Best Brazilian city to visit - Fortaleza, Recife or Salvador??

SharpshooterTom

Hi all,

I am planning a trip to Brazil in January. I'm planning to go on my own and I don't tend to like trips for much more than two weeks in those circumstances (become lonely after a while, miss home etc).

Now you can't visit the whole of Brazil in two weeks, so I'll be planning to come back for future trips to see other parts of the country (and South America) and do it in 2/3 week bursts if you like.

For the first trip I'm planning to go to Rio de Janeiro for 8/9 days, and one other place.

I'm looking into one of Fortaleza, Recife (and Olinda) or Salvador for about 5 days, but I'm not sure which one?

Salvador would be most people's favourites, historic old centre, carribean influence, more vibrant etc but I'm a little worried the fact that I've read that people with darker skin tone are more likely to fit in more than paler skinned people? I have safety concerns and this is my first time to Brazil (or to South America) so I'd prefer to leave the riskier destinations until I've been there at least once.

Fortaleza has a decent city centre, praia de Iracema, praia de Futuro (which is reportedly near a dangerous slum), a beachpark. Doesn't seem to have a lot more to it than that so I think 3/4 days would be more than enough?

Recife has some good beaches, decent city centre, but apparantly the beaches are shark infested? Also I've read Bio Viagem is a bit dodgy with lots of sex tourism (don't know if that's true?). But it does have the UNESCO world heritage site of Olinda, are either Joao Pessao or Maceio worth a visit?

finbarrk

I was in Salvador and Fortaleza. Salvador is a superior place.

SharpshooterTom

finbarrk wrote: »

I was in Salvador and Fortaleza. Salvador is a superior place.

Which one did you find safer? Or is it just a much of a muchness?

rossie1977

Why another major city?

When I was in Brazil earlier this year I combined Rio with a trip to Iguazú Falls. Its pretty spectacular especially on Argentinian side and about 2 hour flight from Rio.

JoseJones

Honestly I would skip Recife. I didn't see anything to make me say it's dangerous, but the locals constantly warned me of how dangerous it is. There is an odd vibe when you walk around the streets because I think generally people drive from their gated apartments to a shopping centre or beach and then drive back home.

There's just not much to do there, the beaches are not great and as you said lots of shark warnings all over the place. Olinda is nice enough but you'd only spend a couple of hours there.

I'd stay longer in Rio and maybe visit arraial do cabo or cabo frio for a couple of days if you want a nice relaxed beach place.

Ilha Grande is supposed to be amazing too, but I didn't go there.

SharpshooterTom

rossie1977 wrote: »

Why another major city?

When I was in Brazil earlier this year I combined Rio with a trip to Iguazú Falls. Its pretty spectacular especially on Argentinian side and about 2 hour flight from Rio.

This was originally my plan, and it still might be. I was thinking of maybe punting it though to my 2nd trip with something like:

Sao Paulo (4 days) - Iguazú falls (4/5 days) - Salvador (5 days)

I know Sao Paulo isn't as much of a tourist destination as Rio so wanted to put one of the more must see places with it. If I don't go to Salvador this time, I would go on my second trip for definite.

SharpshooterTom

JoseJones wrote: »

There's just not much to do there, the beaches are not great and as you said lots of shark warnings all over the place. Olinda is nice enough but you'd only spend a couple of hours there.

Yeah I was thinking despite all the good vibes I was reading about Olinda it wasn't more than a few hours realistically.

What do you think about Fortaleza? On par with, better or worse than Recife?

All these places I've suggested (including Iguazú falls) I'll visit eventually anyway.

JoseJones

ThomasFlynn wrote: »

Yeah I was thinking despite all the good vibes I was reading about Olinda it wasn't more than a few hours realistically.

What do you think about Fortaleza? On par with, better or worse than Recife?

All these places I've suggested (including Iguazú falls) I'll visit eventually anyway.

I've only been to Recife, Sao Paulo and Rio (plus Arraial do Cabo and Cabo Frio). I'm the same as you actually, hoping to get back there again soon to see more of the country. Really loved Rio. If you can learn a few words of Portuguese it will help a lot, I found the language barrier difficult!