Brazil Trip 2016 - An Overview of Expenses
If you want to go to Brazil for PBB in March (or April) next year, you might find this helpful. I’m sharing with you our expenses for airfare, accommodation, and other things we spent for our travel last March to April this year. I initially did a video explaining how I was able to get a cheap airfare (cheaper than most, if not the cheapest among those I have spoken to) from Manila to Florianopolis, but it’s pretty long and you might get bored to death listening to me. So let’s do this instead!
Roundtrip Airfare for 2
Total Airfare P122,777.59
Accommodation (16 nights)
Total P31,516.39
*MNL-KUL airfare includes travel tax of P1,620 per person (P3,240 for 2). I paid for this during online booking to avoid the queue at NAIA.
The TG venue is in Floripa (nickname for Florianopolis City) and not in SP.
Floripa is in the state of Santa Catarina and is 11 hours away from SP by bus. You can also travel by bus if you carry more than 23kg (or 46kg combined for 2 persons) of check-in baggage with you. Domestic flights in Brazil usually have small air crafts and hence smaller baggage allowance. Air travel from SP to Floripa is 1 hour. I don't know with you but we cannot stand another 11 hours in the bus after 30 hours of air travel and airport layovers. Air and bus fares are almost the same. Airfare is even cheaper during promo. Unless you want to do sight-seeing for 11 hours or you exceeded the baggage allowance, I don't see any reason to travel by bus.
You can stay in SP for a day or more to shop for flip-flops. SP is huge and is the biggest city in South America. It is dangerous especially for foreigners. We were warned that people are robbed by pointing at the victims with sharp objects and worse, their passports are also taken away aside from their valuables. Remember our host Barbara:
She's a local there but when she visits her relatives in SP, she doesn't feel safe going around the city. So unless you know what you're doing, I don't recommend stepping out of the airport. Maybe if Irmão Bodyguard will go with us, we can consider a tour in SP.
If you’re travelling to South America for the first time, Yellow Fever vaccine is required. In the Philippines, it is administered only by the Bureau of Quarantine in Manila, Cebu, and Davao. It costs P1,500 per person if you are in a group of 10 and P2,000 if you go solo. In Manila, you have to be there by 8am when a lot of people are in queue so you will pay only 1,500.
IMPORTANT: You will be asked to eat something if you have empty stomach so make sure to eat breakfast. A yellow card bearing your name will be issued to you after vaccination, valid for 10 years. Check carefully to make sure the spelling of your name is correct. If you lose it, you can ask for re-issuance for a fee of P300. Do not get another yellow fever shot in the next 10 years.
Aside from the yellow fever vaccine for 2, other expenses before our trip are as follows:
The pocket money depends on several conditions like how many days you are going to stay there, the amount and intensity of lakwacha, what you want to eat, etc. We stayed in 3 different places and had access to the following:
We were able to cut down our expenses by cooking and buying ready-to-cook food, throwing dirty clothes to the washing machine (and playing Manang Bola to figure out the Portuguese buttons), and free internet access at home.
Supermarket prices are almost the same as in Manila, with the exception of chocolates. Famous brands of chocolates are cheaper in Brazil! If you plan to dine out to experience local food, buffet a quilo (buffet by weight) restaurants like Salut are popular. Price ranges from R$15 to 50 per kg. In Salut, it is R$34.99. A McDonald’s combo meal is about R$23 (not buffet a quilo). If you’re going to dine out for let’s say twice a day for 16 days at R$20 per meal:
R$20 x 2 meals per day x 16 days x 2 persons = R$1,280
At 1 R$ = 12.66 PHP, that’s P16,204.80
The only “grand” tour that we had was Floripa by Bus. We joined the half-island group tour package with an English speaking guide for R$90 + R$10 entrance fee to Project Tamar (turtle conservation chorva) per person or a total of P2,532.
Most of the time, we roamed the city by bus. Floripa does not have a metro rail system but it has a reliable bus system with handsome drivers and conductors. Buses arrive at the bus stops and terminals on time. The mobile app BusMaps Florianopolis may not be as informative as StreetDirectory app of Singapore but it was enough for us to survive our almost daily commute. Bus routes are shown in a map as well as the schedule. Fare is R$3.50 per person. Transfers at the terminals are free. Meaning, if you need at least 2 bus rides to go to your destination, you can transfer to another bus in a terminal without having to pay R$3.50 again.
Hint: From Santo Antonio bus terminal, you can walk going to Salut at Forte Atacadista
Senior citizens, including foreigners, are given a discount of I think R$1.00. Of course hindi kami yan! Nung namasyal kami kasama ang oldies na mga kapatid na Espanyol, binigyan sila ng discount kaya namin nalaman :)
Rent-a-car is common among brethren. From what I heard, it is about P5,000 per person to rent a van for 10 days for a group of 7. Since we have, more or less, become “expert” commuters in Floripa (dala ng pangangailangang magtipid), we only wished for a car when attending Thanksgiving service at 4am because bus trips start at 6am. But wait, there’s a cheaper alternative for rent-a-car. Just contact charter car services for R$50 per trip. Yan ang wais na misis!
So now that you know that the expense involved in going to Brazil is not just-just (basta-basta), I suggest you start planning not now, not tomorrow, but YESTERDAY. Seriously, you should have started saving last April or even earlier, except if you are expecting a huge bonus in December. But based on experience, the fun is in saving, in seeing your piggy bank slowly gets filled every payday.
The ability to pay for your trip immediately also empowers you to scout for the best deal, without the worries of swiping your credit cardsss with no ready cash to pay for it in full on due date and (further) burying yourselves in debtsss.
If you want to go to Brazil for PBB in March (or April) next year, you might find this helpful. I’m sharing with you our expenses for airfare, accommodation, and other things we spent for our travel last March to April this year. I initially did a video explaining how I was able to get a cheap airfare (cheaper than most, if not the cheapest among those I have spoken to) from Manila to Florianopolis, but it’s pretty long and you might get bored to death listening to me. So let’s do this instead!Roundtrip Airfare for 2
- MNL-KUL (Air Asia) 24,647.60*
- KUL-GRU (Turkish Air) 87,540.65
- GRU-FLN (GOL) 10,589.34
Total Airfare P122,777.59
Accommodation (16 nights)
- Beira Mar (6 nights) 12,840.75
- Near TG Venue (5 nights) 10,115.14
- Canasvieiras (5 nights) 8,560.50
Total P31,516.39
*MNL-KUL airfare includes travel tax of P1,620 per person (P3,240 for 2). I paid for this during online booking to avoid the queue at NAIA.
Airfare + NAIA Travel Tax + Accommodation: P154,293.98Our total airfare MNL-FLN is a little less than 60k per person (without travel tax). This is cheaper than those of other brethren. Please note that this airfare is from Manila to Florianopolis. Some mentioned their cost from Manila to São Paulo (mind the spelling, u not o, like São Paolu?) or Singapore to São Paulo so at first, it seemed theirs was cheaper but only if you can fly like Darna from Manila to Singapore or swim across the West Philippine Sea and South China Sea ala Michael Phelps, while carrying 40+ kilograms of baggage.
The TG venue is in Floripa (nickname for Florianopolis City) and not in SP.
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| International Thanksgiving - Florianopolis, Santa Catarina, Brazil |
Floripa is in the state of Santa Catarina and is 11 hours away from SP by bus. You can also travel by bus if you carry more than 23kg (or 46kg combined for 2 persons) of check-in baggage with you. Domestic flights in Brazil usually have small air crafts and hence smaller baggage allowance. Air travel from SP to Floripa is 1 hour. I don't know with you but we cannot stand another 11 hours in the bus after 30 hours of air travel and airport layovers. Air and bus fares are almost the same. Airfare is even cheaper during promo. Unless you want to do sight-seeing for 11 hours or you exceeded the baggage allowance, I don't see any reason to travel by bus.
You can stay in SP for a day or more to shop for flip-flops. SP is huge and is the biggest city in South America. It is dangerous especially for foreigners. We were warned that people are robbed by pointing at the victims with sharp objects and worse, their passports are also taken away aside from their valuables. Remember our host Barbara:
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| With our host (owner of the house where we rented a room), Barbara. She is a Marine Eco-Biologist and a part-time Ph.D. student. |
She's a local there but when she visits her relatives in SP, she doesn't feel safe going around the city. So unless you know what you're doing, I don't recommend stepping out of the airport. Maybe if Irmão Bodyguard will go with us, we can consider a tour in SP.
 |
| The husband with Irmão Bodyguard |
If you’re travelling to South America for the first time, Yellow Fever vaccine is required. In the Philippines, it is administered only by the Bureau of Quarantine in Manila, Cebu, and Davao. It costs P1,500 per person if you are in a group of 10 and P2,000 if you go solo. In Manila, you have to be there by 8am when a lot of people are in queue so you will pay only 1,500.
IMPORTANT: You will be asked to eat something if you have empty stomach so make sure to eat breakfast. A yellow card bearing your name will be issued to you after vaccination, valid for 10 years. Check carefully to make sure the spelling of your name is correct. If you lose it, you can ask for re-issuance for a fee of P300. Do not get another yellow fever shot in the next 10 years.
Yellow Fever Vaccine: P3,000
Aside from the yellow fever vaccine for 2, other expenses before our trip are as follows:
- Hard case luggage: 5,000
- Pocket money NAIA: 5,000**
- Adaptor set: 399.75
- 2 bottles Off lotion (remember Zika virus): 316.00
- Portable luggage scale (to avoid excess baggage): 220.50
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| Portable luggage scale |
- 2 neck pillows: 200.00
- Plastic zip lock (100 pcs, to put stuff with liquids like shampoo, body wash, etc.): 72.00
**I carried P5,000 cash aside from our pocket money in USD. We spent some for our meals in NAIA (breakfast and lunch). Although our flight was at 12:30pm, we went there very early in the morning because it was a holiday (Maundy Thursday of the Catholics) and we expected that airports will be more congested than normal.
At Kuala Lumpur International Airport, we learned that we have to transfer to the other terminal for our next flight. Train fare is 2 MYR per person. Fortunately, Malaysia is one of our neighbor countries so PHP is accepted by money changers. I had 1,000 PHP exchanged for MYR to pay for train tickets.
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| Train ride to transfer terminal in Kuala Lumpur International Airport |
From Kuala Lumpur, we travelled to São Paulo, Brazil via Turkish Airlines (TK) with a layover in Istanbul, Turkey. All flights in this itinerary departed on time but arrived at the destinations 30 minutes earlier than the ETD. I'd like to think that TK does this on purpose because we consistently arrived 30 minutes earlier even in our return flights.
We really enjoyed our pre-selected seafood meals in TK. During online booking, the passenger can select from about 20 types of meals like Kosher, Halal, Vegetarian, Seafood, among others. On-board meals in TK are already included in the ticket price. We were served 2 meals for each leg of the trip. Some brethren who also flew TK but not in the same flight with us were not able to select their meals and were served most probably Halal meat because Turkey, where TK is based, is a Muslim country. They ate only bread during their flights (10 + 12 = 22 hours!). I am not sure exactly what happened during their booking but in case you do not see the selection of meals when you book online, you can call TK office in Makati for assistance. Just GMG their number - Google mo, girl!
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| Seafood meal - Turkish Airlines |
I requested for brewed coffee after EVERY meal at no extra charge, of course :)
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| Brewed coffee - Turkish Airlines |
The first thing I need upon setting foot on a foreign land, aside from money changer, is a local sim card. In Brazil, it’s called chip /ship-py/. Usually, I buy a local sim card at the airport, but in SP, we were not able to find any store selling sim cards. We were able to buy one the next day at Beiramar Shopping, about 15-minute walk from our place in Beiramar. By the way, it was our host in Beiramar, William, who told us that sim cards in Brazil are called chip. So upon entering Tim business center in Beiramar Shopping, I confidently [beautiful with a heart] asked one of the attendants, “Chip?”. Tim is one of the big network providers in Brazil (like Globe or Smart). The attendant immediately asked for “documentu”, or ID so I handed her my passport. After encoding some information in her laptop, she asked me to pay R$10 at the cashier. After that, she handed me my sim card package.
I returned to the cashier to buy “load”. I just guessed the word “carga” but she looked puzzled, so I kept on repeating “carga” while pointing to my sim card. When she finally figured out what I needed, she gave me a list of amounts to choose from. I selected R$20, paid for it, then she handed me a scratch card, and I followed the instructions written there to “load” my chip. Viola! I was already assured that I won’t get a mini-heart attack courtesy of my Globe bill when we return to Manila! Later on, I learned that the correct term for “load” in Brazil is “recarga” /he-karga/. See? My guess was almost correct!
Local sim card + load: P379.80I read a few days ago that some sim card retailers in Brazil require a CPF number which is their equivalent of SSS number. Only Brazilians have this and therefore, they do not sell sim cards to foreigners. Hmmm… I guess we were in luck that time because Tim accepted my passport in place of CPF.
The pocket money depends on several conditions like how many days you are going to stay there, the amount and intensity of lakwacha, what you want to eat, etc. We stayed in 3 different places and had access to the following:
- Complete kitchen tools and equipment
- Washing machine and drying rack
- Internet via wi-fi (the signal in Canasvieiras was weak)
- Close to at least one supermarket
We were able to cut down our expenses by cooking and buying ready-to-cook food, throwing dirty clothes to the washing machine (and playing Manang Bola to figure out the Portuguese buttons), and free internet access at home.
Supermarket prices are almost the same as in Manila, with the exception of chocolates. Famous brands of chocolates are cheaper in Brazil! If you plan to dine out to experience local food, buffet a quilo (buffet by weight) restaurants like Salut are popular. Price ranges from R$15 to 50 per kg. In Salut, it is R$34.99. A McDonald’s combo meal is about R$23 (not buffet a quilo). If you’re going to dine out for let’s say twice a day for 16 days at R$20 per meal:
R$20 x 2 meals per day x 16 days x 2 persons = R$1,280
At 1 R$ = 12.66 PHP, that’s P16,204.80
Food: P16,204.80
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| Salut - Buffet a quilo |
The only “grand” tour that we had was Floripa by Bus. We joined the half-island group tour package with an English speaking guide for R$90 + R$10 entrance fee to Project Tamar (turtle conservation chorva) per person or a total of P2,532.
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| Floripa by Bus - Group Tour |
Group Tour: 2,532For transportation, taxi rate in Brazil is a bit more expensive than in Manila. Based on my observation, it costs R$0.25 per 100 meters.
Most of the time, we roamed the city by bus. Floripa does not have a metro rail system but it has a reliable bus system with handsome drivers and conductors. Buses arrive at the bus stops and terminals on time. The mobile app BusMaps Florianopolis may not be as informative as StreetDirectory app of Singapore but it was enough for us to survive our almost daily commute. Bus routes are shown in a map as well as the schedule. Fare is R$3.50 per person. Transfers at the terminals are free. Meaning, if you need at least 2 bus rides to go to your destination, you can transfer to another bus in a terminal without having to pay R$3.50 again.
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| Santo Antonio Bus Terminal (TISAN) |
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| Bus stop in front of Salut |
Hint: From Santo Antonio bus terminal, you can walk going to Salut at Forte Atacadista
Bus fare for 2 (per ride): P88.62
Senior citizens, including foreigners, are given a discount of I think R$1.00. Of course hindi kami yan! Nung namasyal kami kasama ang oldies na mga kapatid na Espanyol, binigyan sila ng discount kaya namin nalaman :)
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| With some of the brethren from Latin America |
Rent-a-car is common among brethren. From what I heard, it is about P5,000 per person to rent a van for 10 days for a group of 7. Since we have, more or less, become “expert” commuters in Floripa (dala ng pangangailangang magtipid), we only wished for a car when attending Thanksgiving service at 4am because bus trips start at 6am. But wait, there’s a cheaper alternative for rent-a-car. Just contact charter car services for R$50 per trip. Yan ang wais na misis!
So now that you know that the expense involved in going to Brazil is not just-just (basta-basta), I suggest you start planning not now, not tomorrow, but YESTERDAY. Seriously, you should have started saving last April or even earlier, except if you are expecting a huge bonus in December. But based on experience, the fun is in saving, in seeing your piggy bank slowly gets filled every payday.
The ability to pay for your trip immediately also empowers you to scout for the best deal, without the worries of swiping your credit cardsss with no ready cash to pay for it in full on due date and (further) burying yourselves in debtsss.
 |
| "Sou bem Floripa" means "I am Floripa by heart". |
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