Brazil 2014 World Cup: guide to the host cities Rio de Janeiro Stadium: Maracanã - upgrade completed (capacity: 76,804). Fun stuff: Ipanema beach, Christ the Redeemer, dinner in Santa Teresa, favela tour, cable car up the Sugar Loaf; choro music and dance. Brasilia Stadium: Estadio Nacional - almost completely built and reopened in 2012 (68,009). Fun stuff: Niemeyer's modernist architecture, dining at the local churrascarias (steakhouses); maned wolves and armadillos at the Parque Nacional de Brasilia. São Paulo Stadium: Arena de São Paulo - new, completion due by very late 2013/early 2014 (65,807). Fun stuff: gastronomy; clubbing; the Costa Verde forests and beaches; and the football museum at Santos (all 75-minutes" drive away). Belo Horizonte Stadium: Mineirão - upgrade completed (62,547). Fun stuff: the hearty comida mineira cuisine and local cachaças; Inhotim contemporary art gallery; Serra do Espinhaço Biosphere Reserve; scenic train to Vitoria. Cuiabá Stadium: Arena Pantanal - new, due for completion 2014 (42,968). Fun stuff: jaguar spotting, riverboat cruises, piranha fishing. Curitiba Stadium: Arena de Baixada - new, due for completion 2014 (41,456). Fun stuff: Oscar Niemeyer Museum, German culture; Serra Verde train ride to the port city of Paranaguá. Fortaleza Stadium: Castelao - upgrade completed (64,846). Fun stuff: 4WD and beach buggy tours; boat trip around the protected coconut eco-park. Manaus Stadium: Arena Amazonia - upgrade due for completion late 2013 (42, 374). Fun stuff: float-plane flight to see the meeting of the black Rio Negro and chocolate-coloured Amazon; riverboat trip to the anavilhanas (river islands) to observe caiman and monkeys; Manaus Opera House. Natal Stadium: Estadio das Dunas - new, completion due by late 2013 (42,086). Fun stuff: beaches, especially lovely Praia de Pipa; dune-buggy rides; tapioca ice cream. Porto Alegre Stadium: Beira Rio - being upgraded, due to open early 2014 (48,849). Fun stuff: nightlife, nearby ranches. Recife Stadium: Arena Pernambuco - new, due for completion 2014 (44,248). Fun stuff: forró music and dancing; Olinda, the nearby colonial town and Unesco World Heritage site. Salvador Stadium: Arena Fonte Nova - new, completed (48,747). Fun stuff: Bahian dishes like moqueca stew (creamy and rich, with palm oil and coconut) and carne do sol (salted meat dried in the sun); colonial-era churches; African drumming; dancing; capoeira lessons. Flights are already on sale. A return ticket in economy with British Airways (ba.com) between June 10 and July 15 (the matches run June 12 to June 13, 2014), starts at around £1,000. This is bound to go up. Another operator for direct flights is TAM. Shop around though, as TAP Portugal flies to many cities in Brazil from Lisbon and may be useful if you want to head to one of the northern host cities such as Recife or Salvador. Getting around Brazil has an excellent air network, with TAM and Gol providing hundreds of daily flights out of their Rio, São Paulo and Brasilia hubs. Less well-known are Azul, founded by David Neeleman, a Brazilian-born entrepreneur better known for the American airline Jetblue, which incorporated Trip Linhas Aéreas in 2012 and now connects up hundreds of cities in the hinterland, including the host cities. There are no useful rail connections. Road is an option if you want to explore - there are good coastal highways all the way from Santos in São Paulo state to Natal in the north east; car hire is widely available, but drop-off costs for cities far from the origin will be punitive. Brazil's bus network is very good, though distances are formidable. For example, Curitiba to Manaus is 4,069km. Some overland journeys may also involve painfully slow sections by boat. Packages and prices More than a million match tickets have already been applied for and a new batch will be on sale from November 5-28. The World Cup draw takes place in Salvador on December 6. The final batch of match tickets will be on sale via fifa.com from December 8, with prices starting at £56. Exclusive rights to retail full-service packages (flights, transfers, hotel, tickets, stadium lounges) have been awarded to MATCH hospitality (match-hospitality.com). Other specialist tour firms such as BAC Sport, Thomas Cook Sport and Thomson Sport are planning to sell packages from December 6. Fifa did not appoint any official tour operators for ordinary match tickets. See thomascooksport.com/Football/Brazil-2014 for updates. If you want to take a punt, and have the time and money, Rio is the best fall-back city. Not only is it the most beautiful and glamorous and "futbolistico," but it has four group stage matches, a second round match, a quarter-final and the final - all at the rebuilt Maracaná. Being at any of these matches or even around the stadium come the final should Brazil or - dare I say - England make it there will be a round-the-clock carnival. See the website of the Latin American Travel Association for general tips and a list of specialist firms: lata.org Safety and security No one foresaw the protests of June and July 2013, and there is always a possibility of a new series of marches and disturbances. Generally speaking, though, Brazil is safer than ever, and the cities once blighted by crime - notably Rio and São Paulo - have been made safer by the "pacification" of the favelas (slums) and strong-arm policing. Street crime is still a problem, especially after dark, and visitors have to be especially cautious when using ATMs. Brazilians dress down even for smart occasions, and it is an example to follow if you want to blend in. Leave your posh watches at home and pick up some Havaianas; it's worth doing a favela tour (they are well organised and very safe) so that you grasp where some of the past issues have their origin.