Stop Underrating Brazil: Here’s Why You Shouldn’t Avoid South America’s Jewel

“Get Out There” is a column for itchy footed humans written by Paste contributor Blake Snow. Although different now, travel is still worthwhile—especially to these open borders.

It doesn’t make any sense. I’m looking at the most beautiful city I’ve ever visited on six different continents. That city, Rio de Janeiro, is a masterpiece of God, Mother Nature, or whatever force created it. Its lush mountains and iconic beaches are the crown jewel of Brazil, a country that includes two “Wonders of the World,” the world’s largest rainforest, and more natural and cultural diversity than any other country in Latin America.

Despite this, Brazil doesn’t even crack the list of the top 50 most-visited countries in the world. It pales in comparison to the 90 million, 80 million, and 45 million annual visitors that France, America, and Mexico respectively receive. In fact, with just over 6 million annual visitors, Brazil welcomes fewer tourists than Iran, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan. This makes zero sense to me, especially after falling in love with the country on a two week tour with my family—an adventure we’ve been planning for a decade that far exceeded our expectations.

So what’s keeping tourists away? After interviewing several tour guides, in addition to my own experience navigating the country, this is what I deduced.

3 Reasons People Don’t Visit Brazil

1. Negative perception

Despite being statistically safer than Mexico and South Africa (two other countries I’m very fond of), Brazil has a nagging problem of being unsafe for tourists. But this is fake news in my experience, as much in Rio as in greater Brazil. My family felt completely secure walking in every tourist area we visited. In fact, several Brazilians we encountered actively looked after us and offered helpful advice. They even clap on the beach when a child has lost its mother and don’t stop until the family is reunited. How is that unsafe?

2. Lack of infrastructure

Before 2020, Brazil required several hundreds dollars and lots of paperwork for foreigners to enter the country. This was admittedly a hassle but is no longer the case. Today, Americans and just about every other nationality can freely enter up to 90 days without a visa. That said, it’s virtually impossible to find a hotel with two queen beds, let alone suites. So the country’s tourism infrastructure still has some catching up to do (i.e. we used Airbnb to accommodate our family). And since they welcome so few guests, Brazil just doesn’t have as many systems in place (let alone a functional national tourism board) to make things easy on tourists. It’s not hard, per se, but it’s not as easy as navigating the tourism machines that so many other countries excel at. On the flip side, credit cards are accepted everywhere, even by several beach vendors.

3. Lack of English (or Spanish)

Portuguese is the official language of Brazil, and in fact it’s the home of the vast majority of native Portuguese speakers in the world. That can be intimidating to English-only and/or Spanish speakers, and admittedly it can be a challenge. But it’s not impossible, especially with the help of translating apps, Uber, Google Maps, and good old fashioned gestures. But if I’m really being honest with myself, this is also part of the charm of Brazil. You’ll really feel like you are somewhere wonderful that most people have yet to discover, outside of the 200 million Brazilians that call it home and the several million Argentinians that vacation here often.