First time in Brazil - Rio, SP and ???

[Taikonaut]

I will be visiting Brazil end of March for roughly three weeks and am wondering whether I should add a third stop in my itinerary. 
 

I plan to start and end my trip in Rio and have booked a hotel in Ipanema for the first week. After that I want to visit São Paolo for a couple of days but am thinking of adding a stop in either Salvador, Recife or Iguacu Falls before returning to Rio.

Is that too ambitious for a newbie with not a lot of Portuguese skills? Should I just alternate weeks between Rio and SP? 
 

What would you do? 

[Riobard]

I suggest that you feel out your initial location Rio and make decisions about a third destination while you are there, or even from São Paulo your second location. Rather than commit now and risk being squeezed for time, that passes quickly. While recently there for a few months I made 4 impromptu changes related to location and accommodations. There is always access to spontaneous domestic travel and places to stay, consistent as well with past years. Portuguese fluency would not be very relevant to an itinerary volume. 

The Falls can be done in a shorter time (ie, 2 days) because the town is not value-added but I would not shorten an excursion to Salvador or Recife to that degree.

I recall we needed an Argentine entry document to cross to the Falls’ other side. I highly recommend Pousada Guata Fora, semi-detached chalets, close to the airport and the Brazilian entrance to the park. Great breakfast and optional added buffet dinner so your nutritional needs are quickly accessible without travel into town and allows more time to enjoy the grounds. The venue also facilitated taxi transfers to the Argentine entrance across the border. 

If your 3 candidates do not pan out I suggest a stopover by bus to or from SP-Rio, in Ubatuba or Paraty, for an appealing small town coastal sightseeing experience. They are not on the express route but can be arranged as separate travel stretches. Bus travel purchase domestically requires passport ID.

Easter is April 17th and may be busier and more expensive that weekend. 

[12is12]

Whatever you do, DO NOT skip Iguazu!!!

There is no place like this on earth.

[Latbear4blk]

40 minutes ago, 12is12 said:

Whatever you do, DO NOT skip Iguazu!!!

There is no place like this on earth.

I would say skip it this time. There is a historic draught that has taken the Parana river to low levels I have never seen in my life. The Iguazy Falls must be just a shadow of what they usually are. 

[Alaskabear]

I was at Iguaçu falls a few weeks ago and the water levels were at historical norms according to my driver.  He was looking at a daily forecast of water levels.   But yes, there has been a drought that’s slowed the volume.    Check before you go but honestly Iguaçu was incredible from the Brazilian side.   I’ve been all over earth and I consider myself a bit jaded.  But this place really blew me away.    It’s worth the side trip for sure.     

[Alaskabear]

I took this photo myself.  It shows you the volume of water flowing when I went a few weeks ago.  (Early February).  

[Taikonaut]

Thanks for all the advice.  I’ll go with the flow and keep the option to book a trip to the falls open. 

[Riobard]

Recent reviews of the luxe Belmond Hotel in the cataracts park, where guests can optionally access the falls before and after regular hours, revealed no disappointments from contributors. But here is my photo montage from a Fall (Spring there) visit a few years ago. It was not a dry spell and likely more flow volume than recently but I actually wonder if the more forceful tracks are muddier due to more riverbed churned up. I was surprised at the ‘cafe au lait’ tones. Looks like a 🌈 can be pulled out any time kkkkkk. 

[Latbear4blk]

5 hours ago, Alaskabear said:

I took this photo myself.  It shows you the volume of water flowing when I went a few weeks ago.  (Early February).  

True, no one will be disappointed, the falls are beautiful anyways. However, the picture above shows significantly less water than all the times I have been around. 

[davet]

On 3/1/2022 at 2:36 PM, Latbear4blk said:

True, no one will be disappointed, the falls are beautiful anyways. However, the picture above shows significantly less water than all the times I have been around. 

That is about 1/3 of the waterworks I remember from 30 years ago.

[Latbear4blk]

4 hours ago, davet said:

That is about 1/3 of the waterworks I remember from 30 years ago.

Yep. Now the falls are cute beautiful. Normally, they used to be scary beautiful.

The Paraná river is at an historic low. Climate change in all the areas directly influenced by the Amazonian system (which is all South America but Patagonia) is speeding up at alarming levels. Most of my family lives in Corrientes city, the heat is scorching, and a huge fire just burnt significant parts of the Iberá, not far away. The whole city was covered by ashes for several days.