Sao Paulo Reports

[PdSuave]

So my first day in Brazil was pretty disappointing. My first day after any long flight usually sucks but I has extra reason to be frustrated.

To start GRU is the only airport I've been to where there is nowhere to buy a sim card. It's really sucks being in a new country without any data to use maps or uber. I can still book an uber using the airports wifi but I figure I should grab some cash just in case my card doesn't cooperate (and it doesn't). Turns out the atms are even worse than the atms in Colombia (so far) and the exchange rates plus fees are horrible. The best ATM I can find offers an exchange rate 20% below market rate and a $24 fee. This sucks but I withdraw just enough cash to get me to my hotel in hopes I can find a better ATM elsewhere.

I get to my hotel and my main priority is to still find a sim card, but I discover that 90% of stores are closed on Sunday. The hotel clerk tells me that there is a mall about a 6 min drive away (30 min walk) so I book another Uber using the hotel wifi and go there. I only see luxury clothes stores and no mobile providers so I find the information desk and they tell me that Vivo is on floor 2 and Claro is on floor 3. After being lost for another 15 minutes I learn that in Brazil the ground floor is level 0 not 1. I go to the Vivo store and the staff is all busy. I go to Claro and I see 3 employees helping 2 customers so I take a seat at the desk and wait. After waiting for 5 min I interrupt one of the employees and ask how much longer. He apathetically says "I don't know" so I leave in a very passive aggressive manner. I go back to Vivo and one of the employees is kind enough to tell me I need to take a number and points towards a screen that has no number on display. I don't get it but I take a number and wait..

You have reinforced my decision to set up my google Fi account. Obrigado.

Sorry to hear about your frustrations so far, I'm sure things will get better. Looking forward to more updates / experiences!

[Above Average]

I am sure u know this Knowledge but others apparently dont and thats The reason this keeps coming up the banks try to trick you. But it's standardized and easy to avoid. When you are doing a withdrawal it will ask you a question. Different banks phrase it differently. Some times it says "withdraw without conversion" or it may say "withdraw in Reals or with draw in USD" (with a footnote that all money will be in Reals. It is confusing. One option the local bank does the conversion. BAD. Bad rate and high fees. And the other your home bank does it at spot rate. GOOD.

Always choose "without conversion" or "withdraw in local currency". Do not choose "with conversion" or "withdraw in USD". These are bad. The non conversion is the option you want. P.S. I found Bradesco to be the most reliable. Both in SP and Rio.

I don't think I've ever been given this option. My bank is a Canadian credit union so I'm not sure if that makes a difference.

Perhaps my memory isn't very good because I went to a Bradesco ATM yesterday and it couldn't process my card, so I went to Santander instead. The ATM told me it was going to charge me a $20 real fee but it didn't say anything else about the exchange rate, nor did it give me any conversion options. I took a gamble and withdrew the cash anyways. It turned OK because the exchange rate it gave me was only 5. 7% below market rate.

I was going to go to Scandello yesterday but my energy levels are still low so I decided to go somewhere less expensive: Bomboa. They have $300 minimum on entry that you spend on drinks and food, $170 to take the girl to a room upstairs and $200 to take her out of the bar. The beers are $40 and the girl drinks are $90, and the food is kinda expensive too (and a bit mediocre). I went at 8 pm because I was struggling to stay awake and the place was pretty dead in terms of customers. There were about 20 girls on the floor, another 10 staff members, and 5 customers including me. Most of the girls were in the 5-8 range but I saw a few 9's. I started talking to one of the 9's who was very beautiful and friendly and I took her to my hotel for $1000 plus the bar fine. I should have negotiated a better price because I was surrounded by girls who wanted to do business with me. I did have a good time with the girl but she had a few too many restrictions and she was kind of eager to get going after spending an hour in my hotel.

I'm sorry guys, I guess chumps like me are responsible for price inflation. I'm worried that when I go to scandallo I'm going to spend a minimum of $2000.

[KcDark]

If I take a girl home from Scandallo will I be able to pay her with Visa? I met my first girl today, and Visa took another 7% off her so she upcharged me by 7%.

Bradesco is still the best ATM I've found but 11% below market rate plus $20 in fees is kinda shitty.

More than likely yes because of the card fees. I was surprised at how many people including street vendors, had personal credit card machines which is pretty efficient.

[Nitro2000]

I use only a VISA in Sao Paulo to withdraw cash at ATMs, mostly at Bradesco or Santander. You only have to be careful for the rate and do not convert (as already mentioned by others).

If you want to register with PIX, you need a Brazilian CPF, so you cannot use it if you don't have one.

But only for receiving. For sending to a PIX account, there are a few apps where you can do this with CC or even Apple Pay (apps like PAYSEND or Remitly. I tried both and it worked, but I use now only PAYSEND. If you installing the app and using code "02 tlwb" you should get a bonus or at least first tx is free, so you can test it &#128526.

I did a detailed post on Colombian ATMs back in 2020. Basically I found that using my debit at ATMs was the best way to access cash in Colombia. Most ATMs have ridiculous fees on top of crappy exchange rates, but if you go the right ATMs you can get a decent rate.

I just arrived in SP so I don't know the best method to get cash or do an online payment.

PayPal doesn't give a great rate and apparently they take another 10% from the recipient? If true that's obscene.

I'm pretty sure only Brazilians can use Pix, can somebody confirm?

What do you guys recommend for ATMs or payment apps?

[Nounce]

I don't understand this post. You claimed you went to scandallo but most of your posts talks about agents and outcalls?

I'm planning a trip to sao paulo in June, and the posts here said there's 200+ WG in scandallo, but you're claiming you couldn't find one good one?

As far as the "rush and call it a good one after a shot," well yeah, that's why you have to negotiate multiple shots with WGs. Some folks are far too reliant on escort agency outcalls with fake pictures and pushy managers, when all they had to do was walk down the street to a brothel and pick who they want.

You need to keep your expectation lower. It was a disappointment the first time I went to Scandallo because my expectation was too high and that could only be met on a great day. I am not the only one felt this way. We reported our experience a couple of years ago. In this case, you may disappoint if you are expecting 200 as common occurrence.

[Jackob54]

When will you be in SP? I will be there next month.

I will be in SP around May last week. Will be there for 2 weeks.

[KcDark]

Hey wouldn't mind meeting up as well. I'll be there next month on the 12th.

I'll be there starting the 15th.

[Above Average]

I've been to quite a few countries. I haven't experienced one yet where ATMs don't offer best or at least competitive exchange rates. Add the convenience factor athis is tnd avoiding the risk of traveling with large amounts of cash and I am baffled why the debate about this continues.

If I take a girl home from Scandallo will I be able to pay her with Visa? I met my first girl today, and Visa took another 7% off her so she upcharged me by 7%.

Bradesco is still the best ATM I've found but 11% below market rate plus $20 in fees is kinda shitty.

[Above Average]

So my first day in Brazil was pretty disappointing. My first day after any long flight usually sucks but I has extra reason to be frustrated.

To start GRU is the only airport I've been to where there is nowhere to buy a sim card. It's really sucks being in a new country without any data to use maps or uber. I can still book an uber using the airports wifi but I figure I should grab some cash just in case my card doesn't cooperate (and it doesn't). Turns out the atms are even worse than the atms in Colombia (so far) and the exchange rates plus fees are horrible. The best ATM I can find offers an exchange rate 20% below market rate and a $24 fee. This sucks but I withdraw just enough cash to get me to my hotel in hopes I can find a better ATM elsewhere.

I get to my hotel and my main priority is to still find a sim card, but I discover that 90% of stores are closed on Sunday. The hotel clerk tells me that there is a mall about a 6 min drive away (30 min walk) so I book another Uber using the hotel wifi and go there. I only see luxury clothes stores and no mobile providers so I find the information desk and they tell me that Vivo is on floor 2 and Claro is on floor 3. After being lost for another 15 minutes I learn that in Brazil the ground floor is level 0 not 1. I go to the Vivo store and the staff is all busy. I go to Claro and I see 3 employees helping 2 customers so I take a seat at the desk and wait. After waiting for 5 min I interrupt one of the employees and ask how much longer. He apathetically says "I don't know" so I leave in a very passive aggressive manner. I go back to Vivo and one of the employees is kind enough to tell me I need to take a number and points towards a screen that has no number on display. I don't get it but I take a number and wait. The waiting is slow so I go upstairs to floor 3 (floor 4 in north american) and I order a wrap. Once again I am issued a number so I sit and wait again, and I people-watch to pass the time. I see lots if beautiful women and I also see a 12 year old girl wearing one of those sexy underboob shirts and I am disturbed. I get my wrap and it is decent. I go back downstairs and Vivo is now ready to help me. As soon as they figure out I'm a foreigner they ask for my passport and obviously I don't have it on me because everybody I talked to told me to only carry what I needed in Brazil. I have to go back to my hotel but I have no cash so I need to find another shitty ATM. There are no atms in the mall so I have to across the street. Banco Santander does not accept my debit card so I go across another street to Bradesco. They are offering an exchange rate 11% under market rate and a $20 fee. This also sucks but it's the best so far. I get more cash and I'm finally headed back to my hotel, but no Uber this time since there's no wifi. Turns out taxis are almost twice as expensive as Uber.

By the time I get back to my hotel, pick up my passport, go back to the mall and get my sim card set up, it's already been 8 hours since my plane landed. I'm jet-lagged and tired as fuck and I'm secretly hoping that half the mall staff die in a fire because the firefighters can't tell what floor they're on. I'm too tired and frustrated to do anything else that day.

If anybody here is going to be a first time visitor to Brazil, please learn from my mistakes.

[Knowledge]

This is excellent advice. I think this is what confuses guys.

I am sure u know this Knowledge but others apparently dont and thats The reason this keeps coming up the banks try to trick you. But it's standardized and easy to avoid. When you are doing a withdrawal it will ask you a question. Different banks phrase it differently. Some times it says "withdraw without conversion" or it may say "withdraw in Reals or with draw in USD" (with a footnote that all money will be in Reals. It is confusing. One option the local bank does the conversion. BAD. Bad rate and high fees. And the other your home bank does it at spot rate. GOOD.

Always choose "without conversion" or "withdraw in local currency". Do not choose "with conversion" or "withdraw in USD". These are bad. The non conversion is the option you want. P.S. I found Bradesco to be the most reliable. Both in SP and Rio.

[Zeyto]

When will you be in SP? I will be there next month.

Hey wouldn't mind meeting up as well. I'll be there next month on the 12th.

[KcDark]

Hi everyone. Anyone who can assist me with wingman to hangout in SP. Self will be travelling to SP next month.

When will you be in SP? I will be there next month.

[ElPostino]

SP is like any major city in the US, it is not dangerous depends on where you go. As far as Scandallo, yes it is getting more and more expensive and probably will remain there if people willing to pay the price and also not guarantee service. More beautiful women for sure because you have more overall women at the club plus they dress and put on makeup. Clinicas give you the best bang for your bucks, and you can find good looking girl for great service, plus if you're not a night time person, it is best for clinicas.

Dollar is down now. Last month it was 5. 25, now is 4. 81 so it is getting expensive too.

[FlowState985]

I'm sure Escandallo has pretty girls, but I don't think its a good idea to spend that much money on one girl. I will go to SP in 2 weeks but I will probably overlook the boates and go to the clinicas.

First I prefer daytime action and SP can be dangerous at night; second paying a lot of money for a girl is not a guarantee that she will comply with your wishes; third, in Tijuana or Colombia I can have 4 stunners for the price of one at Escandallo. If you have a bad experience with one of them you may still be happy with the 3 others.

SP is like any major city in the US, it is not dangerous depends on where you go. As far as Scandallo, yes it is getting more and more expensive and probably will remain there if people willing to pay the price and also not guarantee service. More beautiful women for sure because you have more overall women at the club plus they dress and put on makeup. Clinicas give you the best bang for your bucks, and you can find good looking girl for great service, plus if you're not a night time person, it is best for clinicas.

[Anaggie]

So just wanted to clarify, since I reserved my room at the Renaissance for just me, will I be charged the R150 every time I bring a new guest or will there be some leeway during a specific time of day?

Just book your room for two guests and the problem is solved. You can bring different girls and most of the time they don't check during the day. They might check later in the night when you come back to the room with a girl. She can register with the hotel and if you have two guests, then they won't charge you anything.