Rio takes four days. Brazil takes the rest of the month.
Which Christ the Redeemer ticket is the cog train and which one is a van. What both sides of Iguaçu cost if you do them in a day. Whether the Ilha Grande boat beats a run up to Arraial do Cabo. Reviews of every tour you can book in Brazil.
Corcovado, Rocinha, the falls, and a boat out of Angra.
The four bookings a first Brazilian trip hangs off, and what each one costs before you land.
01The first morningChrist the Redeemer Entry Ticket by Corcovado TrainThe cog train climbs through the Tijuca forest and puts you under the statue with the whole bay behind it. Take an early slot: the cloud usually wins by eleven.
02The other RioRocinha Favela Walking Tour with Local GuideRocinha on foot with a guide who lives on the hill. Twenty minutes from Ipanema and a completely different city.
03The day at the fallsIguazu Falls: Full-Day Tour of Brazil & Argentina SidesBrazil gives you the panorama, Argentina puts you on the lip of the Garganta do Diabo. One long day covers both.
04The island dayAngra dos Reis and Ilha Grande Full-Day TourOut of Angra dos Reis into the green water off Ilha Grande. The boat goes early and comes back after the light has gone.
Corcovado, Sugarloaf, Tijuca: Rio keeps its best views uphill.
One is a statue on a peak, one is a rock you reach in two cable-car stages, and one is rainforest that starts where the bus route ends. What it costs to get up each of them.
Rio first, then wherever the next flight goes.
A city wedged between granite and surf, a waterfall the width of a town, the biggest city in the hemisphere, a colonial port on the Costa Verde, a river the colour of tea, and the old capital of Bahia. Six places, and the best day out in each.
The Iguaçu falls are loud, soaking, and worth the flight.
The Brazilian side hands you the panorama and a catwalk out into the Garganta do Diabo. The Argentine side puts you on top of it. Most people do both, and most people underestimate how wet the walkway gets.
Rio: the postcard before ten, the real city after it.
Everything in Rio →
Get the statue done before the cloud settles, then go where the city actually lives: a hillside neighbourhood on foot, the stadium that sets the national mood, and a tram grinding uphill into Santa Teresa.
Rocinha, walked with someone from it
Brazil’s largest favela sits on the slope between Gávea and São Conrado, and the walks run top to bottom with guides who live there. Shops, rooftops, and a view of the beach nobody puts on a postcard.
Maracanã, empty or at full volume
The stadium tour takes the tunnel, the dressing rooms and the seats at pitch level. On a match night you want the other ticket instead: a full house and a drum section that never once stops.
The yellow tram into Santa Teresa
The bonde climbs out of Lapa across the old aqueduct into a hill of studios, guesthouses and colonial shutters. Most days pair it with the Selarón steps at the bottom of the slope.
Brazil’s most booked days out.
Every tour in Brazil →More travellers book these than anything else in the country. What each one gives you for the money.
1
6-Stop Highlights of Rio with Lunch
This 8-hour minivan tour links Rio’s essential sights, with hotel pickup, entry to Christ the Redeemer, Sugarloaf, and the Metropolitan Cathedral, plus a buffet lunch. Multilingual guides such as João, Roger, Ursula, and Carlos lead the day. Expect a busy schedule, queues, and outside visits to Maracanã and the Sambadrome.
From · $130
Read our review →
2
Christ the Redeemer Entry Ticket by Corcovado Train
from $45
3
Rocinha Favela Walking Tour with Local Guide
from $36
4
Sugarloaf Cable Car Official Ticket
from $46
5
Christ the Redeemer, Sugarloaf, Selaron & BBQ Lunch
from $69
6
Half-Day Rocinha Favela Walking Tour
from $35
7
Angra dos Reis and Ilha Grande Full-Day Tour
from $77
8
Maracanã Stadium Official Entrance Ticket
from $24
North of Salvador the coast turns to dunes, lagoons and buggies.
Freshwater lagoons that fill between the dunes of the Lençóis Maranhenses once the rains have passed, hammocks strung in the shallows at Jericoacoara, and buggy drivers on the Natal coast who ask whether you want it com emoção or without.
- 1Full-day excursion Lencois Marnahenses, Lagoa Azul & Lagoa Bonita combined
- 2Full Day Tour -2 Lagoons (Azul and Bonita)from $73
- 3Morro Branco, Fontes, & Canoa Quebrada Beachfrom $19
What a day out in Brazil actually costs.
Every tour on the site, grouped by price. A good share of the best Brazilian days come in under the cost of dinner.
Entry to the statue and the cable car, favela walks, samba classes and a seat at the Maracanã.
The full days out: both sides of Iguaçu, the Ilha Grande boat, Tijuca by jeep, Arraial and back.
Helicopter circuits over the bay, a tandem flight off Pedra Bonita, private guides for a whole day.
- 1Hang Gliding Adventurefrom $229
- 2Helicopter Tourfrom $220
- 3Hang Gliding Tandem Flightfrom $301
Three things that only happen in Brazil.
Beaches and rainforest turn up all over the tropics. A samba house that only fills after midnight, a hillside city walked with the people who built it, and a wooden ramp that launches you over a beach suburb do not.
Samba, where it actually happens
Rio’s samba does not start until the rest of the city has eaten. The old warehouses under the Lapa arches fill somewhere after eleven and the bands play until the buses run again. Backstage tours at Cidade do Samba open the carnival workshops the other eleven months of the year, and the classes in Ipanema and Copacabana teach you the step before you have to use it.
- 1Beginner Samba Lesson in Ipanema★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 · 1,071 reviews
- 2Pub Crawl in Lapa with Cachaça Tasting and Live Samba★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 881 reviews
- 3Carnival Backstage Tour at Samba City with Cocktail★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 520 reviews
Rocinha and Santa Marta
Something close to a quarter of Rio lives on the morros, and two of them run walks with resident guides: Rocinha, the biggest in the country, and Santa Marta, the small painted one above Botafogo with a funicular running up the middle. You walk downhill rather than up, and the fee stays on the hill.
- 1Rocinha Favela Walking Tour with Local Guide★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 3,052 reviews
- 2Half-Day Rocinha Favela Walking Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 2,272 reviews
- 3Favela Santa Marta Top Tour with Local Guide★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 · 488 reviews
The ramp above São Conrado
There is a wooden ramp on Pedra Bonita, five hundred metres above the beach at São Conrado, and tandem pilots run off the end of it all morning. The flight lasts about ten minutes, the landing is on the sand, and it only happens when the wind is right, which is why nobody will sell you a fixed time.
- 1Hang Gliding Adventure★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 760 reviews
- 2Hang Gliding Tandem Flight★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 426 reviews
- 3Paragliding Tandem Flight★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 186 reviews
Four Brazilian bookings that will not wait.
Most of this country can be arranged over breakfast. These four run on timed entry, on wind, on a park timetable, and on a cap for how many people the island will hold.
- 01Christ the Redeemer Entry Ticket by Corcovado TrainEntry runs on timed slots, and the early ones — the only ones with a clear sky over the bay — go first.
- 02Iguazu Falls: Full-Day Tour of Brazil & Argentina SidesBoth sides in one day only works on an early start, and the park shuttles inside each side run to their own timetable.
- 03Discover Noronha: 7-Hour Ilhatour AdventureFernando de Noronha caps how many visitors can be on the island at once, and everyone pays an environmental fee on arrival.
- 04Hang Gliding AdventureFlights only run when the wind is right, so operators rebook rather than refund. Go early in the trip and keep a spare morning.
The Rio afternoon storm, and where the city goes when it breaks.
From December to March the heat stacks up all morning and lets go around four. Corcovado vanishes into cloud, the sand empties in about ninety seconds, and everyone moves under a roof. That is the cue for a samba house, a distillery tasting, a workshop, or a seat at the stadium.
Angra, Paraty, Arraial: the green water south of Rio.
A couple of hours down the Costa Verde the Atlantic turns clear and the islands start. Day boats leave Angra dos Reis for Ilha Grande, Paraty for the Saco do Mamanguá, and Arraial do Cabo for water people keep comparing to the Caribbean.
- 1Angra dos Reis and Ilha Grande Full-Day Tourfrom $77
- 2Sunset Sailing Tourfrom $75
- 3Sunset Sailboat Tour with Open Barfrom $57
By place — coast, city and interior
By kind of day — summit, beach, forest or dancefloor
Rio, the Costa Verde, Iguaçu, Bahia: the route almost everybody does first.
Ilha GrandeThe newest Brazilian tour reviews.
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Trindade Day Trip: Nature and Sea Adventure from Paraty
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Official Ticket: Oceanographic Museum Univali – Piçarras – SC
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