Whether it's Copacabana, the Amazon, or the dream island of Fernando de Noronha – the dream of a Brazil vacation usually begins with one question: How do I find the best flight? Since it involves a long-haul journey, good preparation is particularly worthwhile. We will show you step by step how we proceed to fly to Brazil cheaply and stress-free.
Step 1: Get an overview with Google Flights
For an initial overview, we use Google Flights. The tool is not a classic booking platform, but a metasearch engine: your inquiry is forwarded to the airlines' websites and other portals, and the results are collected and clearly displayed. In the end, you don't book through Google itself, but directly with the airline or the respective provider.
The price calendar
After entering your departure and destination (for example, Frankfurt or Munich to São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, or Recife), the price calendar shows you the cheapest available price for that day directly under each date. Especially for a long-haul trip like Brazil, where many travelers are flexible with their timing, it is worth looking at several weeks to find the cheapest travel days.
Direct flight or layover?
There are only a few non-stop connections from Germany to Brazil, mostly from Frankfurt or Munich to São Paulo. Flights with a layover – for example in Lisbon, Madrid, or Paris – are often cheaper and also offer more departure times to choose from. Using the filters in Google Flights, you can search specifically for non-stop flights or those with a maximum of one stop, as well as preferred airlines or travel times.
The price graph
In addition to the calendar, the price graph shows the price history of a selected connection over several weeks as a bar chart. This allows you to see at a glance whether the current price for your Brazil trip is on the high or low side compared to the last few weeks.
Setting up a price alert
If your travel dates are already fixed, it is worth saving the desired connection and setting up a price alert. You will then be notified by email as soon as the price changes – practical if you want to delay your booking for the long-haul trip a little longer.
Step 2: Compare prices
Google Flights provides the best initial overview of price levels, cheap travel days, and possible route combinations. Before we actually book, we compare the found connection once more specifically on other portals:
- Expedia – often with bundle offers of flights and hotels, which can be cheaper in total than booking separately.
- Kayak – also a metasearch engine that sometimes shows different rates and fare classes than Google Flights.
- Booking.com – originally specialized in accommodation, but now also with its own flight search, which occasionally yields surprisingly cheap combinations.
This article contains affiliate links. If you book through these links, we may receive a small commission – you will not incur any additional costs.
For long-haul flights to Brazil in particular, the additional comparison is especially worthwhile: the prices displayed on Google Flights are partly based on cached data, so the actual price from the provider may differ in the final booking step. Also, always check whether checked baggage is already included in the displayed price – for a long-haul trip to Brazil, a carry-on alone is rarely enough.
Step 3: Booking with the cheapest provider
Only when we have compared the price for the same connection across all portals do we decide on the cheapest provider and complete the booking there. Make sure that the free baggage allowance, seat selection, and rebooking or cancellation conditions are truly the same for all compared prices – otherwise, you end up comparing apples and oranges.
With this three-step method – first Google Flights for an overview, then price comparison, then booking – you can usually achieve a noticeably better price even for long-haul flights to Brazil, without having to spend hours researching.
Interested in our travel tips for Brazil? Why not visit our travel blog valquiria-travel.com
Cover image: AI-generated image for illustration purposes.
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