Salvador da Bahia Travel Forum

Hi

I just got quotes for accommodation in Barra for £23 per night with breakfast from Caledonia Languages and then it's another £5 for dinner.

Does anyone think I could get decent healthy food in Barra for less, so i'd just pay £23 per night?

By the way I was quoted £395 for portuguese lessons from 9am to 12.30pm for 10 days of lessons. Any opinions.

Caledonia offer it all, food, accom, lessons as a package.

First of all, start thinking in REIS.
23GBP = about 73 Reis
5GBP = about 16 Reis (R$16)

What accomodations? Private ensuite room? Bunk bed in dorm?
Which hotel/pousada/hostel?
What time of year? (rates vary)

A private ensuite room at a very basic, clean, non-moldy (a big problem there) hotel, with breakfast, runs about R$80-R$95 at low season and about R$110-R$140 at high season. Hostel bunk beds run about R$30 or so.

For R$16, if you have eaten a big breakfast at your accomodation, you might be able to get by, with one more complete meal or a couple of snacks. Street food can be cheap (hot dog and soda R$2, hamburger and juice, R$4, chicken sandwich and juice R$7, queijo coalho at the beach R$2, acaraje R$3.50), but maybe not so healthy. At lunch, the major meal in Brazil you should be able to find a 'por kilo' restaurant for that price or less, easily, but for a decent dinner, that will be pushing the lower limits of the menu at most restaurants (pizza, pasta, a not-so-good churrasco, a caldo, but not a moqueca)in that neighborhood (geared to tourists). Better still if you have access to a fridge and can go to one of the several supermarkets in the neighborhood.

I don't know that school at all, to comment on the quality and effectiveness of the instruction. I usually recommend an excelllent private teacher in Porto da Barra, Sheila Waksman. Her website is www.basicalingua.com
Her rates are similar (for private 1:1 instruction, with accomodation offered: with a family or in an apt shared with a Brazilian, the best for practicing what you are learning, or pousada/hotel). The other schools that I know of in Barra are in the same range.

Note that Salvador, in the tourist neighborhoods, is a difficult place to get by in cheaply---and happily. Keep in mind that you will want to buy souvenirs, will probably want to go see some music, buy a drink, do some side trips, etc. Worrying about 5GBP is not likely to lead to a happy trip.

I am brazilian. Accomodation is really cheap whereas dinner is expensive.
Food, meal in Brazil is cheaper than in Europa. I am pasteing a link concerned in Barra's restaurant:

http://www.brasilcontact.com/br-ServicosTurismo/Restaurantes-BA-Salvador.html

I have the feeling the portuguese lessons is expensive too. Even though the classes are super intensive. I am pasteing another link showing portuguese classes in Salvador:

http://www.sprachcaffe.com/portuguese/study_abroad/language_schools/salvador_da_bahia/school.htm

Qualified classes are essential for learning. So you may ponder in choosing good schools. Good luck in selecting the better than ever.
Cassiovieggore

bobagem pura, como sempre

Thanks for that. I'll be arriving around the 5th of June and hope to stay until the end of August which is why I need to do some research on making things cost effective. Want to stay as long as I can and will also be looking for work teaching English.

You and how many hundreds of others? Salvador is innundated with foreign travellers, many of whom have this same idea. I see them arrive every day, with the same unrealistic notion of what it takes to live in Salvador.

These jobs at language schools pay very poorly (and private students take more time than a couple of months to find you), not enough to even help live on in the style you're accustomed to, even at backpacker level. It's much more practical to save more money by working a few extra weeks in your home country.

Also I must say that if you, like many travellers trying to prolong their vacations by doing this, don't have any training in how to teach, and how to teach English specifically, you are doing any students a GREAT disservice.

There is a place I would go to eat all the time in Barra that was a churrascuria eat all you want for 9 Reias, which is under £3. It is on the street opposite the lighthouse and you can eat there every day because there is such variety. Its on Rua Alfonso de Celsa and called Brasil Legal... Check my Salvador page for more details!