Very good chance I'll be joining some of you in a few months for the WC. I'll be there for only 8-10 days or so. Locked in and gonna go watch the Portugal and Germany games... Woo hoo!!! Excited about that. I do have questions about traveling though: cell phones, cash money, credit cards, etc... Should we ask in this thread or just another thread?
Shoot, @BatigoL5. Some intial points - Bring a smartphone for wifi skype/hangouts/facetime calls home. Safer if it is not an Iphone, but if you are discreet, should be ok. Bring an unlocked phone, buy a prepaid chip for 10BRL and you can receive calls to you mobile without paying, If you and your buds get the same carrier, (VIVO, Claro, TIM, etc) it is really cheap to call each other. May want to buy a new chip in each town so you dont have to pay roaming. Credit Cards - YES. Visa/MC are universally accepted. AMEX pretty much but not always. Debit Card- Should work for withdrawal at Banco24Horas ATMS (which are shared amongst 10 banks), Santander, HSBC and CITIBANK Branded ATMS. May work at Bradesco as well. My US card never worked at Itau or other local banks.
Yes we fly out of São paolo. We har rooms in Manaus 19-23 but we fly out te 23rd in the morning at 4am
I'm looking at the mobile wifi hotspot option like Telecom Square or XCom Global to leave where we're staying (not taking to games, although one could if you really wanted) for FaceTime or Skype calls back home. Anybody with any experience using these?
Thanks for the response! I'll be bringing my iPhone, it's the only phone I have. Yes, it is unlocked. I'll need to text, send pictures, FaceTime, and calls back to the US. The prepaid chip, can I buy that here in the US or buy in Brazil? I really need to buy a chip in each town I visit? I don't have a debit card, I guess I can get one. With the cash, can I exchange at hotel or better to do at the banks?
Considering that they cost ~3-4 times what they do in the US, yeah, pretty much. An iphone 5S starts at $2800 reais.
Didn't realize that thanks. I've been to some countries with high crime rates, and I was nervous to have an iPhone 3. Of course every kid and his mom had a iPhone 5 already. Everybody looked at my old phone like....
The thing is that long distance roaming is a bitch here. It is not the same as US or Europe where in country calls are all treated the same. So if you want to talk to your buddy who is travelling with you while you are in Manaus, and you bought your chips in Recife, BOTH of you will pay roaming charges - a 5 minute call would cost you each 10BRL. Whereas if you had Manaus pre paid chips the call would cost the caller .25BRL and the receiver nothing. Seeing that you can often get 2 chips for 10 BRL, it is not a bad deal. If you are in the city of the chip, your parents could call you from Skype out or any other IP phone for .12USD a minute and you would talk for free. By the chip here. Any metro station will have a kiosk. Even newstands will sell them. Any mall or high street has a mobile store. VIVO, CLARO, TIM and OI are the main carriers. I highly recommend against cash. You are better off getting a prepaid visa card or something of the like. You will get a shitty rate anywhere you try to change money and will have a high degree of liability if you get robbed. Seriously. Better yet - go get a debit card before the WC. Sure bring some emergency cash. But dont make it your first spending option.
This was from my post #179 in this thread. Still applies: A bit of advice on phones in Brazil - If you have an unlocked phone, you can buy a SIM card at any newsstand or convenience store. National carriers are Vivo, Oi, Claro and TIM. It doesnt really matter which prepaid card you get, just make sure that your buddies all get the same one. Calls on the same network are cheap - R$.21 per call on Claro. SMS is R.15 and only the caller pays. If you are going to call home, I suggest that you use skype, google hang out, magikjack etc for that or even a prepaid land line card. If you use your US carrier down here, you will be taken to the cleaners. Wifi is generally available and should suffice for calls home, touching base with friends elsewhere in Brazil. You should wait until you get to your base of operation before buying the SIM cards, to reduce roaming. If roaming, both callers pay and the fees are much higher. If out of your base of operation, use SMS. A note on the iphone - flashing it in public, especially in crowded places will draw unwanted attention. An iphone in Brazil costs approx 1.5K USD or approx 3 months of a basic salary. There is a healthy trade in stolen iphones and they are frequently the subject of snatch and grabs or worse. I have several acquaintances who have been relieved of their iphones with and without a gun involved...in broad daylight...in heavily trafficked, generally safe areas. I use a Google Nexus and no one has ever looked twice at me. That brings me to a broader point about electronics. Simply stated - they are really expensive here and as such the target of thieves. Thieves tend to be young men. Young men like tech gadgets, especially those that are unaffordable in local terms. Remember, things that you would not think are "worth" stealing at home are definitely worth stealing in Brazil. And before you say, "If they want it, they can take it." just know that you have already landed in an unwanted social interaction with a dude or group of dudes that clearly do not share your approach to the social contract. They may not stop at your iphone. I suggest, you make due with as little as possible to avoid any potential mishaps. Instead of a laptop, bring a tablet. If you can swing it, ditch the tablet and make due with a smartphone. Given that the camera is not super awesome on the iphone - bring a small digital point and shoot (cybershot, etc) and an old android smartphone and save yourself potential hassles. Also, don't bring a watch nicer than a Casio digital or swatch. I digress. The point I am trying to make is that you can come down here and have a great and safe time, but there are some basic steps that can vastly decrease the likelihood of trouble.
OK so can someone clarify the visa requirement? I have a valid passport. Do I need to worry about getting anything more in Brazil? Generally speaking a passport is equivalent to a 6 month visa in most of the world but apparently that isn't quite universal.
If your passport is from USA AND you DO NOT have a ticket from Fifa for WC before leaving for Brazil, you need a visa. If you have WC ticket in your name, you will receive a waiver for the visa fee. My understanding is that either way you will need a visa. It is just that the WC confirmation will result in a waiving of the fee - which is 185$
The other thing to consider is that the WC visa is valid for 90 days, and a regular tourist visa is valid for 10 years. If you are thinking of going back, might want to bite the bullet and get a regular visa. The price of visas will only go up and up. It's $185 now? Whoa.
Point of interest is that nano sims are difficult to purchase when obtaining prepaid cards in Brazil. Buy yourself this and take it with you as a backup. http://www.amazon.com/cutter-iPhone-Simcard-Cutter-Micro/dp/B009ERXEDK
I did some research on TripAdvisor from recent visitors to Brazil who all said that regular and micro was OK but the nano for the latest iPhone 4s/5/5s/Samsung galaxy 4 were extremely difficult. I guess as these phones are twice the price inside of Brazil that demand is low for them. Im taking a cutter as backup just in case.
Should I be worried about walking around with a nice-ish camera too then? Was going to get one for the girlfriend ahead of our trip.
Anybody having difficulty with registering US Soccer Supporters club members as guests on the PMA platform? Every time I put my 3 guests' info in the "add a guest" section, it states that the "Fan Club Number is Invalid". They registered with US Soccer about a week ago. Any chance USSoccer has failed to give the numbers to FIFA? I'm starting to sweat this a bit. Any help/advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
Took me reminder 2 phone calls to the Fed for them to add my name to the FIFA list. And at least 24hr wait after each call. So have your guest give the Fed a call: (312) 808 1300 Option 1 then option 2 Also, ensure their name in the application matches exactly their name on the membership. Not being a smart ass by any means but if their name on the application is "Doug" and "Douglas" for the membership, good chance it won't. Good luck!