Product Description

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1043783 in Books
• Published on: 2007-03-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 752 pages

Customer Reviews

The second best guides out on Brazil.
This year (Sept/Oct 2007) I spent a month traveling through Brazil. I took three guides: Footprint 5th edition, Lonely Planet and Frommer's. Footprint would have been my first choice, BUT, it has some weak areas that need improvement.

First, what works. The maps in this guide are plentiful, they are easy to use and read. It has excellent full color maps at the front and the back of the guide. Footprint rivals Lonely Plant with it wide sweeping coverage of Brazil. Kudos. If you are going off the beaten path, this is a outstanding guide to take with you. If you are going to go just to the Amazon, then this is the best guide available (70 pages). Also, Alex Robinson's descriptions of cities, significant locations and sights to see are top rate. His sidebars, and highlighted information sections, are excellent.

However, if you are looking for a guide to help you with the Carnival (Rio/Salvador/Recife) keep looking. This guide has an abysmal 2 pages on the event (The best Brazil guide for Carnival is Frommer's). Robinson's restaurant choices are disappointing and his descriptions are very terse and often trite: "Excellent seafood in a street side restaurant", or "Hamburgers, juices, sandwiches." Other guides have restaurant write-ups that make you want to try the food, i.e. Frommer's, "We tried the filet of mignons in cassis sauce and grilled figs and the lamb in tamarind sauce on a bed of cassve puree."

Robinson's bland descriptions continues with the accommodations:"Good value for the category." Hum. What category? Like the restaurant choices, the accommodations recommendations are hit or miss. One of the worse hotels we used was highly promoted in the guide (Recife Monte in Recife - Avoid! - see TripAdvisor) .

About money: Brazil is not `cheep'. This guide incorrectly states that the prices are "about a third of those in the USA". NOT. The dollar's fall makes Brazil about as expensive as the USA. In Rio, a decent hotel (not great a hotel, just decent) is at least $100 and up. A good, not great, meal is at least $20 to $30. I traveled during the "Low Season" and I found that I needed $100-$150 a day to travel at a 3-4 star level and eat OK (not including my airfares). You should add at least 20-30% in high season and at least 60% at Carnival.

Finally, I found Culture Shock! Brazil 2007 by Volker Poelzl (highly recommended --see my review) to be a `must read' if you want to better understand this dynamic and diverse country. Overall, Footprint Brazil 2007 is a good guide, but Frommer's is better for restaurant and accommodation recommendations. 3.5 stars

More background better listings
After Lonely Planet the dense Footprint format gets a bit of getting used to but the information within the guide is far superior; especially if you are looking to understand the country rather than just pass through. I found the listings better too - with a higher quality of hotels and restaurants, especially in the middle and upper ranges.

This is one of Footprint's better books - covering this vast continent sized country with real love and understanding. I found it a great companion on my journey in Sao Paulo, Rio, Bahia and Central Brazil - where it helped me find places in the Chapada dos Veadeiros and Pirenopolis just not listed anywhere else.

pretty, but not easily searchable
As someone who has taken a walk around the block a few times in my lifespan, I have read a few travel guides to pave my way. I bought this one as it was the most recent available as a fresh publication, and on the positive reviews this series has scored on Amazon. I prefer to have cultural sites and restaurant information listed separately.

This book jumbles everything you may see by neighbourhood in the larger cities, and one might not choose to go a location if one doesn't know what is there to see as far as museums and historical sites. Also, i like to search for restaurants by type. It is convenient for people with special diets or preferences (vegetarian, seafood, certain ethnic types).

If you have time to read the WHOLE book, including the other chapters where information on other Brazilian cultural information is hidden (football, food and drink), then you may get more out of it than I did. As for myself, I found another publisher's guide that had been printed back in 2003 more useful.