Ground Transportation for [Brazil]

Options for traveling within [Brazil] for a 21-day period


Outline

  1. Car
  2. Subway / Bus / Air / Taxi
  3. Other Options
  4. Estimate of total ground travel expenses


Car

I will be renting a car in the city of Rio de Janeiro for a total of seven days for a cost of $112.65.

Train / Bus / Air

My plan for the three week period to Brazil is to ride the subway, taxi and bus. The City of Sao Paulo which is where I will start my three week trip has a system in place called Bilhete Unico. Bilhete Unico is a pass around the city that allows me to ride the train, subway and a specific line of buses. They have a discount in place that I can take four transports in three hours by only paying a single fare. The single fare costs about 3.80 Brazilain Real which amounts to about $ 0.79. I will be in the City of Sao Paulo for about four days which I can estimate of spending a total of $ 6.00 which converts to R$ 28.96. I will then buy a ticket pass from Sao Paulo to Rio de Janeiro for 137.99 Real which is converted to $28.53. Once I am in Rio de Janeiro I will rent a car for $ 112.65 for seven days that I will be in Rio de Janeiro. I will then take an flight from Rio de Janeiro to Manaus for R$ 212.75 which is converted to $43.88. In Manaus I will plan to be there for four days and then take a flight to Recife for R$ 383.37 which is converted to $ 79.10. The reason that I am forced to take another flight is because a car and ferry ride from Manaus to Recife takes about sixty-eight hours according to Google Maps. In recife I will once again get a taxi with the same price as in Manaus which was $ 30.00. From Recife I will travel to my final destination Fortaleza which will be about R$189.10, which is converted to $ 38.97. I will be using the taxi in Fortaleza which will be an estimated $ 30.00.

The book Lonley Planet Brazil suggests that for cross country travel its better to take a flight due to how big the Brazilian country truly is. They do suggest buy a pass for 21-days in which they let you fly to four or five different destinations in Brazil but it cost about 500 U.S. dollars. For the purpose of the trip it will not work for me. The book also suggested to me that it was okay to travel around Brazil in a bus and they suggested the same companies that I used as being safe and cheap. For the way to travel around Brazil in a rented car they do suggest to have an international license. They do advice that it's super busy and that it's very dangerous to drive around because of how reckless some drivers might be. One of the best suggestions that they gave is that usually Brazilians don't stop at red lights during the night for the fear of getting robbed so what locals is merely slow down to make sure there is no upcoming traffic.

Other options

When I am in Manaus I plan to get a taxi to drive me around the city and when I am visiting downtown Manaus I plan to walk. My expenses for Manaus will be R$ 145.59 or converted to $ 30.00.

Estimate of total ground travel expenses

The total cost of traveling within [Brazil] for a three week period is $399.13.


Submitted by [Josue Ayala] on [March 13, 2020].