In Brazil, facilities vary greatly. Popular destinations like Rio, Salvador, the Northeast beach resorts and towns throughout the South have efficient and helpful tourist offices , but anywhere off the beaten track has nothing at all - only Manaus, Belém and Porto Velho have offices in the Amazon region for example. Most state capitals have tourist information offices, which are open during office hours, announced by signs saying " Informações Turísticas ". Many of these provide free city maps and booklets, but they are usually all in Portuguese, although you occasionally see atrociously mangled English. As a rule, only the airport tourist offices have hotel booking services , and none of them is very good on advising about budget accommodation. There are EMBRATUR offices in a few of the major centres, but the local tourist offices are usually more helpful; these are run by the different state and municipal governments, so you have to learn a new acronym every time you cross a state line. In Rio, for example, you'll find national (EMBRATUR), state (TurisRio) and city (Riotur) offices.