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Real and centavos, notes and coins
Brazilian currency is Real (1 USD = 2,66 Reals; 1 Euro = 3,47 Reals, Feb. 2005).
1 Real = 100 Centavos.
There are notes of 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, 50 and 100 reals.
There are coins of 1 real and 1, 5, 10, 25, and 50 centavos.
Brazil cost of life
The cost of life in Brazil is cheap or very cheap for European or United States standards. With 5 USD you can eat magnificently, in most places. Hotels are cheap, though prices can oscillate significantly due to some events (Carnival, New Year’s Eve), or high/low season patterns.
Euro and US dollars
US dollars (plastic and banknotes) are largely accepted in hotels, restaurants, shops and elsewhere. Euros are less known and used than dollars, but well accepted in resorts and big cities.
Tipping
Tipping is not necessary in most of the restaurants; they usually include a 10% gratuity on the bill.
Don’t tip taxi drivers, except in Rio, where the standard tip averages 10%.
Airport and hotel porters are usually tipped with 1,5 reals (US $0.75) per bag. Before using taxis, it is convenient to ask the travel price first. You risk some avoidable supplementary voyage and «reais», if you don’t.
Change money
You can easily change your home currency via ATMs (bank signs saying Cartão or Saques por Cartão). You just need your bank or credit car and PIN.
CREDIT CARDS
Brazil Information
Master Card, Visa but also Diners Club and American Express are widely accepted.
The use of credit cards to pay hotels and flights to online travel agencies
Some people feel uncomfortable about using their credit cards for paying hotels or air flights to online travel agencies. But that’s an excusable fear. There are online travel agencies processing, annually, billions of dollars in air travel, and many thousands of daily credit card transactions, without any disruption or fraud.
Using a credit card for online purchases is actually less risky than making a purchase by telephone, or using a credit card off-line, at restaurants, stores and commercial points. In these cases, local employees take clients credit cards to undisclosed places, and there are situations where clients leave copies of the receipts involving the cards on tables, etc. And those are really unsafe behaviours.
The big online agents, on the contrary, use sophisticated technology and software to encrypt and store the personal information of their clients (credit card number, addresses, phones numbers, and passwords). Their workers do not have the know-how to break the chains of secrecy.
The encryption makes the use of the credit card and the internet business a highly secure operation. The encrypted data cannot be read as the information travels over the Internet. There isn’t a unique reported case of such a case, and the operators using the latest technology can guarantee the safety of their online transactions. If the online travel agents are reputable, if they implement the necessary security technology and proceedings – as the biggest online travel agents do – then the fraud risk is inexistent.
For information about travelling in Brazil, see:
Hotels in…
Flights to…
Nightlife, entertainment, cuisine and shopping in…
Brazil beaches …
Travelling into the Amazon rainforest
Iguassu Falls
Planning your Brazilian Tour
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Information on Money
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