Off season rates

[VaHawk]

Yeah, I know, I searched the archives and couldn't find an appropriate thread, by topic anyway. Is there an offseason in Rio when the airfare/hotels are cheaper? If so, when would that be? what would the weather be like? are the boys as prevalant? Would an American stick out like a sore thumb/be taken advantage of? If there is a cheaper offseason, what could one expect as far as airfare from DC or NYC and as far as hotel rates? Thanks, for any non-attitude responses to those in the know.

[trilingual]

Yes, there is an off-season. Or rather there are off-seasons, because oddly the hotel and airline seasons don't seem to coincide!

 

For airfares (including tickets using mileage) the high seasons are usually the northern hemisphere summer and the period from Christmas thru Carnival. Low season for airfares is what would be called the "shoulder" season in other markets, i.e. the northern spring and fall. In low season, airfares can be found from the West Coast for under $500, and cheaper from the East Coast. Year-round low fares can usually be found through "ethnic" travel agencies, which specialize in travel to Brazil and offer unpublished fares that are usually cheaper than those advertised anywhere else. You can find these agencies by searching the archives on this site (try keywords "ethnic", "travel" and "agency"). Or, if you live in or near any large city with a significant Brazilian community, go to any local Brazilian oriented business (like a restaurant or market selling Brazilian items) to look for local Brazilian community publications or advertisements posted in the place. The community papers are usually full of ads for travel agencies that service local Brazilian residents.

 

For hotels, the situation is somewhat different. High season is the period from Christmas through Carnival (with extra premiums being charged for stays over New Year's Eve and Carnival itself, often with a requirement for a minimum number of nights), Holy Week, and the month of July, which is the Brazilian winter school holiday. Other times of the year are low season, unless there's a local festival or out-of-season carnival that packs a particular town.

 

For good hotel rates, I'd strongly suggest contacting Carlo. He's been able to negotiate excellent rates at the Atlântico and other hotels, often cheaper than their Internet rates. However, you can research rates through the hotels' own websites. If you know a hotel you're interested in, just try Googling on its name.

 

When you go to Brazil, invest in a Guia Quatro Rodas (available at any newstand) for future reference. It's in Portuguese, but laid out like the Michelin guides, so you don't really need Portuguese to figure it out. The guide lists and rates hotels all over Brazil, in virtually every town and hamlet, with their phone numbers and URLs, which makes research for future visits much easier! It also lists and rates restaurants, like the Michelin guides, which is very useful if you're traveling around the country.

 

Brazil is too big to generalize about the weather. For more detailed information, pick up a copy of the Brazil Handbook, which will include some detailed weather info. However, in Rio the summer can be scorching and humid (like over 100ºF on bad days) but with the compensation of the beach and millions of nearly nude Brazilians everywhere! Not to mention air-conditioning if it's just too hot. In the winter, Rio can plunge down into the 60s, which has the Cariocas huddling around their space heaters and hauling their minks out of the vaults while northern tourists are still cavorting on the beaches. As you head south from Rio, the seasons become more pronounced and winter in the far south or at higher altitudes can be positively chilly (it occasionally snows lightly at some of the highest elevations in the South in the wintertime). Summer is hot and humid, as is pretty much the case everywhere in Brazil. North of Rio the seasons are less pronounced, there is less temperature variation, and what seasons there exist are most likely to the "wet" and the "dry" seasons. These can vary from location to location, which is why the Brazil Handbook can be helpful.

 

In the big cities, there are plenty of boys at the saunas year-round, so I wouldn't worry about that. There are more boys than usual at the Rio saunas in summer, because it's vacation time and there are more potential clients, but any time of year is good to go.

 

"Would an American stick out like a sore thumb/be taken advantage of?" Only if he runs around speaking loudly in English and expecting everyone else to speak it, treats people condescendingly or disrespectfully, flaunts his chauvinism by wearing "U.S.A" and/or red-white-and-blue flag imprinted clothing, or otherwise dresses inappropriately for the location/event/venue (like trying to visit a church while wearing a speedo), etc. But otherwise Americans don't stand out, at least not in Rio and other large cities or popular tourist areas, and aren't taken advantage of. By and large Brazilians like Americans (even if they think our current appointed President is beyond bizarre and proudly contrast him with their own democratically-elected President who won with one of the largest numeric landslides in the history of democratic government in the West). However, if you don't speak Portuguese you probably won't get into any political discussions!

[VaHawk]

Thanks, tri! I really appreciate the time you took to answer my questions and your recommendations. Well I do agree with the Brazilians that our president is indeed bizarre!