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Planning Your Trip, Your Attire, and Carnival

High or Low Season?

In Brazil, "high season" is the southern hemisphere summer. For tourism purposes it runs from around Dec. 15th to the end of Carnival (which is a variable date). The two peaks of the high season, with even higher rates and minimum stay requirements, are New Year's Eve and Carnival weeks. The rest of the year is "low season," except for "Semana Santa" or Holy Week (a big travel week in all Latin countries) and the month of July, which is when the winter school holidays occur.

Carnival - Rio

Weekend getaway resorts like Búzios, Parati and the mountain resorts around Petrópolis, and similar places near São Paulo, Curitiba and Porto Alegre, which are all inland cities not far from the coast, can be mobbed on summer weekends, and any long holiday weekend, year-round!

Rates may actually be LOWER, though, in São Paulo, Curitiba and Porto Alegre, especially on summer weekends, because so many residents have weekend places at the beach or in the mountains, and leave the big cities to swelter on their own! That doesn't mean they're abandoned, by any means! But things will be slower during the summer. Most of Brazil's other major cities are either on the coast or so far inland that the beach isn't an easy getaway, which means they don't experience the same mass migration effect.

Winter Drizzle - Curitiba

Be aware that during peak seasons highways from the big three summer cities are often made one-way towards the coast on Fridays and in the reverse direction on Sundays. Even so, there can be miles-long traffic jams. This could affect your travel plans if you're in São Paulo and want to take a daytrip to Santos, for example. Ask locally before setting out to avoid spending hours in wrong-way traffic! It's guaranteed to be much easier to do on a weekday!

Winter in the Serra Gaúcha - Southern Brazil

Many of our readers actually prefer "low season" travel. Not only are hotels and air fares less expensive, popular tourist attractions are less crowded. "Winter" weather in Brazil, from Rio northwards, is mild, with temperatures usually in the 70s F/20s C, although it can drop into the 60s F/10s C at night or when there is a cold front moving up from Antarctica.

It is often less rainy in the winter, particularly in Rio. Even during the winter you will experience occasional hot days or brief heat waves. South of Rio, particularly in higher cities like São Paulo and Curitiba, winter temperatures can drop near freezing at night, although the days are usually in the 60s F/10s C. During occasional cold snaps daytime temperatures can stay in the 40s - 50s F/5 - 10C, so you may want to pack a light jacket and sweater just in case.

Think of winter in San Francisco or Barcelona and that will give you an idea of what to expect in the regions south of Rio. In a few of the highest spots of Southern Brazil there's an occasional dusting of snow in the winter, which is a big tourist atrraction for locals but probably not for our readers! But it's an interesting fact about a country that spreads from north of the Equator into the southern temperate zone.

Carnival/Mardi Gras/Easter Dates Until 2020

Carnival in Brazil is the same time as in New Orleans, Quebec and Cologne (the days leading up to Ash Wednesday and the beginning of Lent). The dates shown are for Mardi Gras (Fat Tuesday). Please remember that in Rio the biggest nights of Carnival are the Saturday and Sunday nights before Fat Tuesday, when the big name samba schools begin their parades in the evening and keep going until dawn, on both nights. Monday and Tuesday are less hectic than in New Orleans.

Easter is another date to keep in mind when traveling to Latin countries. Holy Week, preceding Easter, is usually a school holiday and peak travel week, with jammed hotels, planes and highways, and higher hotel rates.

MARDI GRAS/FAT TUESDAY:

2010 - Feb. 16
2011 - Mar. 8
2012 - Feb. 21
2013 - Feb. 12
2014 - Mar. 4
2015 - Feb. 17
2016 - Feb. 9
2017 - Feb. 28
2018 - Feb. 13
2019 - Mar. 5
2020 - Feb. 25

EASTER:

2010 - Apr. 4
2011 - Apr. 24
2012 - Apr. 8
2013 - Mar. 31
2014 - Apr. 20
2015 - Apr. 5
2016 - Mar. 27
2017 - Apr. 16
2018 - Apr. 1
2019 - Apr. 21
2020 - Apr. 12

Weather in Brazil

Brazil is a huge country, bigger than the lower-48 United States! As you can imagine, weather varies from region to region! To help you plan your trip or enjoy it while you're there, this page has a chart showing monthly temperature ranges and rainfall for various Brazilian cities, a conversion chart between Celsius/Fahrenheit temperatures, and a direct link to a weather site for current conditions and multi-day forecasts in the Brazilian destination(s) you plan to visit.