Footprint Brazil Handbook

by Ben Box

A comprehensive guide providing practical and background information to get the visitor around the vast country of Brazil. This second updated edition is in a travel-proof paperback format with extra... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1900949504
• ISBN13: 9781900949507
• Release Date: June 2000
• Publisher: Footprint Handbooks
• Length: 799 Pages
• Weight: 1.46 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.4" x 4.9" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

Best Brazil Book I have seen so far

The Brazil travel guide market has been underserved over the years. I just picked up the Footprints guide, though, and I admit that this is the most complete Brazil guide I have seen in English. Any book that gives you hotel recommendations in towns as far off the beaten path as Mossoro, Petrolina/Juazeiro, Picos, Teofilo Otoni, Tres Marias, Xique Xique, Senhor do Bonfim and Vitoria da Conquista deserves an ovation. I have passed through all of these towns for one reason or another, and most guidebooks make no mention of them. They aren't big tourist attractions, but Brazil being so big, you never know when you might need to know where to stay. For example, I was once trying to get from Natal to Canoa Quebrada and couldn't get a direct bus; I could only get as far as Mossoro. I got to Mossoro at 10 PM, and wouldn't be able to get a bus until 6 AM the next morning to Aracati (where I would have to change buses again to get to Canoa Q). At 10 PM at the Mossoro bus station needing a place to sleep, I could have used a list of hotels, phones, and prices. It would have saved me 30 minutes of searching for a clean, affordable room.And the coverage of the Lencois Maranhenses/Parnaiba delta region is second to none. In 1993 I passed through this area without a guidebook, because none of the guidebooks on the market at the time gave enough information about the region to be of any use. In this one, you get a detailed map of the Rio Preguica, as well as needed orientation on how to get from Barreirinhas to Tutoia (both charming towns worth a visit), and then where to catch the passenger ferries to Parnaiba from Tutoia. In 1993 I met a German man who had walked from Tutoia to Barreirinhas on foot. It took him 3 days. This is the first guide book I have ever seen on the area that even suggests that this route can be walked, as well as expected walk time and what to take with you.Aside from having extensive coverage, this book has the best advice on driving, buying cars, and how to outfit a vehicle for continent-wide travel (my next dream trip to Brazil).But this book isn't the end-all of Brazil tour guides. There is plenty of room for improvement. There is not a lot of history or background info. This book is for the road, not for bed-time reading as you prepare your trip. It assumes sometimes that you know why you are in Brazil and exactly what you want to see and where you want to go... you just need to know where to sleep and eat when you get there. There isn't a lot of the opinionated commentary and review that makes LP guides so bulky (and at times annoying). This book could easily be 70 pages longer and wouldn't detract from the travellers' experiences lugging it around in their back packs. This is one of three essential books for when you go backpacking in Brazil... the other two being Guia 4 Rodas Brasil (a sort of AAA guidebook of towns, hotels, restaurants and reviews) and Guia 4 Rodas Guia de Praias (the most complete guide to