From 3km-wide waterfalls to opera houses in the jungle, we plot the best routes to experience Brazil’s wildlife, history, cities and Indigenous cultures
Words Alex Robinson
Space-age cities and the Pantanal
Lose yourself in the vast wetland habitats of the Pantanal and Brazil’s eccentric capital
Best for: Wildlife, light adventure, river snorkelling and Brazilian architecture.
Why go? To overwhelm your senses in South America’s gold-standard wildlife destination, to swim in crystal-clear rivers and to feel tiny next to Oscar Niemeyer’s monumental buildings.
Route: Cuiabá; the Pantanal; Chapada dos Guimarães; Nobres and Brasília.
TV shows by the dozen have showcased Africa’s lion-teeming Serengeti plains. But no less wonderful or less wildlife-filled is Brazil’s Pantanal. This UNESCO-listed, Ramsar-protected wetland is larger even than Great Britain. It’s where to go if you really want to stand a chance of seeing jaguars in the wild. Along the way, you’ll find giant anteaters, rheas – South America’s ostrich-equivalent – plenty of other cats (from the moggy-sized jaguarundi to the labrador-sized ocelot) and wild animals you’ve probably never heard of.
The birdwatching is superb, with raptors on every other fence post, metre-long indigo-blue macaws nesting in the ipê trees and myriad waterbirds – from man-sized jabiru storks to tiny hummingbirds. There are two main airport entry points – Campo Grande in the southern Pantanal (where transfers into the Pantanal are pricey) and Cuiabá in the north (where prices are lower but visitor numbers are heavier). Both are small state capitals – of Mato Grosso do Sul and Mato Grosso respectively. There’s little to keep you in their urbanity, so head directly from the airport to one of the working fazenda ranch houses, which serve as bases for exploring the wild.
The Pantanal has two seasons: the dry season between April and October and the wet from November to March. Both are great for extraordinary photographs, but it’s during the dry season when you’ll see the most animals. This is when the Pantanal’s seasonally flooded lakes and gallery forests shrink and the wetlands become a landscape of open savannahs dotted with lakes and cut by meandering rivers and stands of low cerrado woodlands pinked with trumpet trees and purpled with jacaranda. In dry season, you’ll see plenty of animals from the pool at your fazenda or on the paths connecting your bungalow and the main ranch house, but it’s the hikes, 4WD rides and horse safaris that get you into the heart of it all.
Pantaneiro cowboys still access the wilds on horseback, and this is one of the best ways to penetrate the wilder stands of woodland and wetland, cover a decent distance and chance upon animals that are wary of the noise of 4WDs. The best times for a ride are early morning and late afternoon, when the nocturnal animals (like cats and anteaters) are still active. The temperature is cooler at this time, and the Pantanal looks at its most beautiful, with the sun on the horizon, red as a blood orange, silhouetting branch-perched hawks and wading herons. Pantanal horses are smaller than the European varieties; they are docile, well treated, well fed and used to carrying tourists, so you won’t need any previous riding experience to enjoy a horse safari.
In both its northern and the southern reaches, the Pantanal is fringed with low tabletop mountains, where the ancient, rain-worn rock leaches almost no sediment. As a result, the rivers that run off it are as clear as mineral water. They also offer superb snorkelling. Use the city of Nobres (in the north) or the town of Bonito (in the south) as access points.
ASK A LOCAL
“People forget that Central Brazil is where the Pantanal meets the Amazon. There are so many animals unique to this transition zone. I particularly love heading into our forests in the early morning to spot the ultra-rare Tapajós saki, which is only found in the buriti palm forests around the Tapajós and Madeira river tributaries. They’re such gentle animals – and a key disperser of rainforest seeds.”
1. Snorkel the glass-clear rivers of Bonito and Nobres
Swimming the rivers of Bonito or Nobres, surrounded by myriad silver-sided, salmon-like dourado, is magical. The easiest way to do this is to visit the southern Pantanal, using the touristy town of Bonito as a gateway. The infrastructure here is excellent and there are many rivers to snorkel, the best being the gentle Rio Sucuri or the faster-flowing, more adventure-focused Rio Formoso (with ziplines and tubing). In the stands of cerrado woodland around the rivers, you will probably see mammals like paca and agouti (which look like doe-eyed long-legged guinea pigs). Bonito is around a 2.5-hour transfer from the southern Pantanal.
In the north, it’s just over a three-hour transfer from the heart of the Pantanal to the tiny town of Nobres. Tourism here is less developed than in Bonito, with less infrastructure; however, there are far fewer visitors, which means the rivers are quieter and the wildlife less disturbed. Nobres also has more freshwater stingrays than Bonito.
2. Spot jaguars in the wild
Both the southern and northern Pantanal give you some of the best chances of seeing jaguars in the wild, as well as so much more. In the south, stay at Caiman, where the pioneering Onçafari conservation project has fostered a healthy population of jaguars and turned cattle ranchers from poachers into gamekeepers.
Caiman is an expensive 3.5-hour transfer from Campo Grande airport. It’s less than a tenth of the price to take the public bus from Campo Grande’s bus terminal (20 minutes from the airport by cab; Brazil widely uses Uber) to the town of Miranda, where representatives from Caiman will meet you.
In the north, combine your ranch stay with a full day’s jaguar safari in Encontro das Águas State Park (book as a package through companies such as Earth Trip). Here you can find never-persecuted wild jaguars strolling the banks of the rivers in search of prey. The distance between Cuiabá and the northern fazendas is similar to the south, but transport costs are cheaper.
3. Lose yourself in Brasília
To reach the Pantanal, Nobres and Bonito from anywhere else in Brazil, you will probably have to change planes in Brasília, the country’s capital. This is a blessing because it’s an extraordinary place, so be sure to take a day here. The city was purpose-built in four years (1956–1960), heralding a new age of technocratic advance and symbolising then-president Juscelino Kubitschek’s promise to bring ‘50 years of prosperity in five’. It was conceived by urban planner Lucio Costa and landscape artist Roberto Burle Marx, with stark, monumental Modernist architecture by Le Corbusier protégé Oscar Niemeyer.
The result is an extraordinary 1950s vision of the future. Tower-block-high white concrete triangles, coronas and domes dominate vast squares. Ministry buildings hidden behind diaphanous marble screens glow amber in lilypad-dotted reflection ponds. Avenues are big enough to land a spaceship on. But it’s pure idealism. There are no sidewalks, and the myriad workers transported in to erect this Jetson-age concrete vision in wild scrubland were never paid enough to get back home. They settled in sprawling city-sized satellite suburbs and their lives still orbit the capital.
São Paulo, Minas and
the gold rush towns
Soak up the art and music scene in South America’s megalopolis and marvel at the wild mountains of Minas Gerais
Best for: Art, music and fine dining, Brazilian Baroque churches and unique wildlife.
Why go? Brazil meets itself in the world-class city of São Paulo, the de facto capital. Here you can enjoy the best music, art and foodie scene; Move on to explore Minas Gerais, Brazil’s literary capital, with unique music, the finest Baroque-style architecture in the country and lesser-tramped wilderness areas.
Route: São Paulo; Belo Horizonte; Ouro Preto and Congonhas; Diamantina; Serra da Canastra; Serra do Ibitipoca.
“Rio is a beauty, but São Paulo is a city,” said the actress Marlene Dietrich. South America’s greatest metropolis may lack Rio’s stunning landscapes – stretching as it does in interminable concrete and heaving with traffic – but this is the country’s economic and cultural engine. Whether you’re in business, music, architecture or art, if you want to make it in Brazil, you head here. The city has the best music scene in South America, and countless bars and clubs scatter neighbourhoods such as Itaim Bibi, Vila Madalena and Consolação, offering everything from Brazilian jazz to favela funk.
If you get a chance, spend at least a day in São Paulo. Take a city tour that includes at least one of the fabulous art galleries, skyscraper-lined Avenida Paulista and the Altino Arantes Building (Farol Santander). Arrive at the latter just before sundown for São Paulo’s best view – the city spread beneath you like a Cyclopean circuit board – as blocks of vast rectilinear white and orange towers are cut into sections by roads of streaming traffic. Helicopters whirr, the occasional vulture floats past and neon blinks everywhere.
Immediately to the north of São Paulo is Minas Gerais state. Here, rolling hills peak in a series of craggy mountains before running to huge areas of threatened cerrado forests and the northern scrubland sertão desert.
Minas is the lyrical heart of Brazil. The country’s greatest sculptor, O Aleijadinho, left his effigies and decorative carvings on the magnificent Brazilian Baroque churches of Minas’s gold-rush mining towns Ouro Preto and Congonhas. Brazil’s greatest writers – the poet Carlos Drummond de Andrade and João Guimarães Rosa – wandered the cobbled streets of Minas’s sleepy hamlets and rode horses in the wild backlands. The country’s most acclaimed contemporary musician Milton Nascimento began life singing in village church choirs and the clubs of Minas’s arty capital, Belo Horizonte. Pele was a Mineiro. So was Juscelino Kubistcheck – the president who created Brasília.
Belo Horizonte is your entry point, and it’s worth a night here to see Oscar Niemeyer’s buildings in Pampulha and to sample the music scene in the city’s boho Savassi neighbourhood. But Minas’s heart is rural. Head to the 18th-century mining villages of Ouro Preto and its neighbour Congonhas, or Diamantina. Explore Franciscan churches with painted ceilings and ornate sculptures. Wander markets and cobbled streets and find a botequim bar playing live music.
Minas’s wilds are harder to reach but are worth the effort, especially the Serra da Canastra hills in the south-west and the wildlife-rich tabletop mountain of Ibitipoca in its south-east, home to the Americas’ rarest primate, the muriqui.
“Nothing is more Paulistano than a local bar or bakery. Madureira is both, and it’s set within the Ibirapuera Park, which is dotted with iconic Niemeyer buildings and galleries. It’s a São Paulo must-see, which makes Madureira the perfect spot to begin the day with a delicious al-fresco breakfast or end it with petisco bar snacks washed down with an icy beer or cocktail.”
1. Savour São Paulo’s art scene
São Paulo’s art scene is South America’s most vibrant. Galleries like Millan and Choque Cultural showcase the best of Brazil’s emerging contemporary and street artists. MAC has an important collection of Latin American and international contemporary art (with pieces by Modigliani, Chagall and Picasso), the Museum of Modern Art (MAM) showcases Brazilian Modernism, and the Pinacoteca is home to a historic collection of paintings running from 19th-century colonial through to the Tropical Modernism of the Anthropofagists – including Anita Malfatti and Tarsila do Amaral, who cannibalised European art and reconstituted it as Brazilian using striking colours and organic forms.
São Paulo’s artistic jewel in the crown is the São Paulo Museum of Art (MASP), the finest collection of Old Master European paintings in the Southern Hemisphere, collected by newspaper mogul Assis Chateaubriand in the 1950s and housed in a striking Brutalist building by Lina Bo Bardi. A new 14-storey wing is due to open in 2024, enabling visitors to see paintings long buried in the museum’s huge archive.
2. Wander the Brazilian Baroque churches of Ouro Preto
It’s a quintessentially Brazilian story: the country’s greatest sculptor, Antônio Lisboa, was the son of a Portuguese architect and an enslaved African. His greatest works adorn churches where Black Brazilians were prohibited entry. And as a boy, Antônio caught a debilitating disease which left him so badly maimed that he had to work on his knees and back with chisels strapped to his paralysed hands. He was known as O Aleijadinho (‘Little Cripple’).
You can see Antônio Lisboa’s passionate, mannerist sculpture in the glorious Francis of Assisi church in Ouro Preto and the Stations of the Cross in Congonhas. They’re perhaps the greatest of any produced in the 18th-century Americas – agonised prophets so expressive that their features and limbs are distorted; a St Francis redolent with gentle compassion. Disguised within the decorative images is subtle social commentary and references to the Tiradentes revolutionary movement against the Portuguese. Look closely at the faces. Like those painted by Lisboa’s contemporary Mestre Athayde (also in Ouro Preto’s Francis of Assisi church), they are white but with unmistakeably Afro-Brazilian and Indigenous features – especially in the hair and the eyes.
3. Spot maned wolves and endangered monkeys
Tucked away in the south-eastern corner of Minas (within easy access of the airport in Juiz da Fora city) is one of Brazil’s wildlife secrets – the Ibitipoca tabletop mountain. Dripping with clear water streams and rivers that cascade in glorious waterfalls, and graced with cloud forests, jungles, grassy savannahs, rocky escarpments and gorges guarding myriad micro-climates, it is a habitat heaven.
This is one of the last homes of the largest monkey in the Americas: the muriqui. You may also spot rare maned wolves, pumas and endangered birds including the vinaceous-breasted Amazon parrot, the stripe-tailed yellow-finch, blue-winged macaw and the endemic white-bellied warbler.
There’s comfortable accommodation in four remarkable locations: the beautiful Portuguese colonial main ranch house set near a rushing mountain stream; cottages in the rehabilitated savannah village; the rainforest reserve lodge; and the mountain hut, located in the heart of the cloud forest.
The south: waterfalls, surf and coastal rainforest
Brazil’s south is wilder than you think… and it has waterfalls and surf that will take your breath away
Best for: Waterfalls nearly 3km wide, tubing waves and coastal rainforests.
Why go? To see the thundering Iguaçu falls, which spans two countries; to catch Brazil’s best waves; and to discover a beach in the heart of a huge coastal rainforest reserve.
Route: Curitiba; Serra da Graciosa; Paranaguá; Ilha do Mel, Foz de Iguaçu; Florianópolis; Santa Catarina Island.
“Poor Niagara,” Eleanor Roosevelt reputedly said when she saw the Iguaçu Falls for the first time. They’re nearly twice as tall as their North American counterpart and over three times as wide. It is appropriate, then, that Iguaçu translates as ‘great water’. But while Niagara is fringed with casinos and malls, Iguaçu’s environs are still wild, dwelling deep in a rainforest park larger than Greater London. Jaguars and pumas prowl here (they’re a relatively common nocturnal sight on the park roads), and you will see myriad racoon-like coatimundi, monkeys, toucans, hummingbirds and flocks of trilling parakeets as you walk the extensive trails.
The falls straddle the border between Brazil and Argentina, lying just upstream from the Paraná River and the frontier with Paraguay. There’s plenty to see, and you need to get your logistics right, so you should allow at least two days for a visit. It’s a taxi ride between all the hotels (but one) and the falls, so you are best off pre-booking a guided tour.
Make sure it takes in both sides of the border. Start with Brazil, whose trails run to the base of the Garganta do Diabo (Devil’s Throat), where the Iguaçu river thunders over a steep-sided gorge. Then visit the Argentinian side, which is both better for wildlife and is reached via a purpose-built tourist railway.
Boardwalks span the river and take you to the top of the Garganta, as well as running around dozens of ancillary waterfalls. Take the rest of your stay to ride a boat up to the base of the falls and to walk the lesser-known trails in search of primates. You can also visit the triple frontier on the Paraná River, where Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay meet.
Encompassing three Brazilian states, there’s much more to the south of the country than Iguaçu. Santa Catarina Island, near the city of Florianópolis (it has easy connections by air to the rest of Brazil), is fringed with glorious surf beaches. These are reached on paths that clamber over forested ridges and drop through small fishing communities.
Surf-friendly Ilha do Mel island in Paraná sits at the heart of a vast and important stretch of mangrove and Atlantic coastal rainforest, which runs around the Paranaguá Bay. The whole area is protected via a series of national parks and is also a UNESCO World Heritage site. Many endangered endemic plants and animals live among these forests, including tiny black-faced lion tamarin monkeys (which were first documented in 1990), the red-tailed Amazon parrot (which, despite its name, is only found in south-east Brazil) and a gamut of sought-after wildlife sightings, including jaguar, puma and tapir.
While getting into the heart of the wild will involve bespoke boat hire, Ilha do Mel is easy to reach. The best way to arrive is to first take the Serra Verde Express train through the Serra do Mar mountains from Curitiba (which is well-connected to the rest of the country by air and has an impressive Oscar Niemeyer architecture museum). The train ride is the most spectacular in Brazil, passing thick cloud forest, crossing dizzying viaducts and offering sudden views of deep gorges and high peaks before arriving at Paranaguá, from where there are regular ferries to Ilha do Mel.
ASK A LOCAL
“I love Guarda do Embaú beach. It’s on the mainland, just south of Florianopolis city, and it gets far fewer visitors than the other beaches. To reach it, you have to either take a little boat or swim across a small river. You arrive amid 5km of golden, talc-soft sand; there’s also surf and sheltered shallow areas for great swimming, plus great hikes to viewpoints in the hills. Come during the week, when it’s almost deserted, and you will avoid the weekender crowds.”
1. Marvel at Iguaçu Falls with few others around
Belmond’s Hotel das Cataratas is the only accommodation located right next to Iguaçu Falls. It charges premium rates – and for good reason. The parks on both sides of the Brazil-Argentina border close just before sundown, and the only visitors permitted to remain inside are guests of the hotel. So, if you do stay, you can get the falls pretty much to yourself at sunset, and usually entirely to yourself under moonlight or at the crack of dawn, when only the most intrepid rise.
The falls lie right across from the hotel’s front lawn, as is the trailhead to the base of the Garganta do Diabo. Having such privileged access to one of the natural world’s greatest wonders is well worth splashing out on. And by sheer proximity, guests are also arguably more likely to see a big cat on the access roads around the hotel at night.
2. Surf the beaches of Santa Catarina Island
There’s good surfing at Itacaré in Bahia and on Rio’s beaches, but it’s only on Santa Catarina that the surf is reliably world class. The island is in a prime position for the south-south-east swells that thunder into its shores. Joaquina is the most famous beach among surfers here, but it can get crowded. If you prefer your waters less busy, Imbituba, Garopaba and Guarda beaches back on the mainland tend to be less popular (especially outside weekends and Brazilian holidays).
There are surf camps for beginners all over the island, and its beaches invariably have accommodation. Visit between April and October for the most powerful, reliable swells and smallest crowds. You’ll need a wetsuit though; this is the southern winter. During this period, the sea can be cold, while the average air temperature peaks at 20ºC in July – which is freezing by Brazilian standards.
Bahia and the north-east
Amid the white sands, carnivals and Afro-Brazilian rhythms of the north-east, you’ll find the heart of traditional Brazil
Best for: Music, talc-soft sands, dance and an abundance of
Afro-Brazilian verve
Why go? Relax on the beautiful beaches of north-eastern Brazil, where the country began. Dance and soak up the Afro-Brazilian culture in Brazil’s original capital, Salvador, which preserves the largest Baroque-style colonial centre in the Americas. Watch sunrise over the lake-dotted dunes of the deserts of Ceará and Maranhão.
Route: Trancoso; Salvador; the Chapada Diamantina; Patacho beach; Recife and Olinda; Pipa, Jericoacoara; Lençóis Maranhenses National Park.
Brazil’s north-east is South America’s Caribbean. With its deserted beaches, whales calving offshore, manatees drifting the rivers and huge swathes of primary tropical coastal rainforest, it doesn’t disappoint. It’s also an Afro-Brazilian heartland, thanks to Salvador having been the main hub for the approximately 5 million enslaved Africans brought to Brazil between the 16th and 19th centuries. This is where samba was born and where African rituals and rhythms are still kept alive.
France-sized Bahia state is also where Brazil began in 1500, when Pedro Álvares Cabral and Amerigo Vespucci (who gave his name to the continent) landed near modern-day Trancoso village. Even Charles Darwin marvelled at the rainforests and wildlife around Salvador – Brazil’s first capital. The city still looks glorious, perched on a high ridge overlooking a wine-glass bay sprinkled with islands. Gold-glittering Brazilian Baroque churches and ancient cobbles clamber over the hills. The streets below throb with African drums, capoeira dancers whirr in the old colonial squares, and the annual Mardi Gras carnival is second in size only to Rio’s.
A short flight (or long bus ride) inland from Salvador, there’s great hiking to be found deep in the waterfall-lined mountains of the Chapada Diamantina. And in southern Bahia, where the coastal rainforests meet the ocean, you’ll find the best beaches in South America. Stay in modish Trancoso, which has the cream of the continent’s high-end beach boutiques. These typically dwell in coconut glades or among the colourful colonial cottages of the pretty village square.
North of Bahia, Brazil’s north-eastern coast seems to stretch through endless coconut-shaded sands in the states of Sergipe, Alagoas and Pernambuco. At Patacho beach in Alagoas, rivers run into the aquamarine Atlantic, offering some of the best chances anywhere of seeing manatees in the wild. The bell towers of beautiful 17th-century churches ring out from the twin cities of Recife and Olinda in Pernambuco; these towns also boast the most traditional of the large Mardi Gras carnivals in South America, as well as wonderful Afro-Brazilian music. And in Rio Grande do Norte state, Pipa has a hippy-chic beach vibe and a string of classy boutique hotels and farm-to-table restaurants.
In Ceará and southern Maranhão, wind-swept dunes mark an area of coastal ‘deserts’ that fringe this north-eastern region. They are most spectacular in the Lençóis Maranhenses National Park, which is pocked with thousands of turquoise lakes that appear between May and September.
There are nine states in Brazil’s north-east. Bahia alone is larger than France, so you can’t take in the whole area in a single visit, but don’t miss Salvador and the Chapada. And for the best beaches, choose Trancoso or Jericoacoara (both with easy flight connections). From the latter, it’s easy to organise a spectacular wild-coast transfer overland and into the Lençóis Maranhenses National Park, from where short transfers to São Luis city (265km away) connect to onward flights.
ASK A LOCAL
“Bahia has great beaches, amazing food and astonishing architecture, but it’s also the cultural heart of Brazil. I love browsing São Joaquim market and hopping across to Maré Island for seafood. Top of the list is the historic town of Cachoeira in the Recôncavo region. Arrive in time for the lively Festa da Boa Morte parades in the second week of August; these are held by a female lay order that was instrumental in abolishing slavery in Brazil.”
1. Salvador’s capoeira, Candomblé and Portuguese colonialism
Salvador assails the senses with its warm, buttery tropical light and brightly painted buildings. As you wander its streets, the scent of mangoes and frangipani wafts from leafy cobbled squares, while the sizzling acarajé (Brazilian falafel) served by Afro-Brazilians in colourful bustle-skirts at street stalls in the historic Pelourinho district seduces the nostrils. Brilliant-white yachts speckle the deep blue of the bay, parakeets flit between branches and tiny marmoset monkeys trill overhead. It’s enough to overwhelm you.
It takes at least a day to soak-in this complicated city, then it’s time to explore the magnificent rococo-style churches, the most spectacular of which is the 16th-century Franciscan monastery. Pause to watch a martial-art-cum-dance capoeira show (there are always performers in the cathedral square), then discover the lasting importance of the spirit-religion Candomblé in local culture at the Afro-Brazilian museum. This religion still permeates life in Bahia, and it is Brazil’s counterpart to the Afro-Caribbean Santería that is prevalent in Cuba.
2. Revel at Recife’s traditional carnival
Carnival is not limited to Rio; there are Mardi Gras parties all over Brazil, and Salvador hosts the second-largest around, with huge processions, dancing, leaping and marching through the city’s old colonial centre, accompanied by giant floats topped with kitschy pop bands. It’s great fun; however, if you want to see a genuine, more traditional carnival, head to the twin cities of Recife and Olinda in Pernambuco state.
The two cities are charming neighbours. Coastal Recife wraps around a series of little estuaries, while the former Portuguese colonial city of Olinda (whose name translates as ‘Oh! Beautiful’) perches on a tree-covered hill a stone’s throw away. This is carnival as it used to be – long before TV sponsorship and paid tickets changed everything.
The myriad styles of traditional music and dance are a joy to behold, with huge maracatu drum orchestras marching through the city squares around Recife’s waterfront. Impossibly acrobatic dancers in swirly dresses jump and reel across the cobbles while clutching miniature frevo umbrellas, falling into the splits and then leaping as high as gymnasts. And in Olinda, house-tall, swaying mamulengo puppets grin and twirl through the narrow, brightly painted streets and up over the hills.
3. See dawn over the Lençóis Maranhenses
It could almost be the Sahara. A vast orange sun rises over a sea of rippling sand that flows wind-blown to every horizon. But there are no lakes in the Sahara. In the coastal desert of Maranhão’s Lençóis Maranhenses, seasonal lagoons paint the valleys between the dunes deep turquoise. There’s nothing quite like waking in the velvety dark of your pousada (inn), walking to a high crest for the golden dawn and then skipping down the dune side and plunging in for an invigorating swim before breakfast.
The lençóis (aka sheets, a poetic description of the silky dunes) are easy to reach. You can transfer into the small access towns of Barreirinhas, Santo Amaro or Atins from the airport in Maranhão state capital São Luis, or take a more adventurous overland 4WD ride along the beaches and over the backwaters from the little resort village of Jericoacoara, just across the state border in Ceará.
The Amazon: rivers, rainforests and Indigenous cultures
Paddle 30km-wide rivers with Indigenous guides under vast, endless skies
Best for: Primordial wilderness that makes you realise just how small you really are.
Why go? Outside the poles, Siberia and the Sahara, there is no other wilderness on Earth to compare with the Brazilian Amazon. At times, you can find yourself more than 1,000km
from the nearest road, touching trees that no human has ever laid their hands on before.
Route: Manaus and the Rio Negro; Belém and Marajó island; Cuiabá and the Mato Grosso Amazon; Santarém and the Tapajós valley.
The world’s greatest rainforest isn’t limited only to Brazil. But it is only here that you will experience the full scale of the Amazon’s rivers, its vast horizons and its endless green immensity. The numbers are worth savouring. The Brazilian Amazon holds the largest area of protected rainforest in the world (the 60,000 sq km Amazon Conservation Complex); the river itself hides an island larger than Belgium in its mouth; and of the Amazon’s 1,100 tributaries, the Rio Negro measures some 30km wide at its largest point, just north of Manaus, and hides an archipelago of more than 400 rainforest-covered islands within its tea-black waters. The scale is almost mind-boggling.
The Amazon’s biodiversity – some 10% of the world’s total – is just as impressive but you’ll struggle to see much of it; the forest is too huge a hiding place. Nonetheless, you can expect to see river dolphins, caimans and various monkeys, as well as scores of spectacular birds, from fishing hawks to huge macaws. And while the further you go from the cities, the more wonders you will see, even here the Amazon is far from empty of humans; an estimated 200 Indigenous groups have managed the forest for millennia. Visit the jungles with them as guests to ensure your money goes directly to supporting Indigenous-run businesses.
There are four principal access points to the Brazilian Amazon, which can all be linked together if you want to explore it in depth. The easiest to reach is Manaus in Amazonas state, despite this city of some 2 million people largely being isolated from the rest of Brazil by road. The best of the short and long river cruises leave from here, deep in the central Amazon, with many of them going up the 2,250km-long Rio Negro, which meets the Amazon proper in Manaus.
The best jungle lodges are found in Mato Grosso state in the southern Amazon; these are typically reachable either from the cities of Cuiabá or Alta Floresta. The wildlife guiding and facilities at lodges such as Cristalino are among the best in the world, though the rivers here are smaller and the landscapes less dramatic.
Pará state, where the Amazon meets the Atlantic, offers different experiences to those of Manaus or Mato Grosso. Access is through two beautiful, if frayed, former Portuguese colonial cities, Belém and Santarém, which are connected to Manaus and the rest of Brazil by air. From the former you can reach the island of Marajó, which is fringed with mangroves and long stretches of sand. Santarém lies an hour from the gorgeous village of Alter do Chão, which sits over a half-moon strand of bone-white beach, amid a sapphire-blue river fringed by cerrado woodlands and vast stands of ancient rainforest.
Regular flights on the principal Brazilian carriers connect the Amazon cities with the rest of the country (usually with a change of plane in São Paulo or Brasília). Alta Floresta is reachable from Cuiabá.
ASK A LOCAL
“All my life, I have slept out in the forest, sometimes in the remotest locations. I still find waking in the morning to the Amazon dawn chorus to be completely magical – something a visitor shouldn’t miss. After the adrenaline of the night, you wake to a symphony of living nature: the call of songbirds, the chorus of parakeets and macaws, the sound of river dolphins coming up for air, the chirrup of foraging monkeys and, sometimes, in the distance, the haunting dog-like bark of a jaguar marking its territory.”
1. Visit the Amazon with an Indigenous-owned tour operator
The Amazon is no empty wilderness. There were people living here nearly 10,000 years before Stonehenge. Brazil is home to some 260 Indigenous nations today, and there are companies throughout the Amazon Basin offering experiences with them. But the only Indigenous-owned and -run tour operator in the Brazilian Amazon is that of Munduruku guide Saru, who recently appeared in Robson Green’s Into the Amazon TV series. He offers bespoke wilderness experiences that he has grown to love over a lifetime.
You’ll learn how to fish, use a zarabatana blow pipe and find medicinal plants, as well as how to feel the wilds as he does. All trips begin and end in Novo Airão village, a couple of hours from Manaus by car, and travel through the Anavilhanas archipelago and up into a string of the lesser-visited tributaries, creeks and flooded forest areas off the Rio Negro. Contact iurys_didier on Instagram, call +55 92 8540 5367 on WhatsApp, or approach through UK representative The Earth Trip to book a trip
2. Meet buffalos in the rainforest
No one is quite sure how Asian water buffalos ended-up on Marajó island, in the mouth of the Amazon. According to one story, they were being transported to southern Brazil to produce mozzarella when the shoddy ship carrying them hit heavy weather off the coast of Pará; it sank, and the buffalos swam to safety. Today, they are part and parcel of rural life around the tiny towns of Souré and Salvaterra – the local police even patrol on buffalo back.
Locals make cheese from buffalo milk, and you can visit both the Marajoara cheese factory and a buffalo farm, as well as taste the cheese menu. It’s great fun, and these bovines make for particularly placid companions. Organising a trip to Marajó is easy. Journeys begin in Belém, and trips can be organised with Rumo Norte Expeditions, who can also arrange small hotel stays or homestays on the island.
3. Hear opera in the rainforest
During the late-19th-century rubber boom, under the governance of Eduardo Ribeiro, Manaus was one of the richest cities in the world. It was during this period that the streets began to fill with handsome Belle Époque-style mansions, while atop the low hill overlooking the river was built an astonishing Italianate domed opera house called the Teatro Amazonas. The great Neapolitan tenor Enrico Caruso even sang Ponchielli’s La Gioconda at its opening night in 1897.
Sadly, the Teatro fell silent when the short-lived rubber boom ended – after Henry Wickham smuggled rubber plants to London, allowing the British to begin growing them in India and East Asia. Having shut its doors in 1924, the opera house didn’t reopen until 1997, following a major refurbishment. It’s a grand sight, complete with Venetian Murano glass chandeliers and painted stage curtains by Crispim do Amaral depicting the allegorical figures of the rivers Negro and Solimões (Amazon) embracing in Manaus. Today, the Teatro is home to its own orchestra (the Amazonas Philharmonic) and the world-class Festival Amazonas de Ópera (March–May).
4. Take a multi-day wildlife river cruise
The best wildlife cruises leave from Manaus or Santarém. Most journeys from the former take a few days to visit the Amazon around Manaus and the lower Rio Negro, reaching the southern end of the Anavilhanas islands. The riverscapes are spectacular, and you can see caimans, dolphins and myriad waterbirds. Journey Latin America are a reliable operator when it comes to booking small-boat cruises here. The boats are comfortable double-decker river cruisers with space for a dozen or so in their handsome wooden cabins. But most of these forests are well-tramped by humans; to get further afield, you’ll need a guide like Saru (see No 1).
Trips out of Santarém come in two varieties: day journeys across the blue Rio Tapajós to wild beaches and the huge Tapajós River National Forest, or multi-day excursions along smaller tributaries such as the Arapiuns. These can be organised through Rumo Norte Expeditions.
Rio de Janeiro & the Green Coast
Explore the city of carnival and samba, then escape to the historic towns and pristine islands of the Green Coast for peace and quiet
Best for: Impressive wild and urban views, light hikes, coastal wildlife and beaches.
Why go? Hike, paddleboard and surf by day in Rio, then samba dance the night away at a club in Lapa. You can spot unique birds and primates in pristine forest, stroll to remote beaches on car-free Ilha Grande, or explore the wilderness around the Portuguese-colonial town of Paraty.
Route: Rio de Janeiro; Reserva Ecológica de Guapiaçu (REGUA Reserve); Ilha Grande; Paraty.
W hether it’s the sound of The Girl from Ipanema oozing from a beachside bar, the swing of samba, the roar of a football crowd in the Maracanã stadium or the sight of cable cars rising up Sugarloaf mountain, few places capture South America’s natural beauty and easy-going exuberance like Rio. And all this is crowned by a giant statue of Christ watching from on high.
It takes at least 48 hours to explore the city’s must-sees. Allow a half-day just to visit the Christ the Redeemer statue (reached by funicular railway from the station in the Cosme Velho neighbourhood) and Sugarloaf mountain (buy tickets at the cable car station in Urca), then spend the morning or afternoon hiking or biking in Tijuca National Park, whose toucan-filled forests swathe the mountains that run through the centre of Rio.
Next, it’s time to explore some of Rio’s secrets. Take a tour of the UNESCO-listed old Afro-Brazilian sites in the city centre, where Rio samba and carnival began. Later, you can finish the day with a night of live music in one of the clubs that cluster around the arches of the historic Lapa aqueduct.
There are plenty of side trips too. Hike the hills and beaches of southern Rio on the Transcarioca trail, stopping at the Roberto Burle Marx gardens, created by the landscape architect who worked on designing the outdoor spaces of Brasília, Brazil’s purpose-built capital, in the 1950s. Or you can birdwatch in the REGUA Reserve, set in a wild stretch of the Atlantic Forest, a vast rainforest biome that runs to the coast and is home to more than 1,000 endemic bird species. If it’s raining, browse Rio’s historic churches, which include São Francisco da Penitência, decorated by one of colonial Brazil’s greatest artists of the Baroque style, Francisco Xavier de Brito.
Rio is not just a city; it’s also a state – one rippling with wild mountains. Along the Green Coast to Rio’s south, forest-covered ridges run to a bottle-green ocean breached by rugged islands. The best of these is Ilha Grande, a two-hour drive south of the city and an hour’s boat ride from the coast. There’s only one tiny town, Abraão (where most of the simple hotels lie) and no roads. Trails lead through the rainforest to spectacular beaches such as Lopes Mendes, or climb past waterfalls into the mountainous interior.
Further along the Green Coast is the delightful old Portuguese gold port of Paraty. Whitewashed belltowers and stately 17th-century townhouses – many of them converted into boutique hotels and restaurants – sit over rough flagstone streets that run to a harbour busy with small fishing boats.
The mountains of the Serra do Mar state park frame the town’s horizon, while islands fringed with golden beaches lie offshore. You can visit the latter on boat trips, which can be organised through your hotel or at Paraty’s quayside. There’s great hiking on the nearby Ponta da Juatinga peninsula, whose forests are pristine enough to house wild tapirs, pumas and jaguars. You can even see their paw prints on the lonelier stretches of beach.
ASK A LOCAL
“My hidden treasures in Rio are the islands of Gigóia and Primeira. Here you can take a boat tour around lush mangroves and spot broad-snouted caimans and capybaras in the wild. It’s the perfect escape, offering great seafood restaurants and nature just steps away from the city buzz. They are easy to visit on a day tour from Rio, yet few tourists ever make it there – they’re a genuine Carioca secret.”
1. Watch the sun sink behind the Christ statue from Sugarloaf mountain
The Sugarloaf is really two boulder mountains. The summit of the lower hill, Morro da Urca (220m), can be reached by cable car; you can also get there on foot via the Claudio Coutinho trail that leaves from Vermelha beach. Look out for kitten-sized marmoset monkeys in the trees on your way up.
The higher peak – Sugarloaf (396m) itself – can only be reached by cable car from Morro da Urca. The views from both are spectacular, but they are at their best just before and after sunset. As the light deepens behind the Christ statue in the distance, Rio twinkles into neon life behind the myriad bays and mountains. It’s a magical sight.
2. Hike to the Pico de Papagaio on Ilha Grande
Crowning Ilha Grande island, surrounded by dense jungle, perches a bizarre, jutting rock known as parrot (papagaio) peak – named because of its similarity to a bird’s head. You can reach it on a tough trail that cuts along beaches and over rocky peninsulas before winding sharply into the island’s thick forest, then climbing a precipitous, waterfall-fringed path.
At times, the going is almost vertical, and you’ll be drenched in sweat by the time you reach the top. But the views will leave you gasping. From atop Papagaio, the island’s ridges drop at your feet to the ocean, where strings of islets run north to a long sand bar and the distant boulders of Rio itself.
The hike takes around half a day. It’s a tough scramble, and you’ll need plenty of water, sunscreen and insect repellent. But don’t attempt it without a guide; tourists have been known to find themselves lost for days in Ilha Grande’s central jungles.
3. Take a helicopter ride over Rio’s skyline
It’s all about the views in Rio: looking down from the foot of the Christ statue or along the 4km-long sandy stretch of Ipanema and Copacabana to the mountains, or out from the terraces of Aprazível restaurant, cocktail in hand, with Rio at your feet. There is always something to catch the eye.
But the best views of all are from inside a helicopter above the city’s bays, islands and boulder mountains as you swoop over the Sugarloaf and hover above the head of the Christ statue. Flights cost from around £100 for 20 minutes and leave from the shore of the heart-shaped Rodrigo de Freitas lagoon. If you’re a keen (and fearless) photographer and book ahead, they’ll even take the helicopter doors off.
Need to know
When to go
Brazil encompasses a number of time zones and climates. In the south and south-east, the weather turns chillier from April until October, which is dry season in the Pantanal. Bahia and the north-east are warm all year round but wettest between April and July. The Amazon’s wet season is between December and June, with many areas flooded from April until August. The rivers fall between October and February, exposing sandy beaches.
Getting there & around
If your first stop is Rio or São Paulo, take one of the daily direct flights from Heathrow with British Airways or LATAM. These take around 12 hours. If heading to the north-east, save yourself long transit times and transfers within Brazil by flying with TAP via Lisbon, which connects to most of Brazil’s state capitals in around six to eight hours.
Brazil is vast. A dozen airlines shuttle from city to city, via the hubs of São Paulo, Brasília and Rio. Journey times vary between an hour (São Paulo–Rio) and more than four hours (Rio–Manaus).
Carbon offset
A return flight from London to Rio de Janeiro produces around 920kg of carbon dioxide per passenger. Wanderlust encourages you to offset your travel footprint through a reputable provider.
Further information
Visit the Brazilian Tourist Board website at visitbrasil.com.
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