Don't get me wrong. If one country has gorgeous setting for their cities, is Brazil. Rio and Salvador's bays are stunning. Recife could be a sort of Venice with it's canals and waterways. Manaos is in the Middle of the Amazonia. Vitoria and Porto Alegre have beautiful mountians that go all the way down to the sea. Etc. But all those cities are quite ugly. Run down buildings, crime ridden, no major or at least decent hotels, etc. The US by comparison has ugly or bland settings for their cities (with some exceptions like Seattle, San Fran, Salt Lake) but their cities are much better. And in Europe, gorgeous cities, like Paris, London, Milan, Vienna, with bland settings. Discuss.

by Anonymous

reply 5

March 19, 2018 1:30 AM

Brazil is still a third word country. They concern themselves with surviving and aren't too concerned with the genteel nicities of urban planning. A new capital was constructed in the rain forest because Rio was becoming uninhabitable but what they got was a quick build city that was architecturally bland. Sao Paulo is the ugliest city in Latin America. The only positive about SP is the climate otherwise it's best avoided.

by Anonymous

reply 1

March 18, 2018 11:11 PM

Sao Paulo also has the most kick-ass endless expanse of skyscrapers I've ever seen. It's like, "Take Manhattan, then make it as big as Los Angeles".

Brasilia is what happens when too much of a city gets built within a short window of time... ESPECIALLY if you try too hard to make it look "futuristic". Think: all the stuff built in the 60s and 70s intended to look like it was from "the year 2000"... and ended up looking like a quaint "turn of the century" amusement park by 2020.

by Anonymous

reply 2

March 18, 2018 11:46 PM

Yes, Sao Paolo is enormous, but it's quite ugly. At least the other big one of the Americas (Mexico City) has parts with charm and others with beautiful wealth. Sao Paolo is just ugly.

by Anonymous

reply 3

March 18, 2018 11:55 PM

Brazil just doesn't have the money, at least at the middle class level to build and maintain the charming urban neighborhoods you can get in American cities. Buenos Aires is charming, but it has some awful areas. You think "this area would be so charming with a fresh coat of paint", but the last coat of paint was probably in 1966.

by Anonymous

reply 4

March 19, 2018 12:00 AM

This American guy and his boyfriend live in Brasilia and shoot vlogs from different cities. Brazil looks beautiful

Offsite Link

by Anonymous

reply 5

March 19, 2018 1:30 AM