1 · The short answer
In 2027 the Grupo Especial samba schools parade at the Sambódromo on Sunday 7, Monday 8 and Tuesday 9 February 2027, according to LIESA, and the street blocos fill Rio in the weeks around it. For the trip, buy one data eSIM before you fly and install it on Wi-Fi at home. Ringo Light's Brazil plan covers the whole country, Rio, Salvador and Olinda included: unlimited data at full speed, 2 weeks for $37.99 or 30 days for $64.99, with nothing that renews. The plan is at ringoesim.com/brazil.
Brazil is also on the Latin America plan (18 countries, 2 weeks for $47.99 or 30 days for $65.99). For Brazil alone, the Brazil plan is the cheaper one.
Most EU, UK and US plans either charge roaming in Brazil or include it only at a slow speed, and a daily charge adds up over a carnival week. An eSIM for data, next to your own SIM for calls and bank codes, is the usual answer. The card to buy the Brazil plan is below this article.
2 · The dates
Carnival moves with Easter: it always ends on the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday. For 2027, LIESA, the league of samba schools that runs the parades, gives Sunday 7, Monday 8 and Tuesday 9 February 2027 for the Grupo Especial nights. The lower division parades the days before, and the champions parade the Saturday after.
The blocos do not keep to the parade calendar. Some start weeks before carnival weekend and a few carry on after it, so a two-week trip catches far more of the city's carnival than the four days do. That is the case for a plan that covers the whole stay.
3 · The Sambódromo
The parades run late into the night and into the morning, school after school down the Marquês de Sapucaí. Stands full of people, all filming at once, are about the hardest test a mobile network meets, and data slows when the big floats go by. What helps:
- Tickets offline. Save the ticket or its QR code to your phone and screenshot it before you leave the hotel, and note your sector number. A code that has to load at the gate is a code that fails.
- A meeting point. The stands are long and the sectors look alike at three in the morning. Agree where you will meet if you lose each other.
- Battery for the ride home. A whole night of video empties a phone, and you will want the ride app at the end. Carry a power bank.
4 · The blocos, and your phone in the crowd
The blocos are the street carnival: free, huge, in the centre, in Santa Teresa, along the beaches. Some draw crowds that fill whole avenues. Coverage in the city is good; the crowd is what slows the data down.
Phone theft in these crowds is a well-known carnival risk, and the honest advice is simple:
- Keep it away. A front pocket, a zipped pouch under your clothes, never the back pocket or a hand held out over the crowd. Take photos in short bursts and put it away.
- Bring the old phone if you have one. Install the eSIM on a phone you would not miss. Your eSIM can sit on it as easily as on the new one.
- No SIM to steal. An eSIM has one real advantage here: there is no card for a thief to pull out and put your line in another phone.
- Set up remote wipe before you go. Find My on an iPhone, Find My Device on Android, and a passcode that is not your birthday.
5 · Pix, cards and cash
Pix is the instant payment system almost everyone in Brazil uses, by QR code or by key, and it normally needs a Brazilian bank account. Cards, contactless included, are accepted across Rio, and a few apps now offer Pix to foreign visitors; check the fees before you rely on one. Keep a little cash for the drinks and snacks at the blocos.
Your bank's codes still arrive by text on your own SIM while the eSIM carries the data, so leave your own line switched on for messages and off for roaming data.
6 · Salvador and Olinda
Rio is not the only carnival. In Salvador the music rides on trios elétricos, trucks with a band on the roof, through streets packed for days; in Olinda, next to Recife, the old town fills with frevo bands and giant puppets on its steep streets. Both cities are covered by the same Brazil plan, and both have the same crowd problem as Rio.
Flying between them in carnival week takes booking early; the plan does not change when you land.
7 · What two weeks of unlimited data costs
Our priced the brands most people search for on the same day, 28 September 2026. Here is Ringo Light's Brazil plan against the cheapest rival in each unlimited chart, with the length each one sells.
Swipe to compare →
Prices change; the comparison post has every brand and the full method.
8 · Which Ringo plan, and how to set it up
Ringo Light is our own data eSIM, sold to fund the full Ringo, one plan that works everywhere with your own number ported onto it. Installed once, next to your own SIM. Your number stays on your own line for calls and messages; the eSIM carries the data.
- The Brazil plan, for a trip of up to a month: unlimited data at full speed, 2 weeks for $37.99 or 30 days for $64.99, nothing that renews.
- The Latin America plan, which includes Brazil: 18 countries, 2 weeks for $47.99 or 30 days for $65.99. At ringoesim.com/latin-america.
- The Global plan, for a stay of months: $49.99 a month for 133 countries, renewing until you cancel.
Install the eSIM on Wi-Fi before you fly, turn Data Roaming on for the eSIM line, and set it as your data line. The step-by-step is in our and . Carrying on round South America after carnival? The covers the route, and the covers a longer stay.
The card below sells the Brazil plan; the same plan is at ringoesim.com/brazil.
