Brazil in December

Peak season starts again in December, with some of the hottest temperatures of the year, and visitors flocking to Brazil’s major cities and key tourist sites around Christmas and New Year.

Time your visit for the start of the month if you want to see the sights in Rio without huge crowds, although you won’t be able to escape entirely. If you’re looking for a quieter stretch of beach, you’ll need to head out of the city – travel down to somewhere like car-free Ilha Grande for a relaxing beach break, which is easy to combine with historic Paraty. If you’re wondering when to go to Brazil’s Gold Rush state of Minas Gerais, including the beautiful town of Ouro Preto, it is one of the rainiest months of the year here.

Rainfall drops slightly at the Iguazu Falls, so it’s a good chance to see the cascades with the water levels topped up slightly, although you can expect it to be busy this month. And it’s also less rainy this month in the north-east, although it’s getting hot hot hot around Salvador and Bahia – see some of the best of the area on a drive from Olinda and Recife to Salvador, or escape the crowds in Fernando de Noronha, where visitor numbers are limited each day but the snorkelling and scenery is some of the best in the world.

In the Amazon, water levels are still low but it’s getting rainier as the year draws to an end, making trekking in the rainforest harder, but opening up new routes on the waterways. It’s getting wetter too in the Pantanal, with mosquitoes moving in and wildlife sightings dropping – as the rain gets heavier, it becomes too hard to explore here.

Festivals: If there’s a city that knows how to party, it’s Rio de Janeiro, so it’s no surprise that the city celebrates the end of the year in style, with Cariocas dressing in white and heading to Copacabana Beach to watch fireworks over the sea on New year’s Eve.

Best for: Hot weather on the beaches, heading off the beaten track