São Paulo, Brazil

Walking in Paulista Avenue

I married a Brazilian, so I'm sure this post will not be the last one about Brazil. Brazil is huge country which many different cultures, foods, and cities to be visited. My first trip to Brazil was during the winter holiday break at work.

Budget Travel Tip#1: Travel around scheduled breaks at work to get extra days

I always try to schedule my trips around various vacations and holidays because of extra days! Depending on the holiday, traveling to certain places may be more expensive or less expensive so make sure to check all your options. Many people that tell me they "can't" travel, say they can't do so because they don't get that much time off. Well, most people get at least 5 days time off in one year so if you count weekends, there you have 9 days! If you prefer to spread your time off throughout the year then you can make sure the schedule them around those three day weekends.

I work at a college so I get 9 working days off in December (not including weekends) so we decided this would be the best time for us to go spend some time with my husband's family. The best thing about traveling to Brazil during the holidays is that south America's climate is the opposite of ours since they are below the equator, which means December in Brazil was summer time! Not that Florida is really winter time but Brazil was definitely warmer.

25 de Março

São Paulo, is a unique city with a melting pot of people with various cultural ancestries, including African, Middle Eastern, Asian, European, and Brazilian Natives. That being said, it is not surprise that São Paulo has one of the most ethnically diverse populations in the world.

There are various neighborhoods that demonstrate the diverse cultures in São Paulo one of them is called 25 de Março which is an extremely busy commerce street where you can find a wide variety of items for a good price. This street is filled with Middle Eastern restaurants and stores.

25 de março

25 de março

Mercado Municipal

After taking a stroll down 25 de Março, we made our way to the older part of the city where we shopped at one of São Paulo's best markets, Mercado Municipal. As soon as we walked in, we could smell the fresh fruits and the people attending the fruit stands were running up to us and giving us free samples of fruits! We got to try strawberries, dates, peaches, passion fruit, and grapes all before we bought a single fruit.

Budget Travel Tip#2: Eat at the Market!

You will not regret eating here, they have many great places to eat the local food for a really good price. If you eat at this market you have to try to pastéis de bacalhau (Cod stuffed pastries) with a side of Garapa (cane sugar juice).

Bairro da Liberdade

Another neighborhood that I fell in love with is called Bairro da Liberdade, which started as a Japanese neighborhood in its early days and has since become home to several Asian cultures. On the weekends they have a street fair and market where you can buy Asian street food and other goods like jewelry, clothing, art, and much more.

Beco do Batman

I'm a sucker for street art so I absolutely fell in love with Beco do Batman, which is a street that is filled with street art. The art covered the walls, street, and stairs and it was extremely well done!

Budget Travel Tip#3: Skip the hotels

My husband and I were lucky enough to be able to stay with his parents in São Paulo so we did not need to spend any extra money on hotels. We also ate at home a lot which added up to a ton of savings in the end.

I would highly recommend visiting places where you have friends and family to start but if you are traveling somewhere where that is not possible, then try staying in a hostel, or Air B&B. I know that hostels have a bad reputation from that scary hostel movie, but trust me hostels are a great way to meet people if you are traveling solo and they are definitely pocket friendly. I personally, have never had an unsafe/bad experience in a hostel. Check out Hostelworld.com to see all the hostels, reviews, and pictures.