🇵🇾Paraguay

Get the stamp, and get it where you cross

• You do not need a visa to visit Paraguay. You normally get permission to stay for 90 days on arrival, and a further 90 can be applied for through the immigration department.
• An immigration official must stamp, date and sign the passport when you arrive. Without an entry stamp you get a fine when you leave the country.
• This is the thing to be careful about at a land border, typically Ciudad del Este to Foz do Iguacu on the Brazilian side.
• Long-distance bus drivers sometimes tell foreign passengers they can complete immigration formalities in Asuncion. The FCDO says plainly that this is not true. Get off the bus at the border post and get the stamp, even if nobody else does.
• Keep a copy of the stamp. You are required to carry ID in Paraguay and a copy of the entry stamp is part of what the police ask for.

The passport

• It should be valid for the duration of your stay. Paraguay does not impose the usual six month rule, which makes it unusually relaxed.
• A passport reported lost or stolen will get you refused, as anywhere.

Money at the border

• Declare cash or travellers cheques worth 10,000 US dollars or more.
• You can declare online in advance, or at computer terminals at the airport or the place of arrival. You are given a certified declaration showing you brought it in, which is what you need on the way out.

Vaccination certificates

• A yellow fever certificate is required if you are arriving from a country listed as a transmission risk. It is not a general requirement.

Travelling with children

• Children under 18 resident in Paraguay need written permission, the Permiso del Menor, from any non-accompanying parent to leave the country. It is granted by a Justice of the Peace Court where the applicant lives. This catches out families with a Paraguayan resident child.

Getting treated

• Call 141 and ask for an ambulance.
• There are some good private medical facilities, but only in the major cities. Elsewhere facilities may not meet UK standards.
• Hospitals and doctors expect immediate payment. This is the practical reason to have accessible funds as well as insurance, and to call the insurer the moment you are referred.
• Some types of medicine may simply not be available, so bring enough of any regular prescription for the whole trip.

The named risks

• Dengue and chikungunya, both mosquito-borne, neither preventable by a tablet. Repellent, covered arms and legs, and accommodation with screens or air conditioning.
• Poor air quality, which the FCDO lists alongside the two viruses. During hot dry periods wildfire smoke makes it worse.

Before you travel

• Check vaccination recommendations at least 8 weeks ahead.
• A yellow fever certificate is an entry requirement only if you are arriving from a transmission-risk country, so this can be an entry issue as well as a health one depending on your route.

Prepaid packs are daily, not monthly

• Personal sells 700 MB for 4,750 guarani, valid 24 hours.
• An unlimited one-day pack costs 10,000 guarani, with unlimited calls to all networks and unlimited overnight browsing between 22:00 and 06:00.
• The model is a daily or short-validity pack rather than a monthly bundle, so top up for the days you need rather than buying a large allowance up front.

Roaming at the triple border

• Some Personal combos include free roaming in Argentina and Uruguay. If your trip includes Foz do Iguacu, Puerto Iguazu or a hop across the river, check which pack carries it before you buy.
• Note that free roaming covers Argentina and Uruguay, not Brazil, which is the neighbour most visitors actually cross into at Ciudad del Este.

Why it is worth having a connection before you leave the terminal

• The FCDO's advice is to call a licensed taxi from a landline or a hotel rather than hail one. Doing that from the arrivals hall needs either a phone that works or the airport's own wifi.
• You are required to carry ID. A photo of the passport page and the entry stamp on a phone is not a substitute for the paper copy the FCDO recommends, but it is a useful backup.

Power

• Paraguay uses plug types A, B, C and N, at 230 V and 50 Hz. Four types is unusual, and it means a socket that takes your plug may still be wired for a different standard.
• The voltage is the trap, not the shape. Types A and B are the flat American pins, but they are carrying 230 V here rather than the 120 V those plugs mean in North America. Check the device is rated for 230 V before plugging it in.
• Type N is the Brazilian standard, which is what newer buildings tend to fit.

Carrying ID

• You must always carry ID. A copy or printout of the passport photo page and a copy of the entry stamp is what the FCDO recommends, so that the original can stay somewhere safe.
• Police checks are common in Asuncion, the neighbouring cities and San Pedro and Concepcion departments.

Getting about

• The Terminal de Omnibus Asuncion is the long-distance hub.
• Buses and taxis often have no working seat belts.
• Blockades disrupt roads with little warning, so build slack into any journey with a flight at the end of it.

River travel

• Many vessels do not meet the safety standards that would apply in the UK. Look at the life jackets before you board rather than after.

Changing money

• Use registered banks or a bureau de change. Not the street, and not the airport on arrival.
• False banknotes are common. That is the reason for the rule, and it applies to the guarani you receive rather than to what you hand over.

Cash machines

• Many ATMs accept foreign bank cards.
• Use ATMs inside buildings rather than on the street. The FCDO gives this as a specific anti-mugging measure, alongside not carrying large amounts of cash or wearing expensive jewellery.

Paying by card

• You may be asked for photo ID when you pay by credit card. This is normal here rather than suspicious.
• Many people carry photo ID in a money belt under their clothes, which is the FCDO's own observation and a reasonable compromise between the requirement to carry ID and the risk of losing it.

Declaring cash

• 10,000 US dollars or more, in cash or travellers cheques, must be declared.
• Declare online in advance or at the terminals at the airport, and keep the certified declaration you are given.

What things cost

• Mobile data is very cheap: 700 MB for 4,750 guarani, or an unlimited one-day pack for 10,000. That gives a useful sense of scale for everything else.

Where the risk actually is

• The FCDO does not advise against travel to Paraguay, but it singles out the eastern border with Brazil.
• Violent crime is increasing in the departments bordering Brazil: Amambay, Concepcion, Alto Parana, San Pedro, Canindeyu and Salto del Guaira. Most of the drug trafficking and arms smuggling runs from Pedro Juan Caballero south to Ciudad del Este and the Tri-Border Area.
• A group calling itself the EPP operates in northern San Pedro and southern Concepcion. It targets police, military and large landowners, its attacks have involved explosives and firearms, and it has kidnapped high-profile people, most recently in 2022.
• Tourists have not been targets in the organised-crime attacks, but bystanders can be caught up in them.
• The Bolivian border area is centred on drug trafficking and illegal crossings.

In the cities

• Bag-snatching and pickpocketing are a problem on public transport. Keep bags in sight and be wary of anyone offering to help.
• Muggers are occasionally violent and can be armed. Carrying obvious cash or jewellery makes you a target.
• Avoid isolated or poorly lit areas at night, including downtown areas of major cities.
• Report crime at the nearest police station or to the tourist police: Asuncion (595 21) 446 608 or 449 020, Ciudad del Este (595 61) 502 715, Encarnacion (595 71) 204 102, Salto del Guaira (595 46) 243 575.

Protests and blockades

• Social conflict is common. Groups set up road blockades along main roads and in downtown Asuncion near government buildings, disrupting transport often with little warning.
• Monitor local media and do not try to cross a blockade.

Driving

• The legal blood alcohol limit is 0.00 per cent. A police officer who suspects drink-driving can confiscate the licence on the spot, and a conviction brings a heavy fine.
• You must carry the driving licence and the passport showing the entry stamp in the car. Police checks are regular nationwide and routinely include a breathalyser.
• A UK photocard licence is accepted. A paper licence may need an international driving permit alongside it.
• Driving standards are poor, motorbike accidents are frequent, many riders wear no helmet, some vehicles drive without lights at night, and stop signs and lights are often ignored.
• Paved main roads are limited, minor roads are unpaved and often impassable in the rainy season, and even Asuncion floods in heavy rain. Potholes are everywhere.

Two hazards people do not expect

• Markets are a fire risk. Food stalls burning fuel and poor electrical work in crowded narrow streets, with safety regulations poorly enforced or absent.
• Rivers have strong currents and the River Paraguay around Asuncion is highly polluted and not suitable for swimming. Check official advice before swimming in Lake Ypacarai.

Two legal points

• You must always carry ID: a copy of the passport photo page and a copy of the entry stamp.
• Drug penalties are severe, including prison without bail, and prison standards are poor.

LGBT+ travellers

• Same-sex sexual activity is not illegal and there is a small, active LGBT+ community in Asuncion.
• Same-sex marriages are not recognised, and public affection between same-sex couples is likely to draw disapproval.

The numbers

Tourist police

Before you need them

• Save all three national numbers. Paraguay does not route everything through one, and 911 reaches the police rather than a general operator.
• Call your insurer as soon as you are referred to a hospital, because private facilities expect immediate payment.
• Report fires to the emergency services immediately. In hot dry periods a single spark starts a wildfire, and markets in narrow crowded streets are a standing fire risk.
• Save your embassy's number offline. A number in a cloud contact list is not saved when there is no data.