It’s hard enough for a native English speaker to learn the rules for “ser” and “estar” as options for “to be”. It’s unclear to me when “ficar” is preferred to “ser”. The lessons I’m doing now involve common expressions used when traveling, e.g.
Onde fica o metro?
Sabe onde fica este restaurante?
Fica muito longe?
These all use 'fica" while my first inclination would to use “é”, such as was done in these exercises:
É ali ao virar da esquina.
É perto daqui?
Are there specific rules and/or recommendations when to use ficar for “to be” instead of “ser” or are they interchangeable?
Peter