Brazil

by Regis St. Louis, Lonely Planet, Kevin Raub

The beat of Brazil will hypnotise you: music-fuelled cities, lazy islands, jewel-box colonial towns and blooming ecosystems. Float on the rhythm of the famed Amazon, get scratchy with the DJs of So Paulo and get your samba on at Carnaval...

Genres: Travel, Brazil, Reference, Nonfiction, Guidebook

768 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 1997

About the author

Regis St Louis has contributed to more than one hundred Lonely Planet titles, covering destinations on six continents. He currently lives in New Orleans, USA.

Reviews

[Chill Inn Hostel Paraty · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great option for getting some of the very needed info while travelling Brazil.
But you may also want to comunicate properly with the locals. Specially for a more rich experience.
The area we are interested, Paraty in the state of Rio de Janeiro is midly covered, while providing info about our historic centre, the guide provides not so much info on the natural surroundings of Paraty. Wich is a hughe rain forrest reserve that used to be a colonial gold trail... quite a big deal. There are some very interesting sightseeing areas that are left behind and not to mention some of the most important cultural events like bourbon jazz fest or the ping festival or Paraty em foco, to say a few. You can see the whole cultaral calendar here: http://www.chillinnhostel.com/pt/Even... and compare.
And in the same way, there are plenty of beaches in the Paraty area that have no match in any near location and are not shown, if you need info on it, see here: http://www.infoparaty.com/pt/Informac...
I was at first very impressed, but the little details about specifics dropped the quality.

[Ocelot · Rating 5 out of 5]

I always love the Lonely Planet guide books. They always start off with such wonderful pictures and the top 20 or 10 of places to visit. For example, in Brazil, the best tourist attraction, according to them, is Pão de Açúcar. It's a lovely mountain with a lovely view of golden beaches and green hills with skyscrapers on the shore. Pick up a copy from Amazon, or your local bookstore to find out the rest! I like the beginning most, because each of the places in the top 20, have their own page in the book. For example, you can find out more about Pão de Açúcar on page 59 and 60. I also like how the authors put the history behind the buildings and landmarks. There are also transportation tips, restaurant tips, hotel tips, boat tips, and so much more! You could really flip to any page and learn something new about Brazil. The authors didn't forget to add pictures and detailed information about the wildlife living in the Amazon Rainforest! If you need to know anything about Brazil, this book is one of the best books that you can get to learn more about Brazil. So the next time you're in a bookstore, try flipping through the pages, I am sure you'll find something that sparks your interest!

[Melissa · Rating 3 out of 5]

[2010.10.05] Used 2008 7th edition to plan the Brazil portion (approx 3 weeks) of our Fall 2010 South America trip. Bought and printed out portions of the e-book pdf. Sections used: Rio de Janeiro, Belo Horizonte, Cuiaba, Brasilia, Manaus, Sao Paulo, Foz de Igaussu. For information that's basically three years old already (2008 book really means 2007 research), it's pretty good. The maps are all still decent. Hours (even if it were a 2010 book) should be double-checked either during planning or upon arrival at tourist info offices. Prices were very off -- sometimes the actual cost being double (or more) than what's written in the book. We stayed at a few places listed in the book, which all turned out ok (but we also read online reviews before booking). They're coming out with a newer version at the end of 2010. Hopefully, they've done even more updating that what they did for the Brazil section of the 2010 South America on a Shoestring book (which had a few unexpected inaccuracies).

[Cheryl · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was pretty helpful and served as a good orientation prior to my trip to Brasil. I think Rani may have put me on to it (thanks!). I didn't really use it much to get thru Salvador since we were in a program that did just that, but I found it really helpful when I was in Rio. I remember going to an awesome 3 story Samba club that was reviewed in this book. Plus the Sunday hippy (discount shopping) market...very helpful indeed =)

[Luci · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very informative travel guide. Useful insights about locations, food and other culture. Enriched my entire Brazil trip. Was especially happy to have a map of Ilha Grande, a place I was most happy to visit and hope to return to again. Nice sections about Carnival in the different areas, which helped me appreciate that unique experience in Salvador even more.

[Jo Flack · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just bought this to build up my own anticipation for my future trip to the World Cup. I love the lonely planet series, not actually so much for the travel advice but more for the sections on the history of the country, the cuisine, the landscape etc. Love sitting in the sun leafing through these sections learning about the country I am lucky enough to find myself in.

[Andrew · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although I didn't get the chance to travel too widely in Brazil, I found that this guidebook was pretty useful in giving accurate local information. However, it is a bit dated, and some of the information on visa requirements and on the specifics of obtaining a local SIM card were off.

[Jeffrey Warner · Rating 4 out of 5]

Stumbled across this on my bookshelf and thought back to all the time I spent reading and re-reading through this text- both before and during our trip to Brazil. It was an extremely helpful and valuable book. Definitely recommended.

[E · Rating 5 out of 5]

getting ready for my trip!!! so inspiring!

[ashley · Rating 3 out of 5]

YAAAAAAAAAY!!!!!!!!

[Ana Leticia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just bought this book for my trip to Brazil! =]

[Marguerite Gray · Rating 5 out of 5]

Yay! I'm going to Rio and this book is a huge help!

[Sasha Alexa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Trip research

[Freya · Rating 4 out of 5]

Was helpful on my 2nd trip to Brazil.

[Sophie Crane · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book was very informative. It was an easy read.