The Ultimate South Brazil Itinerary (1-4 weeks)

Everybody’s ideal trip looks a little different, especially in a country as big as Brazil, timings really matter. Whether you have just 1 week or 4+ you can do a lot but it’s hard to prioritise/ decide on an order! Brazil has loads on offer and this is just south Brazil, but hopefully this post gives you the tools to plan your perfect South Brazil Itinerary.  

We’ve designed this article to:

1. Give you an overview of all the popular spots in South Brazil (we will be back to Brazil to see the central & North areas!) and explain why they might be of interest to you, and;
2. Give you suggested South Brazil itineraries based on interests & the time you have, including help with the travel logistics in-between e.g. a one week trip to explore the cities or a relaxation & beach focused itinerary that’s very chilled out. Or a bit of everything!

Popular Stops in South Brazil

Let’s go through the popular tourist spots in Brazil and why they might interest you:

Rio de Janeiro

Brazil’s most iconic city and one that can’t be missed on any South Brazil itinerary. It has a little of everything from culture, to beaches, from nature to history, from foodie heaven to epic nights out – it really has something for everyone. 

Beaches follow the city, from the iconic Copacabana & the even better Ipanema beach. Christ the Redeemer stands on top of the city looking down at all angles. As well as this you have the beautiful Sugarloaf mountain, the Morro Dois Irmaos hike, museums, artsy neighbourhoods, samba, sunsets and more!

Throw in a helicopter ride – because why not – and it really will become one of your favourite cities! 

📅 Recommended number of days: 3-5

Ilha Grande

Ilha Grande is a tropical island paradise just 3 hours from Rio. The island has no cars, so is a perfect spot to relax and unwind after the beautiful chaos of Rio!

The island is packed with hiking trails, beautiful beaches, viewpoints, and boat trips which can take you to come to the most beautiful beaches/snorkelling spots in Southern Brazil.

It’s the perfect add on to a trip to Rio – but please don’t just visit as a day trip. Many tours offer this option but:

1. it takes 3+ hours to get there each way (not worth it just for that) 
2. You don’t contribute to the local economy (i.e. very little time on the island, no accommodation etc)

📅 Recommended number of days: 2-4

Paraty 

Often called Brazil’s prettiest town, this preserved UNESCO colonial town features streets of white buildings, colourful doors and cobbled streets. 

As well as the beautiful town itself, Paraty is also surrounded by jungle, waterfalls, and beaches making it a great spot for anyone to enjoy. 

📅 Recommended number of days: 2-3

São Paulo

São Paulo is Brazil’s largest city. It’s massive, busy and maybe not traditionally pretty but it has a lot to offer in terms of culture and energy.

It’s packed with great museums, galleries, street art, music and great food. 

📅 Recommended number of days: 2-3

Curitiba

This city isn’t on the usual tourist path but we loved it! It has loads of green spaces and a very relaxed vibe. Filled with parks, gardens, and a mix of European architecture, it’s a great place to spend a few days away from the typical tourist path. The hop-on hop-off bus here is a great way to see the city in one day.

You should also consider a trip on the Atlantic Forest Train too, a tour to Morretes is a great day trip!

And to save the best until last, it’s also home to loads of wild capybaras!!

📅 Recommended number of days: 1-3

Florianopolis

Florianopolis or ‘Floripa’ is perfect for a beach getaway. It’s famous for surf beaches, a laid back lifestyle and popular with holiday-ers.

From surfing, to coastal trails, to nightlife, to sand-boarding, to beaches – its a place to relax but with plenty to do too. 

📅 Recommended number of days: 3-5

Iguaçu Falls

The greatest natural sight we have ever seen!! Sitting on the border between Brazil & Argentina and made up of hundreds of individual waterfalls, its a must visit if you’re in Brazil (or Argentina). 

The Brazil side gives that initial postcard panoramic view which is unforgettable – but if you are already here, you have to cross into Argentina to see the falls on that side too. The Argentinian side gets you right up close and surrounded by all the wildlife.

If going to both sides sounds a bit complicated or scary, check out our post on exactly how you can do this – trust us its relatively simple! 

For us, it is one of the best things we have ever seen!

 📅 Recommended number of days: 2-3

Amazon Trip (Pantanal)

We didn’t do an Amazon trip on this occasion (because we’re visiting in other South American countries) but seriously think about adding on a 3-4 day trip in the Amazon – you wont regret it!

The Pantanal is one of the best places on the planet for wildlife and works perfectly as an add on to your South Brazil trip.

Make sure you do your research & find a tour which is ethical.

Recommended South Brazil Itineraries

Ok, that’s it for the destination breakdowns! Hopefully their listed highlights have given you a rough idea of where you want to visit.

We’ve pulled together some recommended itineraries below, depending on how long you’ve got and what you’re interested in. Here’s how we’ve chopped up those interest areas:

👌🏽 Mix of everything: Culture, food, history, beaches, nature

🧘‍♀️ Relaxation style: Nature, beaches, food, a little history if there is time

🎉 Party animal: places with a good nightlife & time to relax

1 Week

👌🏽 Mix of everything:

• 3 days Rio
• 2 days Ilha Grande
• 2 days São Paulo

Or 

• 4 days Rio
• 2 days Iguacu Falls (Brazil & Argentina sides)
• 1 day São Paulo

🧘‍♀️ Relaxation style:

• 4 days Rio (mix of exploring and relaxing on the beach)
• 3 days Ilha Grande

Or 

• 2 days Rio
• 3 days Ilha Grande
• 2 days Florianopolis 

🎉 Party animal

• 7 days Rio

Or 

• 5 days Rio
• 2 days Ilha Grande

2 Weeks

👌🏽 Mix of everything:

• 5 days Rio
• 3 days Ilha Grande
• 2 days Paraty
• 2 days São Paulo
• 2 days Iguazu

Or

• 3 days Rio
• 3 days Ilha Grande
• 2 days São Paulo
• 2 days Iguazu
• 4 days Amazon

🧘‍♀️ Relaxation style:

• 4 days Rio
• 5 days Ilha Grande
• 5 days Florianopolis

Or

• 3 days Rio
• 5 days Ilha Grande
• 2 days Iguazu
• 4 days Amazon

🎉 Party animal

• 4 days Rio
• 3 days Ilha Grande
• 2 days São Paulo
• 5 days Florianopolis

3 Weeks

👌🏽 Mix of everything:

• 4 days Rio
• 3 days Ilha Grande
• 2 days Paraty
• 3 days São Paulo
• 4 days Florianopolis
• 2 days Iguazu
• 3 days Amazon

Or

• 5 days Rio
• 4 days Ilha Grande
• 2 days São Paulo
• 4 days Florianopolis
• 2 days Iguazu 
• 4 days Amazon

🧘‍♀️ Relaxation style:

• 4 days Rio
• 4 days Ilha Grande
• 3 days Paraty
• 5 days Florianopolis
• 2 days Iguazu
• 3 days Amazon

Or

• 5 days Rio
• 5 days Ilha Grande
• 5 days Florianopolis 
• 5 days Amazon

🎉 Party animal

Assuming you dont want to party for 3 weeks solid – look at the ‘mix of everything’ itinerary and party when in Rio & São Paulo

4 Weeks

👌🏽 Mix of everything:

• 6 days Rio
• 4 days Ilha Grande
• 3 days Paraty
• 2 days São Paulo
• 2 days Curitiba
• 5 days Florianopolis
• 2 days Iguazu
• 4 days Amazon

🧘‍♀️ Relaxation style:

Check out the itinerary above & make use of the amazing beaches/boat trips in Rio, Ilha Grande & Paraty

How to Travel Around Brazil 

Your main 2 choices are between the bus and flying. The buses are really good quality in Brazil, especially for long journeys. We also booked all of our buses ahead of time and chose our seats using busbud. Busbud allows you to look at the bus schedules and compare the times and prices ahead of time and purchase through the app. 

Often flying will save you a lot of time, but it can be more expensive (but definitely check this as a lot of internal flights are really good value. We always use skyscanner to check flights and then book directly with the airline. 

We have summarised how to get to & from major locations below using buses (which is what we did) – but i’d recommend checking the flights too incase you can get a good deal! If we’ve not mentioned the bus routes below, its probably because its reeeeally long & probably not direct, in this case take a flight e.g. Rio to Iguaçu Falls.

How to get around using Buses in Brazil

We spent 6 weeks in the South of Brazil in: Rio, Ilha Grande, Paraty, São Paulo, Curitiba, Florianópolis & Iguacu and we never took a flight – so I feel pretty confident that we have worked out how to use buses efficiently and effectively in Brazil, which is exactly why we have written this guide […]

Read more

Rio <-> Ilha Grande <-> Paraty

You can either take a shared shuttle & a speed boat or you can take the public bus to/from Angra dos Reis for the ferry to/from Ilha Grande. There is only 1 ferry per day so you need to be precise with your timings.

We have summarised exactly how to get to and from Ilha Grande using public transport, including all locations, bus timetables, shuttle services and costs in our post ‘How to get to Ilha Grande, Brazil’

Rio <-> São Paulo 

The easiest way to get between the 2 cities is by flying (it only takes 1 hour), however the bus is much cheaper and only takes 6 hours. 

Ok i know the difference between 1 and 6 hours is a lot but hear me out:

Flying:

• Taxi/bus to airport
  • Rio GIG: 30min drive
  • Rio SDU: 15 min drive
  • Rio RRJ: 50min drive
  • São Paulo* CGH: 30min drive
  • São Paulo* GRU: 45 min drive
  • São Paulo* VCP: 1h 20m drive

*traffic in São Paulo is crazy, it might take you a lot longer than this depending on the time you depart

• arrive 2 hours before flight to check luggage
• Flight leaves on time and takes 1 hour
• Arrival in your airport – time to collect luggage
• Taxi / bus to your accommodation (see times above)

The total time: could be 4-5 hours all in. When using the bus you can arrive 15 mins before departure, your luggage goes under the bus for simple collection when you arrive. Plus the bus terminals are much more central than the airports. Something to think about 🙂

Paraty <-> São Paulo 

Taking the bus is the best way to get between São Paulo and Paraty because Paraty doesn’t have an airport. The bus takes about 6 hours and you can check the timetables here:

Bus timetable between São Paulo & Paraty

São Paulo <-> Curitiba 

Flights depart regularly and can be reasonably priced between Curitiba and São Paulo.

The bus only takes 6 hours, so again this is a good consideration to avoid waiting times in the airport after checking luggage and the travel time to the airport. 

Bus timetable between São Paulo & Curitiba

São Paulo <-> Florianópolis 

The bus between São Paulo & Florianopolis is pretty long (12 hours!). If this doesn’t sound like something you would be interested in, the flights can be reasonably priced – especially if you’re flexible with your departure date. 

Remember, buses over 9 hours can usually be taken as overnight buses, so if you are on a budget an overnight bus also pairs up as accommodation!

Bus timetable between São Paulo & Florianopolis

Florianópolis <-> Iguaçu Falls 

Iguacu falls is right on the border of the country and because of this it is quite far from any major cities. You can of course take the bus (we did!) but it is long. We took an overnight bus which was about 16 hours in total – doable but it did feel long.

There aren’t any direct flights between Florianopolis & Iguacu, so its likely that the price will be a little higher to reflect this. Consider taking 2 separate flights and spending some time in São Paulo or Curitiba in between.

Bus timetable between Florianopolis & Iguacu 

Curitiba <-> Iguaçu Falls 

There are buses between Curitiba & Iguacu however again, it is pretty long (11 hours!). Booking a night bus here can double up as accommodation but if you would rather skip this, a flight will probably be better.

The direct flights only take 1h 15m and if you are flexible with your departure date you can find a pretty good deal.

Bus timetable between Curitiba & Iguacu

Iguaçu Falls <-> Argentina (Puerto Iguazu)

We have written a full article on how to get to the Iguaçu Falls on the Brazil side, including information on crossing the border between Argentina and Brazil. It includes helpful tips on immigration, step-by-step instructions on how to use the public bus, bus times and companies, alternative tours and so much more.

Is Brazil safe for tourists?

This is probably the most asked question when it comes to planning a trip to Brazil. Our friends/family would ask us “isn’t it really dangerous?”, or “Rio isn’t safe, is it?” when we told them we were heading to Brazil.

The short answer is YES, it is safe for tourists – however, you need to exercise a strong sense of situational awareness while you’re there, especially in large cities. Let us expand on that… almost all trips to Brazil are incident-free. That being said, being aware of your surroundings, not flashing your cash or wearing expensive jewellery, and not being distracted by your phone when you’re in public spaces can all go a long way to preventing anything happening.

Muggings can happen, especially when it comes to phones, and especially in Rio de Janeiro. So, it’s best to avoid taking it out of your pocket or bag while you’re on the street (check maps or messages by stepping into a shop/restaurant, or before leaving your accommodation). That kind of extra little cautionary step will prevent all sorts of (unlikely) troubles.

That’s the small stuff – the larger part of safety considerations is wandering into the wrong area. As usual, it’s ALWAYS best to stick to well-lit, touristy areas. Places like Rio are not where you should be meandering into an unfriendly neighbourhood because you want to ‘explore off the beaten path’.

When is the best time to visit Brazil?

Brazil has a rainy and a dry season, with the rainy being from Dec – Mar and the dry from Jun – Aug.

However, Brazil is a massive country, so the conditions will vary a lot by location. It’s best to check the expected weather for exactly where you’re planning to visit.

A good ‘all-round’ time to visit places like Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, or Florianópolis (the southeast coast) is during Jun – Aug. 

How easy is it to travel within Brazil?

Travelling within Brazil is super simple. Between cities you can opt for buses or short flights, while inside of cities you can hop in a taxi/Uber or use an available public transport system. Trains aren’t common in Brazil.

We found that, for most intercity journeys, we could simply arrive at the bus station and purchase tickets on the day of travel. However, a lot of the time we use busbud. You can book your tickets in advance, check out the type of bus, timetables and even select your seat – always the top deck and front for us! It’s also useful to book in advance if it’s a busy time of year (summer or carnaval) or if you’re a type A traveller and like to be prepared. We’ve used Busbud hundreds of times and always found it to be reliable.

Check out our complete article on how to use Buses in Brazil

For travel within cities, Uber is the best and safest option most of the time. If there is a bus/tram network, you can save money by using it, but it’ll be longer, hotter and potentially confusing to use.

What’s Brazil’s currency & should I bring cash or cards?

The currency in Brazil is called the Brazilian Real and is written as ‘R$’.

In English, we pronounce it as it’s written – “real” (or “reals” when plural), but in Brazilian Portuguese it’s pronounced “hey-eye” (or “hey-ice” when plural). That’s something that baffled us on our first day in Rio; much of the time an R is pronounced as an H!

Cards are generally accepted in cities, such as when paying in shops, restaurants or using Uber. It’s always good to carry a little cash for smaller transactions or rural areas, though. Beach drink stands and tipping are good examples of the kinds of things that may not accept card.

What plug type/travel adapter is used in Brazil?

Brazil uses Type N (three round pins) and Type C (two round pins) plugs.

Type N is mainly only used in Brazil and South Africa, whereas Type C is extremely common worldwide, especially across most of Europe as well as many countries in South America, Asia, and Africa.

Do I need a visa to enter Brazil?

As usual, whether you need a visa to enter Brazil will depend entirely on your nationality. Many travellers from Latin America, the EU, the UK and others do not need a visa for tourism purposes when staying less than 90 days (and can sometimes enter with just an ID if from Mercosur). 

However, some nationalities such as the U.S., Canada, and Australia now must obtain a visa before travelling – even for short tourist stays. This requirement took effect for these countries in April 2025.

We’d always recommend consulting your government’s foreign travel advice website before you even book your flights just to be sure. 

Do people speak English, or should I know Portuguese?

English isn’t widely spoken in Brazil, so while you may be able to communicate rudimentarily with locals it would definitely help to know basic Portuguese phrases – especially if you’re in more remote areas.

If (like us) your Portuguese is next-to-non-existent, translation apps will be your best friend – just make sure to download the Portuguese language before you arrive for offline use.

Is it safe to rent a car in Brazil?

Yes, it’s generally safe to rent a car in Brazil, especially from major international rental companies and for travel outside large cities.

However, driving in big cities can be difficult. Traffic, one way roads, road conditions, and occasional safety concerns are common challenges. We’d recommend avoiding driving at night in unfamiliar areas and keeping doors locked whenever you travel. It’s probably easier and more relaxing to consider alternatives (Uber, taxis, buses) for urban travel.

Brazil Packing Essentials

It really depends on what you’re doing, but a good starting point is to check the weather and whether you need anything specific for your planned activities.

However after spending 6 weeks in the south of Brazil, here are our essentials:

• Light rain jacket / poncho
• Good shoes (one you can walk all day in & do small hikes – I love Teva sandals for this reason)
• Sunglasses
• Swimwear – for all those beaches & water based activities!
• Don’t bring flipflops – treat yourself to a new pair of Havianas – there are shops everywhere
• SPF – the sun is strong! 
• Mosquito/bug spray

Brazil, especially the major cities have everything you could need for your trip – so don’t worry too much, you’ll find everything you need here.