’ eyes rivals Rio’s.
25. Visit the Teatro Amazonas, Manaus
A city in the rainforest, Manaus is home to the “Amazon Theatre”, a blowsy, Renaissance-style construction that would look more at home in Vienna or St Petersburg, but that is worth seeing, perhaps during the annual Amazonas Opera Festival, which it hosts. A fancy touch is the dome, covered with 36 000 ceramic tiles in the colours of Brazil’s national flag. England play here on June 14. — © The Telegraph