London to Recife from £503

⚠️ Ryanair Basic fare: cabin/checked bag is a paid add-on.

🌍 About Recife

Recife is Brazil's "Venice" — spread across islands and rivers stitched together by bridges — but the thing that sets it apart is Olinda, the UNESCO colonial town six kilometres up the coast, where Carnival means giant papier-mâché puppets (bonecos gigantes) parading to frevo, the frantic brass-and-umbrella dance invented right here. The Saturday opener, Galo da Madrugada, is officially the world's largest street parade, pulling more than two million people to Marco Zero downtown. Eat bolo de rolo, the paper-thin guava-rolled cake that's a Pernambuco icon, not the dense jelly-roll you'll get elsewhere. Come September to February for dry, less humid days; skip June and July, when Recife gets some of the heaviest rainfall in Brazil — though those wet months are exactly when fares and hotels drop hard.