Expert: Sandra - 8/12/2011

Question
Hello Sandra,
We live in Sydney - Asutralia . My husband and I decided to take a year off and live in Brazil. We are not going to work but we are trying to decide which city in Brazil could give us a safe lifestyle . Which city is good to live with kids? My family live in Minas and Sao Paulo. We want something between them. We are planning to live in one city for 6 months and travel around for 3 months...Sorry forgeot to mention I am brazilian. Kids speak portuguese, my hasband so so. Could you give me some advise? thanks

Answer
Well, you should be getting some suggestions from your family here in Brazil, right?

Curitiba has a reputation for being a very good and relatively safe place to live.

Otherwise, I would suggest a smaller town in Minas Gerais, or on the border with Sao Paulo state, since smaller towns generally have a safer feel, and your kids can more easily become part of the neighborhood you move to. Maybe Ipatinga? Or Rio Preto?
Or somewhere a bit larger like Uberlandia? Or Rio Preto?

However, the educational opportunities for your kids, equal to what you might find in Australia, are only found in the larger cities that have international schools. I would first do some research into the quality of the "regular" private schools (teaching in Portuguese) in whatever town you are considering.

Best of luck for a great year!