U.S. citizens traveling to Brazil need a valid passport and visa to enter the country. You need to get a tourist visa, valid for 90 days, from the nearest Brazilian embassy or consulate. It costs $130* and takes about 10 business days to process once they receive all your documents, which includes the application, a copy of your driver’s license, mug shot, and a U.S. Post Office Money Order for payment.

Colorado residents may go to the following website for instructions and links to the appropriate forms: http://www.brazilhouston.org/ingles/vitur.htm

U.S. citizens who don’t live in Colorado can visit the Washington D.C. embassy website at www.brasilemb.org to find the correct Consular Office from which to apply for a visa.

Most European country citizens do not need a visa, just a valid passport, to travel to Brazil.

The Brazilian Embassy website, www.brasilemb.org, is chock full of additional information about Brazil.

* We’re sorry about the steep price of a Brazilian visa. When we went last year, it was a lot less. Apparently whenever the U.S. raises its fees for Brazilian tourists, which it did, Brazil reciprocates.

Getting there

Airfares to Brazil are climbing higher as they are in the rest of the world with rapidly escalating fuel prices. A recent search showed fares of about $1,400 from Denver to Salvador, which is the closest airport to Conde. Recently we've seen rates of about $700 from New York and $1,000 from Miami to Rio or Sao Paolo. We are committed to making your trip as affordable as possible and have come up with a few ideas for cost-savings:

We’ve signed up with an American Airlines program that is offering 10% discount to all wedding attendees, regardless of origin airport, as long as 10 people use it. The discount is good off of any published fare and is valid from November 4-18. The only catch is you can only fly American and use the discount to Rio or Sao Paolo; you have to buy a separate ticket from Rio or Sao Paolo to Salvador (see more on in-country travel below). The promotion code is A18N8AQ. You can book online at www.AA.com or call American at 1-800-433-1790 ($20 per ticket for tickets booked by phone).

If you have miles, that's probably your most affordable option, even if you have to buy the balance of the miles for a full ticket. It takes 40,000 American miles to travel to Brazil and 60,000 miles on United. We have a friend who is selling miles (he has a lot) at an affordable rate so contact us if you're interested in that option.

On the topic of miles, CitiCards is offering some great American Airlines mileage incentives with new cards, up to 25,000 miles if you spend $750 in three months (which shouldn't be that hard). Check it out here. Also, United is offering a Mileage Plus card with 25,000 miles after spending $250.

United Airlines has offered us a group fare which doesn’t seem to be a savings from other fares we’ve found, so we’re holding off on signing a contract with them. However, United also offers a 10% discount on tickets for guests which we will sign up for if there is sufficient interest (so far, American seems to be more affordable and more pleasant to work with).

We found a website called www.cfares.com which is offering fares in the $1,200-1,300 range, some of the lowest published fares I’ve seen. You have to sign up for the service that supposedly finds the lowest fares, but it might be worth it.

Keep searching! You never know when a lower fare will pop up, even though they seem to be getting harder to find. Contact other wedding guests and use the forum on this site (once it’s up and running) to exchange information. And please please contact us if you’re having any trouble, since we do want to make this trip affordable in any way we can. Also remember that once you get there costs can be rather minimal.

Travel within Brazil 

Brazil has three airlines: TAM, Gol, and Varig. Gol seems to have the best rates for travel between Rio and Sao Paolo, if you use miles to get to Brazil or choose to buy tickets separately. At mid-August exchange rates it's about $360 round trip between Sao Paolo and Salvador. However, all three sites are constantly offering promotions, and the exchange rate seems to be getting better, so keep an eye on it if you're looking for good deals.

Brazil is a BIG country — about as big north to south as the U.S. is east to west — so keep that in mind if you wish to travel around. If you want to visit the Pantanal, Iguacu Falls or the Amazon, you will most likely have to take an interior flight. Bus journeys to those places are incredibly long and most likely on bad roads in crowded conditions. It is advised not to rent a car in Brazil for many reasons.

On the other hand, there's plenty to see in Bahia and along the Coconut Coast, which is the area surrounding Conde. Salvador, with its colonial architecture and incredibly rich African-Brazilian cultural history, is worth a few days visit in itself. Bahia also has cocoa plantations and jungles, plus hundreds of miles of varied coastline. We can help arrange tours to different villages on the Coconut Coast, on dune buggies or jangas (simple flat-bottom fishing boats used to go up the coastal rivers and inlets). There are also some nature reserves and sea turtle programs that merit some attention.

We had a Lonely Planet Brazil guidebook with us last year, which gives you a good flavor for the whole country but is spare on specifics in some of the more off-the-beaten-track places we visited.