Practical Information for visiting Paraguay

The currency is the guaraní (PYG, written ₲), and the denominations take getting used to — notes run to 100,000 and a restaurant meal is priced in tens of thousands. It is among the cheapest currencies to spend in South America.

Paraguay is cash-first. Cards work in Asunción hotels, supermarkets and better restaurants, and much less elsewhere. Markets, buses, small towns, the Chaco and the craft villages are cash.

ATMs are common in the cities and scarce beyond them — take cash before heading into the Chaco, where there may be none for hundreds of kilometres. Withdrawal fees are charged per transaction, so take larger amounts.

US dollars are exchanged easily in Asunción and Ciudad del Este at casas de cambio, which give better rates than banks.

Tipping is modest: round up, or leave about 10% in a restaurant where service is not included. It is appreciated rather than expected.

Ciudad del Este is a duty-free commercial city where a great deal of electronics trade happens, and where counterfeit goods and short-changing are both common. Count your change and buy from established shops.

Tigo, Personal and Claro are the networks. Prepaid SIMs are inexpensive and sold at the airport and in any town; a passport is needed to register, and eSIMs work.

Coverage is good across the populated east — Asunción, Encarnación, Ciudad del Este and the towns between them. It fades quickly in the Chaco, where large areas have no signal at all and the Mennonite colonies are the last reliable connection going north.

Wifi is standard in hotels and cafés in the cities, adequate rather than fast, and unreliable in rural areas.

Power is 220V at 50Hz on European-style round two-pin plugs. Supply is reliable in a country that generates a large surplus, though summer storms cause local outages.

Paraguay is one of the safer countries in South America for visitors, and most trips pass without incident. Two things do need stating plainly.

• The northern departments carry a real advisory. Concepción, San Pedro and Amambay, on the Brazilian border, see activity from an armed group (the EPP) and from drug-trafficking organisations, including kidnappings and attacks on security forces. This is not an area to travel independently, and most foreign governments advise against non-essential travel there. It has no bearing on Asunción, Encarnación or the Jesuit circuit.
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• Ciudad del Este is a busy commercial border city with a long-standing smuggling and counterfeiting economy. Petty crime, pickpocketing and short-changing are common in the market district. It is visited daily by large numbers of people without trouble; keep valuables secure and do not linger after dark.
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• Petty theft in Asunción is the ordinary risk — phone snatching, bag theft in crowded markets. The Mercado 4 area warrants attention. Use ride-hailing apps at night.
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• Heat is a genuine hazard in summer, particularly in the Chaco. People get into trouble driving into it underprepared.
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• Chaco driving. Long distances, no signal, no fuel and no traffic. Carry water, spare fuel and a means of communication, and tell someone your route.
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• Protests and road blockades happen, are usually announced, and are an inconvenience rather than a danger. Do not attempt to drive through one.
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• Emergency number: 911.

Yellow fever vaccination is recommended for Paraguay and may be required if you are arriving from a country with risk — carry the certificate. Hepatitis A and typhoid are commonly advised.

Paraguay is malaria-free. The WHO certified it in 2018, the first country in the Americas in 45 years, so no prophylaxis is needed.

Dengue is the real mosquito risk and Paraguay has had large outbreaks, with chikungunya and Zika also present. Repellent, covered arms and screened or air-conditioned rooms.

Chagas disease is present in rural areas, transmitted by a bug that lives in the cracks of adobe and thatch housing and bites at night. The risk to a short-stay visitor is low; sleeping in traditional rural housing in the Chaco is when it becomes worth thinking about, and a bed net helps.

Tap water in Asunción is treated and generally safe; use bottled or filtered elsewhere.

Heat is the most likely thing to affect you. Summer temperatures here are genuinely dangerous rather than merely uncomfortable, especially in the Chaco. Drink far more than feels necessary, do nothing strenuous between eleven and four, and follow the local habit of stopping entirely in the afternoon.

Private hospitals in Asunción are good and inexpensive by international standards. Outside the capital, care is basic, and the Chaco is hours from anything — travel insurance with evacuation cover matters most there.

Tereré etiquette is the practical one. When the cup comes to you, drink it all — you are meant to finish it before passing it back — hand it straight to the server without wiping the straw, and do not say gracias unless you mean you are finished. Refusing a turn outright is unfriendly; taking one and then saying thanks is the polite exit.

Greetings are warm: a handshake with strangers, a kiss on each cheek between women and between a man and a woman once introduced. Greet everyone in a room individually.

The afternoon shutdown in summer is real. Shops and offices close for several hours in the middle of the day and reopen in the evening. Plan around it rather than against it.

Drug offences carry heavy penalties. Paraguay is a major cannabis producer and transit country and enforcement against foreigners is not lenient. Border crossings at Ciudad del Este are searched.

Dress is smart-casual and Paraguayans notice; shorts are for the beach and the Chaco, not for a restaurant or a church.

Stroessner and the dictatorship are discussed openly and with real disagreement — plenty of older Paraguayans remember the period favourably. Listen rather than adjudicate.

In Mennonite colonies, Sunday is observed strictly and photography of people should be asked for first.

911 is the general emergency number and reaches police, fire and ambulance. Response is quick in Asunción and slow to very slow elsewhere.

131 reaches the fire service directly, 132 the ambulance service in the capital, and 141 the national police.

For medical care, the private hospitals in Asunción — among them Hospital Bautista and Sanatorio Migone — are the destination and are good value. Public emergency departments will stabilise anyone. Outside the capital, facilities thin quickly.

In the Chaco, self-sufficiency is the plan. There is no ambulance service to speak of across most of it, distances to any clinic are measured in hours, and mobile coverage is absent over large areas. The Mennonite colonies have the best facilities in the region and are the practical fallback going north.

Pharmacies (farmacias) are widespread and inexpensive, and a rota keeps one open overnight in each area.

In summer, heat advisories are issued and taken seriously. In the wet season, rural road closures happen without notice — ask locally rather than trusting a map.