travel42 Port Guide: Recife

travel42 Professional Cruise Port of Call Review

The northeastern coastal city of Recife presents a contrast with its colonial center and beaches lined with modern high-rise buildings. Nicknamed "the Venice of Brazil" for its canals and bridges, Recife is a poor but culturally vibrant city 1,155 mi/1,860 km north of Rio de Janeiro.

Plan two nights to see the city's historic center, with its many old mansions and impressive 17th- and 18th-century baroque churches, and to relax upon the sweeping white-sand beach of Boa Viagem, Recife's versio...