Do I need a visa?
If you hold a US, Canadian or Australian passport, yes. Brazil reinstated the requirement in April 2025. It's an e-visa, applied for online only — there's no visa on arrival and no consulate walk-in — and it costs around US$80.90. American passports get ten years of multiple-entry validity; Canadian and Australian get five. Most approvals come back in 48 to 72 hours, though the official window runs to ten working days.
Many EU, UK and Latin American passport holders remain visa-exempt for tourism, but the rules are nationality-specific. Guide 01 covers it properly. Check the Brazilian government's own list before you rely on anything, including us.
Is Brazil safe for a woman travelling alone?
That question can't be answered honestly with a yes or a no, and anyone who gives you one is selling something. Brazil is a country of 200 million people and eight very different host cities; risk varies enormously by city, by neighbourhood, and by time of day.
What we can tell you is what exists. Ligue 180 is free and answers around the clock. Brazil opened the world's first women's police station in 1985 and now has hundreds. Rio's metro and suburban trains have run women-only carriages 24 hours a day since March 2026. Millions of women live here and move around every day. The guides are about giving you the same working knowledge they have.
Do I need to speak Portuguese?
No, but a little transforms the trip — and Brazilians are famously generous about attempts. English is not widely spoken outside hotels and airports, so translation apps do a lot of work. Each guide includes the phrases that actually get used for that situation, not a phrasebook you'll never open.
One thing worth knowing now: it's Portuguese, not Spanish, and the difference matters to people here.
When do tickets go on sale?
They haven't. As of August 2026 FIFA has only opened a registration of interest — no phases, no prices, no on-sale dates announced. Over 800,000 people have already registered.
Buy only through FIFA's official channel when it opens. Any price table circulating now is guesswork, and Brazilian law prohibits reselling tickets above face value. We'll email the moment sales are confirmed.
Which city should I base myself in?
Nobody can answer that until the draw on 11 December, because until then no team is assigned to any city. What you can do now is narrow it by climate, cost and flight access — and hold refundable bookings in the cities that will be busy regardless.
Broadly: São Paulo and Rio for flight connections, the northeast for warmth and lower hotel costs, Porto Alegre if you don't mind a coat.
When will I actually know the fixtures?
11 December 2026, at the final draw in Rio. That's the night the groups are set and every match gets a city and a date. Between now and then, anything presented as a fixture is invented.
Are you affiliated with FIFA?
No. This is an independent, unofficial resource with no connection to FIFA, the CBF or any host city. We use tournament facts published by FIFA and the confederations, and we cite them. We don't sell tickets, hospitality or tours.
What do you do with my email?
Guide 01 downloads straight away. Then the remaining four guides, one a week, and a short note when something is actually confirmed — the draw, ticket sales, qualification. That's it. We will never sell or share your email, and every message has a one-click unsubscribe.
Your city preference just tells us which guides to write first.