HI debs and welcome to HT. Looks a very useful site. The English version is here

Thank Fiona...
By the way one the best time to go to Brasil are:

Rio, sao paulo...jan-mar and again oct-nov ...In july is the brasilian winter!!

however in the northeast Natal- recife-fortaleza...is sunny..ok it does rain a bit in july but you can get a nice tan...

shops ::: shoes, handbags : they are cheap and good leather quality!!

For families...I would recommend Natal, Fortaleza, Bahia....Rio is lovely but I haven't taken my children there yet...

I have been to Rio in April- fantastic weather.We did get flash flooding one night- tidal waves coming into our bar everyime a bus went past( most cars had given up trying by then!) We had to sit on the upper level. It washed away part of the beach.
I'll be able to tell everyone about the weather in October very soon!!

Welcome deborasun,

Thanks for the information as we are off to natal for xmas & new year, was hoping to get to rio but looking at the prices might just be abit too much for this particlar holiday.

You mention leather goods would that include leather jackets?.

Fiona cant wait to hear how you get on at rio and take it you will have a great time out there.

Hi,

Yes we have lots of shoes, bags, etc..but not many jackets, maybe in sao paulo where is cooler...

You will love Ponta Negra, Genipabu (dunes)....Natal still a "small" city...no far from Natal ...there is a nice place where they have the largest cashew nut tree!!! it massive!!( I will find out later the name for you)...

Let me know where you are staying, so I can give some tips where to eat etc..

I'll be in Recife visiting my family during Xmas...we might visit Natal as it is only 4 hour by bus/ or 3hours by car!!

debora.

Hi Deborasun,

Sorry i havent responded sooner but have been away for six days and my first day back at work we are staying on the coast via costeria but please bear with me as im not sure if i have spelt that right.

I have read about the cashew tree and would thank any advice about good eating eating places we are staying at the vila d ore hotel and once again im doing this name by memory and when i get chance to confirm the exact names for resort and hotel.

Hi deborasun,

I can comfirm that the name of the hotel is called vila do mar and the resort is via costeira.

Hi all,

This is my first visit to the Brazil forum. We went on the first "package"
holiday to Brazil from Manchester in July 2001. We stayed at the SC Breezes in Salvador which had only just opened. The hotel was fabulous, the restaurants were first class, the beach was usually deserted as the other guests who were 95% Brazilian stayed around the pool area.

The weather was glorious. We did a 3 day trip to Rio, about 15 Brits from our hotel. The flight took over 2 hrs, we all arrived in shorts in Rio and it was so cold that we had to go and buy clothes ! It was cold for all the time we were there and it rained most of the time. But this did not stop us from having a fabulous time with great experiences. It was so cloudy we could not see the statue of Christ most of the time. On our second day around 4 pm there was a break in the clouds and "Christ" appeared, 4 of us jumped in a taxi and hurtled up the mountain. It was such a memorable experience, to be in a place where you only ever dreamed of visiting, we stayed for about an hour and it was deserted only a couple of other Brits.

We had a chat with a couple who asked us to take their photograph - you would never believe it, the following year we were checking into a hotel in the Bahamas and I recognised the guy who we had met the previous year when we had taken his photograph - small world as they say !.

We were planning to go the following year but because of 9/11 a lot of holidays were removed from Brochures which included Brazil.

We travelled with Airtours, and booked the Rio trip via the Rep, which at the time was a good deal. I must state though that the first hotel we were put in, we only stayed a few hours as we all complained and the Rep had a mutiny on her hands and so we were all promptly moved to a fabulous hotel with a roof top pool.

Any questions feel free to ask

Hi Tricia,

Welcome to the forum and thanks for the information and glad you had a great time and if you dont mind me asking did you go through airtours for your trip to rio and how much?.

Hi Mike

Yes we did book with Airtours, but as it is over 4 years ago I can't really remember how much it cost. All I can say is that we did not plan to go to Rio before we arrived and for us to go it couln't have been too expensive.

We had such a blast there, going up Sugar Loaf Mountain in the cable car just before dusk and seeing all the amazing landscape below starting to twinkle as lights came on will never leave my memory.

Hi,

We are going out xmas time and thomsons want to charge us around £700 each for a 3 day trip to rio and unfortunately due to us buying another property that kind of money is not readily available to us at this moment of time which is a bit disapointing as rio sounds very exciting but hopefully there will be a next time.

Can anyone tell me what are the best travellers checks to take Sterling or US Dollars might sound strange but we have had problems in some places getting them changed if not the prefered currancy.
Thanks

Hi Mike

700 does seem a bit extreme. Hopefully once you are there chatting to the locals may bring an alternative cheaper trip

Have a fab time there

Regards

I must admit i have resigned myself to not going but you never know have looked at going independant but it still works out around £500.

Still hoping debrosun is watching this.

I see the dreaded killer bats are making another appearance in the northern state of maranhan. On BBC website under world news and click on americas.

Trying to find out if it is necessary to have yellow fever injections for the north east has im getting confused reports from various sources.

Im not too sure how far we are from the amazon region which could make a difference.

Also forgot to add would anybody know which is the best currency to take to brazil, has we always take sterling cash but not to sure if this would be too risky even thou i know its not rio or a major city, our accomadation has got a safe thou.

For Rio
We had a mixture of dollars, pound sterling, using the hole in the wall, and credit card. Safe to say all were fine!

Thanks fiona, i take it that would be american dollars? also sorry to be a pain but did you take malaria tablets.