Fortaleza

Currency budget Brazil

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 all of Brazil

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 Brazil visa rules

Health & emergencies all of Brazil

Required to enter

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

Orientation, not medical advice — entry rules change and what you need depends on your own history. Check with a travel clinic 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.

Nightlife

Forró every night of the week, each night in a different venue by tradition, and a beachfront built for it.

• Praia de Iracema — the bars, and the old bohemian quarter
• Dragão do Mar — the cultural centre, and the crowd around it
• Avenida Beira Mar — the promenade, and its kiosks

Closing: 04:00.

A beer in a bar: R$6–12

The forró week is a real schedule: each big club has its night, and locals know which is which.

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 speedall of Brazil

Getting online: Airalo or Holafly — a data eSIM for Brazil, installed before you fly and working the moment you land.

Source: Ookla Speedtest Global Index · measured June 2026

Must-see

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

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