UPDATED
Well I nearly choked on my cornflakes this morning after reading the Daily Mail’s report on the package to Brazil to watch the 2014 World Cup. Yes Brazil is expensive but this is a rip off for 16 nights near Salvador, if it was Rio it would be cheap but as you can see at the bottom the hotels in Costa do Sauipe are currently about £67.00 per night and its highest season carnival period, tonight in Rio you probably couldn’t get a share in a four bed hostel room for that price.
For a start its planning to base fans allegedly in Salvador but the Costa do Sauípe resort complex is about an hour and a half drive away from Salvador. Sure everyone will just love doing that daily commute. The resort itself has five hotels, convention center, re-created local village with six pousadas, (basic B & B to you and me), and a sports center, its part of a 500-acre development in an environmental protection area bordered by rainforest. Sounds like they are attempting to corral you all at a big complex, nice. It doesn’t seem to include flights to other cities so I have to assume it’s only for the games played around Salvador. Brazil is a huge country (think size of Europe and you’re not far off) with games being staged at various stadiums around the country and surely real football fans would want to at least visit the world-famous Maracana stadium in Rio de Janeiro. (The link to Maracana will take you to a Portuguese page, look at the top left and you can choose English, well American anyway) I can see people buying this and ending up watching the matches in the hotel bar, but at least you would get to meet a retired footballer.
As the Daily Mail reported, official travel packages for next year’s World Cup in Brazil were unveiled today costing a staggering £5,500 – meaning England fans will need very deep pockets if they want to attend
The high prices fans will be expected to pay to attend the World Cup is already a concern for a number of supporters’ organizations.
Kevin Miles, from the Football Supporters’ Federation, said: ‘The World Cup in Brazil is another long haul destination which presents another set of challenges for fans wanting to support the England team. It will clearly require a big commitment.’
A better option would be to buy your own flight to Brazil and at the same time a Brazilian Airpass. A Airpass is a ticket that can only be brought out of the country but is a very reasonable way to take flights around Brazil. As for accommodation, well there are thousands of hotels, pousadas and campsites (in fact I have a small farm, camp here). The big thing would be to book early, it can only get more expensive as the time goes on, make sure you have insurance if god forbid England doesn’t qualify.
I am not a travel agent but I am going to do some research on this, I feel a budget of £3000 to £4000 for flights and accommodation would be more realistic.
I am not in any way affiliated with the airlines or Airpass, just for the record!
I am doing some research on Brazilian websites on this topic and will post some information over the coming weekend on various aspects of the tournament such as where matches will be played and some accommodation options for those destinations, I detest people being ripped off when they visit Brazil, it’s so unfair and gives an unrealistic view of the country. Brazil isn’t a cheap option but getting just a little way out of the tourist zone can make a huge price difference. I will try to find some good alternatives.
Quick update, hoteltravel.com has a few hotels listed at Costa do Sauipe between £63.00per night up to £166.00, which isn’t too bad for Brazil, of course not all hotels are created equal.
I have found a couple of sites that specialize in holiday rental. That would be the way I would go, a holiday rental not too far from an airport and an air pass. Check these out and I hasten to add I am in no way affiliated to any one I recommend.
ownersdirect, homeaway, and holiday rental
I will be adding information all the time so please check back, cheers!
Maggie
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4 Comments
Your comments on cost are exactly the same as mine. My first thoughts are to book a flight to Rio and base myself there for easy acess to flights, judging by what you are saying this would be an expensive option. What other cities offer plenty of internal flightsaround the country.
Sorry for the slow reply, we have been experiencing bad storms and have had power cuts! I personally would base myself about an hour from Rio, where you will get a better price on a rental property. The highway into Rio is great and driving is fine as long as you realise they’re all pretending to be formula one drivers. There are some beautiful small towns on the coast near Rio, I personally recommend Saquarema. Lots of cities do internal flights and have international airports and I can’t recommend the Airpass enough it saved me a fortune when I had one, I think I did 5 internal flights but you need to check what they currently offer, there is a link on my http://expatbrazil.co.uk/2014-world-cup-rip-off story.You can only purchase these outside of Brazil and only when you have purchased a flight to Brazil.I’m currently looking for alternative rentals and will put any I find in the property section. Let me know how you get on and if you any help at all please just ask. Enjoy Brazil and the World Cup.
As an ex pat living in Australia I have a dream to be in Brazil for the World Cup that took a severe nose dive when i checked on hotel prices! I have found some good advice here so thank you for that. You expect to pay a premium but also don’t have the money to afford to be ripped off, so staying outside of Rio sounds like a good plan. Getting to games in other cities was not really something I thought would be possible due to the size of the country but learning about the air pass may open that option up too. I’m an England fan and would love to see their games should they qualify but really my motivation for going is to see ANY games I can get tickets to…and enjoy the atmosphere! So anyway -Thanks for the tips.
Hi Chris,
You are more than welcome at our campsite, which would set you back about £10.00 a day.
We also now have http://worldcuplatest.co.uk, I will be putting all football and World Cup related news on there. I am currently trying to find alternatives and will post as and when I find something, so keep checking in, I hate seeing anyone ripped off. Hope you and England make it. Thx.