Rio de Janeiro Carnival tickets are some of the world's most inflationed and hard-to-get products. Sales to the top parades on Carnival Sunday and Monday are controlled by Liesa, the Independent Samba School League.
Unfortunately, there is no such thing as an international hotline for sales of Carnival tickets. Telephone sales are available in Brazil and require that customers enter their CPF, or national index of citizens number.
Telephone sales keep breaking records - according to Brazil news website G1, in 2007 23,260 tickets were sold in three minutes and 26 seconds.
Receptive agencies in Rio de Janeiro will purchase your tickets and pick them up for you. Add to that transfer and guide services and naturally tickets are up to twice as expensive as tickets bought directly.
On the other hand, if you're dealing with a reliable agency, you will not only enjoy, but need the comfort and safety of a transfer with helpful guides.
It's not easy to save money on Rio de Janeiro Carnival tickets. But there are some things you can do:
1. Buy your tickets yourself.
If you're touring Brazil late in the year, you might be able to get into (a long) line and buy the more affordable tickets directly at their point of sale like other Brazilians do.
As Liesa announces their sales dates, they will be posted on Brazil Travel.
2. Ask a Brazilian friend to try to buy tickets for you.
If you've already got friends in Brazil, they might be willing to buy your ticket, especially if they don't have to get in line for that. But even though Liesa opens over 700 phone lines for sales, not everyone who tries to purchase tickets by phone will be able to buy one.
3. Go to the parades on Saturday and Tuesday.
Before a group of schools decided to organize themselves separately under Liesa, there was already samba. The schools belonging to AESCRJ, the Rio de Janeiro Association of Samba Schools, have as much swing and passion for samba as the ones in Liesa.
Catch the AESCRJ parades on Carnival Saturday or terça-feira de carnaval (Mardi Gras) and you'll dance to your heart's content while watching some of the most traditional samba schools in Rio de Janeiro, for a much lower price.
