Brazil Highlights – Beaches, Rio & Wildlife 2027 & 2028

Day 1 –  Departure to Rio

Today you leave for a country which will leave you gasping with its beauty and a city unlike any other on Earth – Rio de Janeiro, where you will land at Antonio Carlos Jobim International Airport. Private transfer to your hotel.

Rest of day at leisure.

Deluxe

The South East: Rio de Janeiro • Brazil Holidays • Brazil

Copacabana Palace

A cosmopolitan way of life meets old-world glamour at Copacabana Palace. An iconic bar, Michelin-starred restaurant...

• Board Includes:
• Breakfast

Day 2 – Rio de Janeiro

Welcome to one of South America’s most spectacular cities.

Welcome to Rio. You arrive in the early morning and will be met at the airport by your Earth Trip representative and driven (20-30 minutes) by your private driver to your suite overlooking the beach in Copacabana. After an early check-in you have the rest of the day at leisure – to unwind by the luxurious pool or on Copacabana Beach. There are plenty of restaurants on the doorstep and the tiny, informal Bip Bip bar – one of the birthplaces of Bossa Nova (and venue of choice for many of Rio’s top samba singers) is literally just round the corner.

Airport transfer, tour and transportation included.

Deluxe

The South East: Rio de Janeiro • Brazil Holidays • Brazil

Copacabana Palace

A cosmopolitan way of life meets old-world glamour at Copacabana Palace. An iconic bar, Michelin-starred restaurant...

• Board Includes:
• Breakfast

Day 3 – Rio de Janeiro

Today you will enjoy a full day tour of Rio’s beautiful landscape – Unesco World Heritage listed as ‘Carioca Landscapes Between the Mountain and the Sea’. You will see the Christ statue on Corcovado. Perched over Rio on a high peak swathed with rainforest and illuminated in brilliant-white at night, Rio’s Christ statue is every bit as good in real life as it looks in the pictures, standing almost a kilometre above the city and at the apex of one of the highest pinnacles in Tijuca forest, arms open to embrace the urban world’s most breath-taking view. At his feet to the west are a panoply of bays, fringed with white and backed by twinkling skyscrapers and the neon of myriad streetlights. To the east as far as the eye can see lie long stretches of sand washed by green and white surf. In front and to the south, next to the vast ocean beaches, is the sparkle of Niterói watched over by low grey mountains and connected to Rio by a 10-km-long sinuous bridge that threads its way across the 10-km expanse of Guanabara Bay.

The statue of Christ the Redeemer stands 30 metres tall, while the monument including its pedestal reaches approximately 38 metres. is the largest Art Deco sculpture in the world. Designed in France it was completed in 1931. It has become emblematic of both the city of Rio de Janeiro and the whole nation of Brazil. Your guide will take you through the colourful Rio neighbourhood of Cosme Velho where you will catch a funicular railway up the mountain with him to the base of the statue. Along the way he will explain the monument’s significance for Cariocas as the local people of Rio are known. In the afternoon you will take the cable car up Sugar Loaf Mountain for wonderful views of the city; and should you wish to you can walk down the mountain on the Pista Claudio Coutinho path which cuts through some of Rio’s rainforest. You will definitely see toucans and kitten-sized, tufted eared marmosets in the trees.

If your tour in Rio lands on  a Saturday (the best possible day for nightlife in Rio) you will have a guided nightlife tour of the Lapa district – the home of samba in Rio de Janeiro. Your six hour guided nightlife tour includes a paid for performance at the Rio Scenarium club; the premiere authentic live samba club in Rio, housed in a large mansion and former theater props warehouse in Lapa.

The Rio landscape is also officially recognised by UNESCO as “Carioca Landscapes between the Mountain and the Sea.”

Transportation, guided tour & park entry fees included.

• Board Includes:
• Breakfast

Day 4 – Rio de Janeiro

Today you have a full day in Rio at leisure. You might like to shop for souvenirs in the little market in Praça General Osório square. Or you could try Rio’s equivalent of the Sunday Roast – feijoada – rich meat and bean stew, served with manioc flour, oranges and Spring greens. Most traditional restaurants serve it on a Sunday. It’s the house speciality at A Casa da Feijoada restaurant in Ipanema, a short cab ride from your hotel. They’ve been preparing it there for thirty-five years. For something less filling opt for açai – an energising Amazonian berry, served ice cold as sorbet and topped with equally energising guarana nut syrup. It’s available at any Juice Bar; and there are many near your hotel. Or you could put your feet in the sand and sip juice from a cold, freshly cut coconut. Beach bars along Copacabana, including right in front of your hotel will prepare one for you.

Deluxe

The South East: Rio de Janeiro • Brazil Holidays • Brazil

Copacabana Palace

A cosmopolitan way of life meets old-world glamour at Copacabana Palace. An iconic bar, Michelin-starred restaurant...

• Board Includes:
• Breakfast

Days 5–6 – Rio de Janeiro to Iguaçu Falls

An early drive to Rio airport and a short flight brings you to the world’s most spectacular waterfalls. Spanning almost two miles, made up of 275 separate cataracts and set in steaming forest these falls are so spectacular that when U.S first lady Eleanor Roosevelt first saw them she simply said ‘poor Niagara.’

You will stay in the only hotel inside the park. So you will have the waterfalls for you and a handful of fellow guests after the busy daytime crowds have gone. Sunset and dawn are the best times for spotting wildlife. The falls sit in the heart of twin national parks half the size of Wales with wild jaguars and more than four hundred species of birds including Harpy Eagle. Listen out for the guttural roar of troops of howler monkeys and if you’re lucky you’ll see them swinging through the trees in front of Iguaçu.

Our guide will take you on the park trails on the Brazilian and the Argentinean side of the falls including along a boardwalk which reaches right out over the Iguaçu River to the ‘Devil’s Throat’ – a deep cleft at the centre of the falls where every second one and a half million litres of water roar over a sheer cliff surrounded by rainforest.

Superior

The South: Waterfalls and Wild Atlantic Rainforests • Brazil

Hotel das Cataratas by Belmond

Hotel das Cataratas by Belmond is a luxurious, colonial-style hotel located within Brazil's Iguazu National Park,...

• Board Includes:
• Breakfast

Day 7 – Iguaçu to Pantanal

This morning you fly to Cristalino Jungle Lodge, one of the Amazon’s outstanding destinations for wildlife watching. The private reserve protects an extensive area of Amazonian rainforest and offers opportunities to explore the forest on foot, by river and from elevated observation towers.

South America’s counterpart to the Okavango and the Serengeti: where creeks overflow with Brazilian alligators, water birds and capybara – which look like guinea pigs as big as real pigs. The reserve supports an exceptional variety of wildlife, including several species of monkeys, tapirs, peccaries, giant otters and hundreds of bird species. With expert local guides and time in the forest, there are excellent opportunities for wildlife and birdwatching.

Superior

The Central West: Space Age cities and Jaguars in the Wild • Brazil

Hotel Porto Jofre – Pantanal

Since 1984, a pioneer and only hotel in the Pantanal located at the end of the...

• Board Includes:
• Breakfast

Day 7-8: Pantanal

You will spend your next two days enjoying morning (for very high chance of seeing jaguars in the wild), evening and night safaris (spotting big cat eye shine in the flashlight beams), together with giant anteaters, metre-long hyacinth macaws, jabiru storks and hundreds of caiman-crocodiles.

Superior

The Central West: Space Age cities and Jaguars in the Wild • Brazil

Hotel Porto Jofre – Pantanal

Since 1984, a pioneer and only hotel in the Pantanal located at the end of the...

• Board Includes:
• Breakfast

Day 9 – Pantanal to Pirenopolis

Today you will fly to explore historic Pirenopolis. This beautifully preserved baroque village is one of the forgotten treasures of central Brazil – cobbled streets of terracotta-roofed pink, blue and yellow cottages cluster around pretty Portuguese churches. Rugged hills cut by streams and waterfalls rise behind, and the whole area sits in extensive Cerrado forests wild enough for ocelots and rhea.

You will have the afternoon to explore the town at leisure.

Deluxe

Brazil

Villa do Comendador Pirenópolis

Villa do Comendador is boutique Pirenópolis retreat that offers private pool bungalows, refined regional dining, and...

• Board Includes:
• Breakfast

Day 10 – Pirenopolis to Brasilia

This morning you visit the Vagofogo reserve – a pioneering private conservation project initiated in the 1990s to preserve Brazil’s most threatened natural habitat – the cerrado. This scented, flower-filled tropical woodland is home to 856 bird species of which 30 are endemic and 56 threatened. You will spend the morning walking Vagofogo’s beautiful trails, before leaving for Brasilia.

Brazil’s astonishing Jetson age capital is a shimmering city of cubes, triangles and brilliant white domes set around a vast lake and laid out in the shape of an aeroplane. You will enjoy a late afternoon city tour and the chance to eat in one of the capital’s many excellent restaurants.

Deluxe

Brazil

Cabana Ipê, Brasilia

Cabana Ipê, Brasilia

• Board Includes:
• Breakfast

Day 11 – The Chapada dos Guimaraes Table Top Mountain

This morning you fly to one of the Cerrado forest’s impressive table-top mountains, the Chapada dos Guimarães. This ancient cave-pocked escarpment rises dramatically from the  surrounding plains and is covered in cerrado forest Birdlife is rich. Mammals, such as puma, jaguarundi, giant river otter and black-tailed marmoset can also be seen with time and patience and there are numerous lookout points over plunging waterfalls and rugged mountain ranges.

Deluxe

Brazil

Atmã Restaurante e Pousada

Atmã Restaurante e Pousada

• Board Includes:
• Breakfast

Days 12-14: Cristalino Jungle Lodge

Only at Cristalino will you see 9 species of monkeys. Cristalino is a private reserve almost twice the size of Manhattan, abutting a vast swathe of Amazonian lowland forest. Because it has been a protected reserve for nearly three decades the wildlife has no fear of humans and is easy to spot on trails, on the myriad rivers and from the observation towers. Only at Cristalino will you see 9 species of monkeys, tapirs, peccaries, giant otters and some 600 species of birds including nesting Harpy Eagles. The wildlife guiding and facilities are world class and the accommodation – in glass-fronted lodges, the most comfortable in the lowland Amazon.

Deluxe

The Central West: Space Age cities and Jaguars in the Wild • Brazil

Cristalino Lodge – An Amazon Sanctuary

Come quickly, before the sun surges above the horizon. Go out in silence, accompanying the melody...

• Board Includes:
• Breakfast

Day 15 – São Paulo

Brazil’s biggest city is one of South America’s great destinations for fine dining, shopping, museums, galleries and nightlife.

Stroll along the city’s skyscraper-lined main avenue, Avenida Paulista. Then take a cab to Luz to see Brazilian art in the Pinacoteca and Estação Pinacoteca galleries. Browse the plush boutiques of the Jardins neighbourhood – for Latin America’s best fashion and jewellery. Dine at Alex Atala’s Two Michelin Star D.O.M restaurant with a menu of Amazon ingredients served with European culinary panache. And swing to the samba in the Ó do Borogodó bar before heading to bed with the rhythms of Brazil still tingling in your ears.

Deluxe

Brazil

The Hotel Ca’d’Oro São Paulo

The Hotel Ca'd'Oro São Paulo

• Board Includes:
• Breakfast

Day 16 –  End of Tour

You will be transferred to Guarulhos International Airport to fly home. Travel time to the airport is approximately 90 minutes.

• Board Includes:
• Breakfast