Recife is the capital of Pernambuco and the largest city in Brazil's northeast after Salvador and Fortaleza, built where the Capibaribe and Beberibe rivers meet the Atlantic across a series of islands and peninsulas. It has more bridges than any other Brazilian city, which is why it gets called the Venice of Brazil by people who have not been to Venice, and it takes its name from the reef, the recife, that runs parallel to the shore and made the harbour possible.
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It comes as a pair with Olinda, the older colonial town on the hill six kilometres north, which is UNESCO listed and is where most of the beauty is. Recife is the working city: commerce, the Marco Zero square, the restored Recife Antigo district, and the biggest Carnival street parade in the world in the Galo da Madrugada. And before anything else, the beach.
The Boa Viagem Shark Warning, First
Recife's city beach, Boa Viagem, has one of the highest rates of shark attack of any urban beach anywhere. Since 1992 there have been dozens of attacks along this stretch of Pernambuco coast, a high proportion of them fatal, involving bull sharks and tiger sharks. The causes are understood: the construction of the Suape port to the south altered habitat and shipping patterns, the reef creates deep channels close inshore, and the river mouths discharge into the surf.
There are red warning signs along the beach in Portuguese and English, and lifeguards enforce the rule. The rule is simple: you may enter the shallow natural pools inside the reef line at low tide, and you must not swim beyond the reef, at high tide, at dawn or dusk, in murky water, or after rain. Attacks have overwhelmingly involved people who crossed the reef line. Take the signs literally, ask a lifeguard when in doubt, and if you want a swimming beach, go to Porto de Galinhas an hour south, where the natural pools are the attraction and the situation is different.
What Makes Recife Different to Pack For
Equatorial heat, all year, with a real rainy season
Recife sits eight degrees south and runs 24°C to 31°C in every month with high humidity. The rainy season is unusual for Brazil in being the southern winter: April to July is the wet period, and it rains hard, which floods streets and affects the hill roads in Olinda. September to February is drier.
Nothing cotton dries. A merino wool base layer for women is worth one slot as a lightweight top rather than as insulation, for the same reason it works elsewhere in the tropics: it handles moisture and does not hold odour.
Olinda is steep, cobbled and entirely different from Recife
The colonial town on the hill is a set of very steep cobbled lanes, and the walk up is real work in this humidity.
Carnival here is not a spectator event
Recife and Olinda run a street Carnival rather than a stadium one: frevo, maracatu, and in the Galo da Madrugada a crowd that has been recorded in the millions moving through central Recife.
Mosquito borne disease is a serious consideration
Recife was the epicentre of the Zika epidemic of 2015 and 2016 and the microcephaly cluster that followed, and dengue and chikungunya circulate here continuously. This is the destination in this batch where the health section carries the most weight.
Recommended Tours and Experiences
The Recife Packing List
Footwear
Sandals and flip flops for the beachfront and the heat. Comfortable trainers or walking shoes with grip for Recife Antigo and above all for Olinda, whose cobbled lanes are steep and slick after rain.
Water shoes for the reef pools at Boa Viagem and at Porto de Galinhas, where the coral and urchins make bare feet a poor idea. For Carnival, closed shoes with grip rather than flip flops, because the combination of crowds, alcohol and wet cobbles is how people get hurt.
Clothing
Light, loose, quick drying, and plenty of it. Two swimsuits, a sarong or cover up, and long sleeved thin tops and long trousers for the evening, which is insect protection.
A light packable rain jacket for the April to July wet season, when the rain is heavy and sudden. No warm clothing is needed at any time of year beyond something thin for aggressive air conditioning.
Recife dresses casually and beachily. Cover shoulders and knees for the churches in Olinda and for the Capela Dourada, which is a working chapel.
For sun
Eight degrees south with a high index almost every day. A wide brim sun hat, sunglasses, and high factor reef safe sunscreen, reapplied. Boa Viagem has vendors with umbrellas and almost no natural shade.
Practical
Insect repellent with a high concentration of DEET or picaridin, used in the daytime, because the Aedes mosquito that carries dengue, Zika and chikungunya bites during the day and Recife has continuous transmission. Antihistamine. A plug in or mosquito coil for the room if it is not screened.
Rehydration sachets and a refillable bottle with filtered or bottled water, since tap water is not reliably drinkable. Cash in reais for the market and the smaller places, though cards and Pix are widely accepted. A dry bag for the beach and boat trips. A power bank. A translation app, because English is limited outside hotels and the tourist offices.
Book far ahead for Carnival, when prices multiply and the city fills, and understand that almost everything closes during it.
What to Wear at Key Sites
Boa Viagem beach
The long city beach fronted by high rises, with the reef offshore and the warning signs along it.
Practically: swim only in the shallow pools inside the reef at low tide, never past the reef line, never at high tide or dawn or dusk or after rain. This is the single most important paragraph on this page. Take nothing to the sand you cannot lose, since theft from the beach is the commonest local crime against visitors. Hat, reef safe sunscreen, water shoes for the reef rock.
Recife Antigo and Marco Zero
The restored old port district on its island, with the square that marks the city's zero point, the Kahal Zur Israel synagogue, which is the oldest in the Americas, and the Rua do Bom Jesus.
Practically: light clothing and closed shoes. Lively and good on a Sunday and in the evening when there is music in the square, and a place to be alert and unshowy at other times, because this is central Recife. Keep a bag zipped and in front of you and the phone out of sight.
Olinda
The colonial hill town six kilometres north, with the Se viewpoint, the Convento de Sao Francisco and painted houses down every lane.
Practically: grippy shoes and a slower pace, because the lanes are steep cobble and it is 30°C at 80 per cent humidity. Cover shoulders and knees for the churches. Water and a hat. Go in the morning. Olinda is generally calmer and more comfortable than central Recife, and it is where many visitors choose to stay.
Instituto Ricardo Brennand and Oficina Ceramica
A mock castle housing an arms and art collection, and Francisco Brennand's ceramic workshop in a former factory, both on the western edge.
Practically: closed shoes and a layer for the air conditioning. Both need a taxi or ride app rather than public transport, and both are worth the trip.
Porto de Galinhas
An hour south, with natural pools inside the reef, jangada rafts out to them at low tide, and a much better swimming situation than the city.
Practically: swimwear, water shoes for the coral, reef safe sunscreen and a dry bag. Go at low tide, which is when the pools exist, and check the tide table before committing to the day. The jangada rafts are the local way out and are cash.
Carnival
The Galo da Madrugada on the Saturday in central Recife, and the more manageable Olinda street blocos with their giant puppets.
Practically: closed grippy shoes, the smallest possible bag worn across the body and in front, no jewellery, no phone in your hand, and a meeting point agreed in advance because signal fails completely in crowds that size. Sun protection and far more water than you think. Olinda's Carnival is more relaxed and more walkable than Recife's; the Galo is an extraordinary thing to see and is an extremely dense crowd.
What Not to Bring
Leave the assumption that a Brazilian city beach is for swimming, which at Boa Viagem is specifically and dangerously untrue.
Leave heavy cotton and jeans. Leave visible jewellery, an expensive watch and a phone in your hand, which are the three things that mark you out in central Recife. Leave anything valuable at Carnival. Leave flip flops as Carnival footwear. Leave a reliance on walking between districts after dark. Leave April to July if you want dry weather. And leave the idea that Recife and Olinda are interchangeable, because they are six kilometres and about two centuries apart in feel, and choosing where to stay is the main decision you will make here.
Essential Resources for Women in Recife
Emergency numbers in Brazil: 190 reaches the Policia Militar, 192 the SAMU ambulance service and 193 the fire service, which also handles water rescue. The Bombeiros lifeguards on Boa Viagem are the people who enforce the shark rules and are the fastest response for anything in the water, and 193 is their number. 191 reaches the federal highway police.
Tourist support: Pernambuco operates a tourist police unit, the Delegacia de Policia de Atendimento ao Turista, with a presence in Boa Viagem and Recife Antigo, and it is the right place to report a theft because they deal with visitors and produce the boletim de ocorrencia your insurer needs. There are tourist information desks at Guararapes airport, Marco Zero and in Olinda.
US Consulate: the United States maintains a Consulate in Recife, which is useful and unusual for a non capital city, under the Embassy in Brasilia, both at br.usembassy.gov. Enrol in the Smart Traveler Enrollment Program at step.state.gov before you travel.
Main hospital or clinic: Recife has the best medical sector in the northeast. Real Hospital Portugues and Hospital Esperanca are the private hospitals used by visitors, and the Hospital da Restauracao is the large public trauma centre and the place a shark bite or a serious accident is taken. Private care wants payment or insurance up front and travel insurance is strongly advised.
Official health authority: the Ministerio da Saude at gov.br/saude, with the Pernambuco state health secretariat for local outbreak notices. This is the health section to take most seriously in this batch. Dengue, chikungunya and Zika all circulate continuously in Recife, which was the epicentre of the 2015 and 2016 Zika epidemic and the associated microcephaly cluster. The Aedes mosquito bites in daylight and there is no vaccine or prophylaxis, so repellent used during the day is the whole defence. If you are pregnant or planning to become pregnant, read the current official guidance on Zika before deciding to travel here at all. Yellow fever vaccination is recommended for Brazil and should be given at least ten days before arrival. There is no malaria on this coast. Do not drink the tap water. Heat and dehydration are constant.
US State Department travel advisory for Brazil: current advisory level and detail. The advisory is national with regional notes and addresses urban crime in the large cities, which includes Recife. Read it directly rather than relying on this page.
UK FCDO travel advice for Brazil: entry requirements, safety and health guidance, including the crime, beach safety and health sections, all three of which are directly relevant here.
Official tourism authority: Embratur's visitor site at visitbrasil.com, with the Pernambuco state tourism body and the Recife and Olinda municipal offices for the Carnival programme, the tide tables for Porto de Galinhas and the current beach advisories.
Solo women safety assessment: Recife asks more of you than most Brazilian destinations, and it is worth being straightforward about that rather than reassuring. Pernambuco and Recife have crime rates well above the Brazilian average, and the metropolitan area has for years recorded one of the higher homicide rates in the country. That violence overwhelmingly affects residents of the periphery rather than visitors, and women do travel here alone routinely, but the city requires deliberate habits rather than drift. The practical shape of a good trip is to stay in Boa Viagem, which is the comfortable, walkable, well policed beachfront district, or in Olinda, which is calmer and prettier and where a lot of independent travellers base themselves. Use Uber or 99 rather than street taxis, and use them liberally, including for short distances after dark. Do not walk between districts at night. Treat central Recife, the Recife Antigo streets away from the busy squares, and the area around the bus and metro terminals as daytime territory. The crime pattern against visitors is theft: phone and bag snatching on the street and at traffic lights, theft from the sand at Boa Viagem while you swim, and occasional armed robbery on quiet streets after dark. Carry a zipped crossbody bag in front of you, keep the phone out of sight and never use it while walking, wear nothing that glitters, and keep car doors locked and bags in the footwell. Street harassment is present at a moderate to high level and is mostly verbal and more persistent than in southern Brazil. Drink spiking is a real risk in the nightlife, so watch your drink and arrange your ride home before you go out. Carnival concentrates all of the above: enormous dense crowds, heavy drinking, pickpocketing at scale, and phone theft as an organised activity, so carry almost nothing, go with people, and agree a meeting point. Beyond crime, the two environmental risks here are unusual and both are serious. The first is the sharks at Boa Viagem, covered at the top of this post, which is not a sensational framing but a documented and ongoing situation with signs, lifeguards and a rule that people die from ignoring. The second is mosquito borne disease, which in Recife is a probability rather than a possibility and which carries a specific additional consideration for anyone pregnant or planning to be. Heat, humidity and dehydration do the rest.
Reading On
Recife has a major international airport and is the gateway to the Brazilian northeast. The Brazil travel guide for women is the parent for the country and the Brazil packing list for women covers a trip across it. South along the same coast, the Salvador packing list for women covers the other great Afro Brazilian city. Further south, the Rio de Janeiro packing list for women covers the city, the Paraty packing list for women the colonial Costa Verde, the Sao Paulo packing list for women the largest city and the Florianopolis packing list for women the cool southern island. Inland, the Ouro Preto packing list for women covers the baroque highlands, the Manaus packing list for women the Amazon and the Pantanal packing list for women the wetland. The travel packing guide for women is the parent for all destinations. For why wool works in equatorial humidity, the best merino wool base layers for women explains the fibre, the merino wool in warm weather guide covers the hot end of the range, and the Roman Trail collection is where the tops themselves live.
If the outer journey is calling you, the inner one usually is too. Explore SoulMap at romantrail.com/blogs/soulmap.
