Brazil
Beaches, Jungle, Dunes and Everything That Surprised Me
Rio de Janeiro
More Than a Postcard
Everyone has an opinion on Rio before they arrive.
Most of them are wrong. It's bigger, more layered, and more intense than anything you've read.
I've covered it from multiple angles — the best things to actually do (not just the obvious postcard stops), where to go out properly when the sun goes down, and a full breakdown of Carnaval if you're timing your trip around it.
Rio takes energy. Bring it.
Northeast
Lençóis Maranhenses looks fake in photos. White sand dunes stretching to the horizon, filled with blue and green lagoons after the rains.
It's not fake — it's just one of those places where reality is better than the picture.
Jericoacoara is the other one: a quiet, windswept town at the end of a dirt road where you arrive thinking you'll stay two days and leave five days later wondering where the time went.
The Northeast is the part of Brazil that doesn't try to impress you, and that's exactly why it does.
Bahia
I went to Itacaré in January thinking it'd be a quick stopover before Rio Carnaval. I ended up staying longer than planned.
The beaches are walkable from the center, the food is some of the best regional cooking in Brazil, and Pedro Longo street at night with a caipirinha in hand is about as good as slow travel gets.
Then there's Barra Grande — quieter, more remote, coral reefs you can snorkel without booking anything.
And Chapada Diamantina sits inland in its own category entirely: waterfalls dropping hundreds of meters, a three-day trek into a valley with no roads, and a viewpoint called Cachoeirão where I was flying my drone when an eagle decided to challenge it.
Bahia keeps delivering.
Adventure Brazil
Iguazu Falls is the kind of place that makes you go quiet. 275 waterfalls on the border with Argentina — do both sides, no debate.
Inland, Chapada Diamantina delivers three days of trekking through canyons with capuchin monkeys in the canopy and zero phone signal.
And if budget is a concern — it shouldn't stop you.
The Northeast coast, Chapada and Iguazu are three of the cheapest destinations in all of South America.
I've done the numbers so you don't have to.
Watch Brazil My Videos From the Ground
From Jericoacoara's dunes to Rio's hikes and Chapada's valleys — everything I filmed in Brazil.