Tags: Brazil, prepaid travel cards, World Cup

The World Cup is returning to Brazil for the first time since 1950 and as the samba nation prepares to host the prestigious tournament, we have put together a basic travel guide to help you navigate your way around the country.

12 locations will host games during the tournament, but there is far more to Brazil than the hussle and bustle of thriving cities such as Rio and Sao Paulo.

The spiritual home of football is home to golden beaches, glorious weather and a booming economy, with tourism at its heart.

Financial matters

Financially, the World Cup offers the country a tremendous chance to showcase its potential to the rest of the globe through the medium of football. The financial preparation which has gone into the tournament exemplifies this.

What makes Brazil so special is its huge range of climates – thanks in part to its incredible size – with almost 2,000 miles separating the match day cities of Manaus in the north and Porto Alegre in the south.

Manaus is deep in the heart of the Amazon and is very humid, while the coastal cities of Fortaleza, Recife and Rio will offer a different climate all together.

Sao Paolo is the financial and business hub of the country and is one of the most populous cities in the world with more than 11 million inhabitants – a cultural metropolis with too many tourist attractions to count.

The capital, Brasilia, is little more than half a century old, and is a modern gallery of astonishing architecture that houses many of the major state buildings.

Immense pressure on the host country

Furthermore, the country’s samba stars will kick-start their bid to win the tournament for a record sixth time when they play the opening game in the city’s Estadio Nacional.

A population of 200 million sports-mad Brazilians will be looking to bring the carnival atmosphere across the country in 2014 and it is certainly not to be missed.

Wherever anyone chooses to travel in Brazil, it’s certain they will encounter a country whose heritage and traditions can be seen at every turn.

And that’s before you even get started on its footballing legacy…

Travelling with a prepaid travel card can provide money to spend without the need to carry lots of travellers’ cheques or foreign currency.

It is also a great way to ensure that there are no nasty surprises in the form of bills once a trip is complete.

Planning a trip abroad? Find out more about prepaid travel cards in our travel card section at https://www.prepaid365.com/compare-travel-prepaid-cards/