Getting around Brazil: flights, buses, Uber and driving

Start with the scale

The single most useful thing to understand about moving around Brazil is how big it is. It is slightly larger than the contiguous United States. Rio to Salvador is roughly New York to Miami. Rio to Manaus is further than New York to Los Angeles.

Almost every bad Brazil itinerary comes from looking at a map, seeing two places that appear close, and losing two days to the gap between them. If there is one thing to take from this page: fly between regions.

Domestic flights

Frequent, competitive, and cheap compared to flying inside the US. There are a handful of domestic carriers and they cover the country densely, including some genuinely small airports.

A few things that are not obvious:

• Baggage is usually not included in the headline fare. Add it when booking rather than at the airport, where it costs more.
• Domestic terminals are separate at some big airports, and the transfer between them is not always quick. Leave real time on an international connection.
• Book ahead. Fares rise steeply close in, and around Carnival, Réveillon and the July school holidays they rise a long way out.
• São Paulo has two airports, Guarulhos for international and Congonhas in the city. Rio has the same split. Read your ticket rather than assuming.

Within cities: Uber

In every city a visitor is likely to spend time in, Uber is the default. It is what Brazilians use, it is inexpensive by American standards, and it solves three problems at once: you do not negotiate a fare, you do not need Portuguese, and there is a record of the trip.

A couple of habits worth having. Confirm the plate before getting in. Wait inside a building or a bar rather than on the street with your phone out, which is a general habit here rather than an Uber-specific one. And on some routes the app will offer a cheaper category with a longer wait; the wait is usually real.

Local rideshare apps exist alongside Uber and are sometimes cheaper. Taxis are still around and are fine, but for a visitor the app removes more friction than it costs.

Long-distance buses

Brazil has a serious intercity bus network, and it is better than the American equivalent by a wide margin. The overnight leito services have seats that recline nearly flat.

The honest assessment: buses make sense for short and medium hops, up to six or seven hours, and for routes where flying means backtracking through a hub. They make sense if you like buses and want to see the country go past.

For long distances they are a way of spending a day of your holiday on a bus to save money you probably would rather spend on the trip. If you have two weeks, fly.

When a car earns its place

Renting a car is the right call less often than people expect, and it is almost never right for a city.

Where it does earn its place is a specific kind of trip: a coastal drive between beach towns, a national park with things spread along one road, a region where the interesting stops are simply not connected by anything else. Those are worth doing by car and this site says so on the pages where it applies.

Practical notes:

• Fuel stations often want cash in rural areas, and álcool at the pump is ethanol, not gasoline. Ask for gasolina unless you know the car takes it.
• Unlit rural roads at night with unfenced livestock is a genuine risk and the reason several destination pages on this site advise not driving after dark.
• City parking is a chore and street parking has an informal economy around it.
• Toll roads in the south and southeast are frequent and often cash.

Between Rio and São Paulo

The one route worth calling out separately. There is a heavily used air shuttle between the two city-center airports, and it is by far the most civilized way to make that trip. The drive is long and dull, the bus is longer, and the flight is short.