Brazil was the first stop on our trip and we spent 2 weeks exploring a small section of the country. Brazil is such a big country and in 2 weeks we obviously only scratched the surface of this huge area of South America. It was enough to give us a taster and experience the wide variety and excitement of Brazil. From thick jungle to monster cities, samba dancing, perfect beaches and exotic wildlife. We loved our time in Brazil and in this post I will share with you our 2 week itinerary and exactly how much I spent.

The Itinerary

1. Rio de Janeiro – 5 nights

Our first stop was the exciting city of Rio De Janeiro and it was amazing to finally arrive in one of my top bucket list destinations.

Rio is full of attractions to keep you busy for several days. Our highlights include Christ the Redeemer, Sugar Loaf mountain, Copacabana Beach, a Favela tour, jungle trekking in the Tijuca Rainforest and a night out in Lapa.

I couldn’t help but feel a little cautious in Rio due to it’s bad reputation and horror stories of crime and muggings, however during the 5 nights we spent in Rio I really grew to fall in love with the city and it is certainly now up there with one of my favourite cities of all time. In the end despite my worrying, we didn’t have any problems with safety in Rio and it was our favourite stop in all of Brazil.

In Rio we stayed in Discovery Hostel located in Gloria and it is definitely one of the best hostels I have ever stayed in! It is located a 2 minute walk from Gloria metro and is really close to Lapa for nights out. We had 2 nights in a private room which cost £17 each per night and then 3 nights in a 6 bed dorm which cost £11.60 each per night. This also included an amazing breakfast. The hostel organises lots of day tours and night outs so is really social.

2. Paraty – 3 Nights

From Rio we took a 5 hour mini bus to Paraty. We used the ‘Easy Transfer’ mini bus service which our hostel organised for us. This cost us $95 BRL (£21) each.

Paraty is a small town located on the Brazilian coast backed by mountainous jungle. There is a small colonial town centre which was very peaceful to wander around and take photos. It was beautiful however other than that we found the colonial town centre a little touristy. Paraty is also surrounded by beautiful beaches and we spent the majority of our time here relaxing on a beach nearby. There were many tourist agency’s offering boat trips to nearby islands and beaches if that’s your thing, however we felt these looked overly touristy so we gave it a miss.

In Paraty we stayed in Adventure Hostel. We stayed in a private room for a very cheap price of $38.25 BRL (£8.50) each per night. The location of the hostel was perfect. It was a very basic, no frills hostel but perfectly fine.

3. Ubatuba – 3 nights

For our next stop we wanted to find somewhere a little less touristy and after a bit of research we decided to head an hour further down the coast to ‘Ubatuba’. We took a local bus from Paraty bus station which cost just $13.90 BRL (£3.10) each. Ubatuba is in the state of Sao Paulo and is surrounded by the Serra do Mar National Park rainforest. There are many beaches in the area (over 100 in fact!) some of which are particularly popular with surfers. We were told the beaches north from the town are more remote and less commercial.

Upon arrival it was absolutely throwing it down with rain, it turned out that Ubatuba’s nickname is ‘Ubachuva’ which translates to ‘Ubarains’. It spent about 75% of the time raining so unfortunately we didn’t venture out to any of the apparently pristine and remote beaches. However we did enjoy wandering around the town and local beach of Ubatuba itself. Ubatuba is also home to the headquarters of the ‘TAMAR’ project, which we visited and saw some sea turtles.

We loved our hostel in Ubatuba – Ecotrip Hostel. It was a really cool eco hostel and also had a pool which was nice to have a relaxing swim in. We stayed in a private room which cost $50 BRL (£11.10) each per night.

4. Sao Paulo – 4 nights

Our final stop in Brazil was the monster city of Sao Paulo. Sao Paulo intimidated me at first, but I actually enjoyed the city a lot more than I thought. We took a bus from Ubatuba bus station to Sao Paolo for $74 BRL (£16) and it took about 4 hours.

We were really lucky to be in Sao Paulo on a Sunday. On Sunday’s, Paulista Avenue is closed to vehicles and the whole road is full of people. The atmosphere was amazing – there were market stalls, street performers and some incredible musicians. We spent the whole day there and loved it. Our other highlights from Sao Paulo include a walking tour of Downtown and a visit to Batman Alley in Vila Madalena to take photos of the colourful street art which covers every inch of the alley.

In Sao Paulo we stayed in Cafe Hostel located in Vila Madelena. The location of the hostel was great, close enough to walk to and from the bars and restaurants in Vila Madelena and only 5 minutes walk to the metro. It was also very cheap – a dorm bed cost us just $32.50 BRL (£7) each.

The Budget

Finally, how much did 2 weeks in Brazil cost?

Food & Drink	£168.98
Accomodation	£143.98
Activity’s	£80.44
Travel	£62.86
Laundry	£3.88
Shopping	£3.33
TOTAL	£463.47

The above table shows exactly what I spent in Brazil – Therefore I spent an average of £33.10 a day during my time in Brazil.

The above chart shows clearly that the majority of my budget went on food & drinks followed by accommodation. We would often eat out once or sometimes twice a day and we drank beer most evenings! So it’s not surprising that a lot of the budget went on this.

I had heard that Brazil was the most expensive country in South America however Brazil was actually a little bit cheaper than I expected it to be. Prices were similar to Europe and worth every penny but we felt that 2 weeks was plenty of time here to get a taster of this huge country.