Brazil Travel Guide Best Places to Visit & Things to Do in Brazil

Why visit Brazil? Brazil’s size — larger than the contiguous United States minus Alaska — means most trips center on a handful of regions rather than the whole country at once, a useful thing to know when figuring out where to go in Brazil. Rio de Janeiro remains the classic starting point, its Christ the Redeemer statue and Sugarloaf Mountain framing a city that moves fluidly between Brazil beaches Rio is famous for and the favela-dotted hillsides above it — the anchor of any thorough Rio de Janeiro attractions list. A short flight brings Iguazu Falls into range — a curtain of nearly 275 individual waterfalls on the Argentina border, more powerful and more numerous than Niagara, and the centerpiece of most Iguazu Falls Brazil searches. For wildlife, the Pantanal, the world’s largest tropical wetland, offers far better animal sightings than the denser Amazon rainforest, though an Amazon rainforest Brazil tour based in Manaus remains essential for anyone wanting the Amazon itself. Salvador, the former colonial capital in Bahia, carries Brazil’s Afro-Brazilian heritage most visibly, while Sao Paulo — Brazil’s largest city — anchors the country’s food and arts scene away from the beaches entirely. A Carnival in Brazil experience, held every February or March before Lent, draws visitors to Rio specifically, though smaller regional celebrations happen nationwide with far fewer crowds — one of many Brazil travel experiences that make the country worth returning to.