When I first arrived in Brazil I assumed the country, being one country, would be easy to navigate – not the case. Roads aren’t always like the first world here in Brazil. This affects the Soccer World Cup 2014 in Brazil as the country’s got twelve different hosting cities – can be days of travel apart.
So, how do you get around the country to visit different games? Well, I’d say you’ll be coping a free hit to the chin when you’re faced with the hefty airfares. It won’t be possible to travel between certain cities during the World Cup.
Porto Algre is a city to the south of Brazil hosting. A city to the north of the country is Manaus. There’s three days of straight travel, at least, if you travel between two cities by land.
Two airlines operating in Brazil are “Gol” and “LAN”. If you’re going to buy tickets to fly between cities you may need to get on the job asap; the prices will be absurd if you don’t. You should plan your Soccer World Cup 2014 in Brazil now to save. It’s not possible to plan the entire cup too far in advance as you won’t know your team’s results or who they’re matched up with during the soccer world cup 2014 – it’ll be pending their success.
I’m interested in getting a discussion going here to help people with planning their Soccer World Cup 2014 in Brazil.
Please feel free to start any discussion or ask any questions; chances are your questions are also the questions of others. I’m an Australian travel writer but I’ve lived in Brazil for near five-years.
I’m more than happy to help with topics associated with this Soccer World Cup in Brazil. It’d be a pleasure. I’m not looking for cash either. I just want my travel writing read in return, which is free: www.DesdeSouthAmerica.com.
Cheers,
Gaston
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Hi Gaston, I’m currently planning my Brazil World Cup trip, looking at attending the AUS v Netherlands match in Port Alegre and and the AUS v Span match in Curitiba. Also planning to do quite a bit of travel between games. Do you know of any good Australian based South American travel agents?
Hi Linda,
I don’t know a great deal about travel agents, although sometimes you’ll deal with an agent who haven’t even been to Brazil. I do know the areas you’re visiting well. What about I just tell you how to get between cities. There’s not a huge distance between the cities you’ve mentioned. I’m in florianopolis at the moment which is about five hours by bus to Curitiba or seven hours by bus to Porto Alegre (the two cities are in two different directions from Florianopolis though). There’s a couple of ways you can tackle the trip. The domestic planes will be very expensive. You might like to get a bus, although this will depend on the times you’d like to leave or arrive in the next city. “Brasil Sul” is a bus company who looks after the south of Brazil. Their seats are similar to those on business class flights. If you’d like to fly there’s “Gol air”. It’ll cost you a mint during the world cup. Why do you want a travel agent if you don’t mind me asking? I understand a lot of the bus service websites are in Portuguese. Why don’t you give me a little point form summary of what you need, include times you need to be in places, and if I get a moment I’ll try knock some of the problems on the head for you? It’s good you’re getting on top of it now. Brazil’s not the easiest country to deal with re travel – it’s bloody huge.
Talk soon,
Gaston
Hi Gaston,
Thanks for getting back to me and offering to help. My thinking for a travel agent is to help with navigating around the portugese websites and also bookings with other budget airlines – at the moment the flights with GOL and TAM are quite expensive.
I am flying into Santiago Chile (16 June) and want to head to Port Alegre in time for the Aus v Netherlands game (18 June). I think the best option may be to fly, or fly part of the way. Then planning to head to Curitiba to watch the Aus v Spain game (22 June).
Also would like to visit the Iguazu Falls at some point, do you think it will be more efficient to travel from Iguazu from Port Alegre or Curitiba?
Then from Curitiba head up to Sao Paulo and then Rio.
Many thanks,
Hi Linda,
I’ve had a think about your questions. I thought it’d be easier if I provided your answers with an image and some thoughts in another post. It’s an image of a bus timetable between from Porto Alegre and Curitiba. See here:
https://southamericabasics.com/2014/01/07/726/
I thought there’d be a few Australians in a similar position to you so I thought I’d try to help everybody.
Cheers,
Gaston
Thanks Gaston very helpful indeed
Too easy. I’m glad it helped.