This week I caught up with my good friend Ryan who will share what it was like Backpacking Brazil During The World Cup. Ryan and I have traveled around Europe, Korea and the USA together. We were suppose to also go to Brazil together, but unfortunately I couldn’t take time off studying my MBA in Korea to join the festivities.
Could you please give us a little background on yourself? What got you interested in traveling? Where was your first big trip?
I first became interested in traveling in college when people began talking about all of their study abroad experiences. I studied Engineering, which didn’t offer many study abroad opportunities, so my first major trip was around central Europe for 5 weeks after I graduated.
Ryan, So What do you do for a living? How are you able to visit places like Europe, China, Korea, South America with a full time job?
I’m an electrical engineer out in Silicon Valley. I scrape together my annual two weeks of vacation and try to go somewhere different each year. I also travel to China for work fairly regularly, so I try to put together weekend trips in Asia if I have time.
How was your most recent trip to Brazil for the World Cup? Any exciting stories or recommendations?
It was awesome! The people were super friendly, the beaches were great, and everywhere we stayed was surprisingly nice. I would definitely recommend exploring outside of the big cities of Rio and Sao Paulo and see some of the coast and even the Amazon. We went to Angra Dos Reis, Ilha Grande, Rio, Recife, and Manaus, and they were all great places to visit. In general, we had more fun in the smaller cities than in Rio, but that could have been because Rio was packed with World Cup tourists. One of these days I need to get back to Rio and see what the city is actually like once all the tourists leave.
Were you able to get any World Cup tickets? What was the process like? Cost? What was the atmosphere like for the game?
We got tickets for one game, Croatia vs Mexico, which turned out to be a great game because it decided which team was going to the next round. No one in our group had been to a World Cup before, so we went into the process blind. We waited too long to buy tickets from FIFA, so we had to use resale websites to get our tickets, which ended up costing us way too much. In the future, I’ll definitely jump on getting tickets when games are first announced.
The atmosphere of the game reminded me a lot of big college football tailgates. The city busses and taxis weren’t allowed all the way up to the stadium, so everyone had to walk the last half-mile. It seemed like the fans were 95% Mexico supporters, and everyone was dressed up in some sort of jersey or costume. The stadium was standing for most of the game, with Mexican fans chanting on and off the whole game. When they score their first goal, the stadium went crazy. There were 4 goals and a red card in the last 15 minutes of the game, so it was a pretty exciting finish.
How did Brazil relate/differentiate from traveling in Europe or Asia? Was it a lot more expensive (especially for the World Cup)? Any tips to save money?
It was definitely more expensive than a lot of my other travels, especially in Rio, but I think some of it had to do with the World Cup. The most expensive things were hostels, which were running ~$150 per person in the big cities. We booked hostels fairly early, and found cheap hotels in some of the cities instead.
As for saving money, I would suggest staying out of the big cities during major international events. The smaller cities seemed to have less inflated prices all around.
A lot of people think Brazil is unsafe? Did you feel unsafe anywhere?
I didn’t feel too unsafe when walking around anywhere, but there was a huge police and military presence for the World Cup. Most of the locals said that once the World Cup was over it would go back to being somewhat unsafe again. I think as long as you are aware of you surroundings and don’t walk around on your phone you’re pretty safe most places you travel though. Common sense goes a long way.
How did the nightlife compare to other countries?
The influx of tourists from the World Cup meant that Brazil never slept. You could always find a big group of Chileans or Argentinians partying in the street in Rio. The one thing that stood out to me was how friendly the Brazilians were towards foreigners, even though we spoke basically no Portuguese. At restaurants and bars people were really outgoing and would help you order translate menus and order drinks.
Thanks for the great advice and coverage Ryan!
If you want to share your travel story or tips feel free to Contact Me for more details.