Fortaleza

Currency

Cards work for nearly everything and Pix covers the rest for locals, which a visitor cannot easily use. Change money at a casa de câmbio in the centre or at a shopping centre rather than the airport, and keep small notes for the beach barracas and the buses.

ATMs & cards

Banco do Brasil, Bradesco, Itaú and Santander machines inside branches or shopping centres, in daylight. Avoid the standalone kiosks on Beira Mar at night. Decline the machine’s conversion, take modest amounts, and use a card for anything over a beach lunch.

Card is accepted at almost every beach barraca, which is the safer way to pay for the day.

Wherever you are: if the machine offers to charge you in your home currency, decline. That is dynamic currency conversion and the rate is set by the ATM's operator, not your bank.

Safety

Fortaleza has a serious crime problem away from the coast and a heavily policed tourist strip along it — the honest version is that Beira Mar, Meireles and Praia do Futuro by day are fine, and the rest of the city is not somewhere to wander. Use app cars after dark even for short distances, carry little, and do not take valuables onto the sand.

Our own assessment, not a sourced index.

Entry & visa

Health & emergencies

Required to enter

• Yellow fever certificate, but only if you are arriving from a country where yellow fever is present

Worth having

• Yellow fever — recommended for most of Brazil including the area around Rio
• Hepatitis A
• Typhoid
• Tetanus up to date

Getting treated

Public emergency care (SUS) is free to everyone including foreigners, but is crowded and slow. Private hospitals in Rio and São Paulo are excellent and expect insurance or payment up front.

Dengue, zika and chikungunya are all present and mosquito-borne — repellent matters. Yellow fever vaccination should be given at least 10 days before arrival.

Orientation, not medical advice. Entry rules change and what you need depends on your own history and where you have been — check with a travel clinic or your national health service four to six weeks before you go.

Food tip

Ceará eats crab and it eats it on Thursdays: the Praia do Futuro barracas run a caranguejada that is half meal and half institution. Otherwise peixe na telha, tapioca crepes from a street cart for breakfast, and cashew fruit juice, which is the local flavour nobody expects.

Getting around

• Uber and 99 — cheap enough that most visitors use nothing else
• Beira Mar promenade — the seafront walk that connects most of what you came for
• Bus — extensive and very cheap, though crowded and not the easiest to read as a visitor
• Bicycle — Bicicletar stations along the seafront, and a flat coastal cycle path
• Airport: Pinto Martins is 20 minutes from the beaches, with direct flights from Lisbon and across Brazil

Internet speed

Broadband here runs at 1.9× the global median of 128 Mbps. Mobile runs at 2.4× the global median of 110 Mbps.

Source: Ookla Speedtest Global Index · measured May 2026

Must-see

Things to do

• Eat crab at a Praia do Futuro barraca on a Thursday
• Walk or cycle the Beira Mar at sunrise
• Sail out on a jangada from Praia de Iracema
• Take the day trip to Cumbuco for kitesurfing and the dunes
• Buy hammocks and lace at the Mercado Central
• Dance forró on a Wednesday — badly, like everyone else

Nearby day trips

Say a few words

Portuguese (Brazilian)

• HelloOi / Oláoy / o-LA
• PleasePor favorpor fa-VOR
• Thank youObrigado / Obrigadao-bree-GA-doo / -da
• Yes / NoSim / Nãoseeng / nowng
• Excuse meCom licençakong lee-SEN-sa
• How much is it?Quanto custa?KWAN-too KOOS-ta
• The bill, pleaseA conta, por favora KON-ta
• Cheers!Saúde!sa-OO-djee

Softer and more open than European Portuguese, and the de sounds like "dje".

Religion

Catholic and Evangelical

The largest Catholic population in the world, with a fast-growing Evangelical share and Afro-Brazilian traditions such as Candomblé and Umbanda practised alongside.

Do's and don'ts

Do

• Greet with a kiss on each cheek between women, or a woman and a man; a handshake between men
• Expect physical closeness in conversation — standing back reads as cold
• Arrive late to social invitations; on time is genuinely early
• Learn a few words of Portuguese, and never open in Spanish

Don't

• Do not make the OK sign with finger and thumb — it is obscene here
• Do not walk with a phone visible in the street
• Do not wear obvious jewellery or watches on the beach or in the city
• Do not call Brazilians Hispanic or assume they speak Spanish