<p>^ Agree with hmom5, Brazil is a great country. Go! Brazil has a lot of street crime but so do many other countries in South America. Just take the usual precautions and exercise your “street smarts.” Frankly, if you know how to avoid crime in Chicago, you can learn to do the same in Sao Paulo. (By the way, I don’t think Rio is any safer than Sao Paulo and if anything is probably worse, though the U.S. State Department lists both along with Salvador and Recife as places with the highest incidence of street crime targeting tourists).</p>
<p>What makes travel in Brazil a little tricky is that in addition to avoiding the rougher neighborhoods—which are numerous, large, and very rough, indeed—you need to be careful around obvious tourist sites, including international-class hotels. Tourists are tempting targets for pickpockets, thieves, purse-snatchers, and robbers (sometimes armed). The State Department advises that you dress down when possible. I’d advise that you not carry a lot of valuables on the street, and try not to act like a tourist: don’t gawk, don’t spend a lot of time hanging out on the streets around major hotels and tourist sites (especially at night), act like you know where you’re going, and go about your business efficiently. There are occasionally kidnappings of business people, but the people who do this are professionals and they’re likely to go after people they reckon will fetch a big ransom—so don’t go with the big black limousine.</p>
<p>The State Department has no country-specific travel advisories or travel warnings currently in effect for Brazil, but it does urge that you exercise caution when traveling there. Here are excerpts:</p>
<p>Challenging? Sure. But so is travel in many developing countries. But Brazil is a fascinating and increasingly important country, finally beginning to emerge as an economic and geopolitical powerhouse. Don’t let a little street crime deter you. Just use common sense.</p>
<p>One of our programs is bringing a leadership group of business people to SP, Rio and other regions of Brazil for 11 days in a few weeks. I had no idea of the dangers experienced by others. Honestly I think I’m glad I’m not going.</p>
<p>My client (who has also never been to Brazil) was telling me how excited the Brazil office was that we were coming down and providing XYZ information to them, and I said, “Great, then they’ll be more happy to pay our ransom.” LOL.</p>
<p>SP is huge and like any other gigantic city, it has its bad areas and good areas. The Avenida Paulista in the MASP/ Trianon area is not any more dangerous than any other large city; you can walk around. Just be alert and use common sense, as you would in any large city. The subway system is allegedly pretty good and clean; don’t go to the areas that are not served by the subway.</p>
<p>A driver is really helpful in SP. i would never try to drive or park there on my own. It is chaos.</p>