Curitiba VS Florianopolis

I'm not that familiar with either , but I am familiar with the regions

Florianopolis is by the Sea obviously , and has nice beaches and nature
But I have heard that as it is a big island connected by a highway , the traffic can be hell to get on and off Particularly in summer....something to keep in mind...you may not be able to leave the island freely whenever you wish

Thank you Stevefunk for your reply. This add another point counted for Curitiba over Florinapolis, considering that I'm not very fan to be near the sea. Hopefully other expats have some information about other points...

Ah I see , I'm an ocean guy , so I would always take Florianopolis , but if you don't care for the coast then I think Florianopolis is just going to be a pain in the butt ....I think you would be way better off with Curitiba of which I year nothing but great things.....It gets cold there though.

Sao Jose dos Campos near Sao Paulo is also an option , it's almost like a European city , very safe , full of green rolling hills and pretty cheap too

I live in Floripa and love it. I moved here for the beaches though, if you don't really want to live by the sea then I don't see the point for you. It's a decent sized island, however, it's narrow. So there really aren't too,any places to live where  you are more than a few hundred meters from the ocean. I always feel safe here. I come from a big city in the USA and I can say for sure I feel safer here than I did back home. I really can't say enough good stuff about the place though. Steve is right about the traffic being bad during the Temporada, but, if you plan your days properly it's  actually very easy to get around. I manage to avoid the traffic for the most part and still drive quite a bit. We have plenty of schools for kids most of them in Portuguese and English and for you there are plenty of easy to find private Portuguese classes, and the university has some great Portuguese for estraingeiros classes that are pretty affordable.

I don't know much about Curitiba either. I have only heard really good things though.

If you can pull it off, why not do a few months in both places before signing a long lease anywhere and really get the feel for both places? You could use airbnb or VRBO to find short term furnished rentals with high speed internet so you can still work. That's what I did here. I lived in Centro for a few months and explored the Island a bit before settling on a different area to stay.

Thank you stevefunk for your extra information, this motivates me more for Curitiba, let's see how it goes:)

Hey brazilfam,
Thank you for passing by. it's actually for two reasons, most people who like Florinapolice like it due to having nice coasts, which I'm not a big fan so I wanted to take this out of my considerations

Your idea about spending couple months in each place is great. However, what are best ways to get a decent un-furnished apartment in Brazil. I found these two websites through google, but maybe this is not the most efficient way to do it
http://www.olx.com.br/http://www.zapimoveis.com.br/

Regards,

ath2word,

  Sounds like Floripa is not for you.

As far as finding an unfurnished place what I recommend is finding a Pousada and renting a room for a few weeks in the city you think you want to live in. Then scouting out areas and looking for places. You can't just move to Brazil and sign a lease the next day, or have it already done before you get here. You will need to get a CPF before you can do anything. Renting property here can be a bit complicated depending on how you do it. In my experience, renting directly from the owner is the best way to eliminate a lot of the headaches. Such as very large deposits, co signers, proof of employment, proof of residency, and other things you may not be used to or expecting. Try OLX for listings and refine your search to "particular" it means private sellers. That can give you some ideas, but, you should get here first and have a temporary place to stay and use as a jumping off point.

Hi brazilfam,
yes of course I won't expect to reach there and have the contact sign that fast. What I'm trying to do is to know how to do it, have the right expectations so once I'm there I can start searching without wasting any time.
Do you think that going directly to the owner would be a good idea for none Portuguese speaker, and of course having to employer, co singer or so?

I do not know personnally Florianopolis but I would report here what my friend/familly and Brazilian media report about it.
This is a city  very apart in Brazil. safe, modern.  High income and small island so inhabitant are only middle class... no favela around and dangerous place are far away. Brazilian from all capitals say that they would love to live in Flora.
But you won't have any of the "Brazilian" experience...good and bad.
Curitiba is the big city, well develloped, high income people too but with the problems of big brazilian cities...still very safe by Brazilian standard.  Certainly better if you want to experience Brazilian life.

In my experience, If you do not have a Brazilian co signer and proof of income it can be very hard to rent through an agency. even with proof of income if you don't have someone here to vouch for you, you may be asked to pay a full years rent as a deposit. And most likely a 2yr lease minimum. Many of the same issues will come up when you try to get your utilities hooked up.  Also having if you don't speak any portuguese you may find some agencies with english speaking reps, but god luck with the utilities people. English speaking rates are very low here, it is not so common.

I recommend renting through a private person. Renting direct from an owner will probably require a smaller deposit and a shorter term lease. It may include utilities, or at least allow you to keep them in the owners name so you don't have to set them up yourself. I can't say for sure this will work for you, but, I used VRBO to rent a place in advance of making my move. I rented it for 3 months, bills paid, internet and furnished. That gave me plenty of time to get my footing. If you go to that website and make a few inquirys into apts, you may find that the person you are talking to is not the actual owner, but, is a manager who handles many properties for people. They could help you once you get where you are going and show you some other places that are most likely not on the internet and may suit your permanent needs or point you in the direction of someone who can. At the very least you will have a base set up for a while while you knock on some doors.

I hope this was helpful.

Hello I'm a native Brazilian who lived on both I have some remarks for you based on previous answers.

First, there are no such thing of "european" city in Brazil, lets put this clear. Every city has a high rate of violence and mugging, you can be robbed at any time anywhere.

Florianopolis is a nice place to live but expensive, it doesn't mean you can't live there, you can live outside the island at nearest city named Sao Jose.  A pretty nice place to visit, there are other options there like Camboriu and others, just pick a car and try to met those places.
Violence is a trend these days, when I lived there was not in place like today so be advised that at night you can suffer attempts of mugging.
The rents can be cheaper than Curitiba depends on the area, inside island are expensive but outside is not.
People are fine, often much more kind and sympathetic than in Curitiba, people in Curitiba usually are too individual and focused on their own business, they don't like outsiders! They tend to be racist a lot and even myself a native Brazilian because I'm from other parts from north of the country suffered some degree of racism there.
Jobs in Curitiba sucks, really, they are bad and don't pay much. Rents are complicated because of Brazilian legislation implies a lot of guarantees in order to accept you for rent some place. Its not like any developed country, renting there can be trick.
But in Florianopolis, can be easier for you because there are several options for tourism and people rent much more for outsiders than in Curitiba.
Transportation in Florianopolis are fine, you can pick a bus and travel in the city with only one ticket, in Curitiba its not possible and most of times dangerous due the assaults in the buses (often in the soccer matches).

If I'm on your foot I would pick Florianopolis without a glance.

Good luck

In Florianopolis can be easier due the tourism options.

Sorry my friend but Curitiba is not safe at all. Including the trends of homicide rates are greater than Sao Paulo and Rio.