Brazil, one booking at a time.
Which Christ the Redeemer ticket skips the queue. Whether the falls are better from the Brazilian side. What a jungle lodge really costs. Reviews of the tours you are choosing between.
Rio needs more days than anyone books for it.
The statue and the cable car are two mornings. Then there is the Tijuca rainforest inside the city limits, a boat out to Ilha Grande, a samba rehearsal in Lapa and the beach you were supposed to be lying on.
The days Brazil is famous for.
The statue, the cable car, the falls, the sand and the drums. Six days that most Brazil itineraries are built around, and the best way to book each one.
Iguaçu Falls: pick a side, or give it the whole day.
All Iguaçu tours →
Brazil gives you the panorama; Argentina gives you the catwalks over the Devil’s Throat. The border crossing eats two hours, so the choice is really about how much of the day you are willing to spend wet.
Brazil’s panorama and Argentina’s catwalks
The Brazilian trail is one long balcony and takes two hours. Argentina is a network of walkways and a park train, and it takes the rest of the day.
The boat that drives into the spray
Down the canyon by jeep, then a rigid inflatable straight under the Três Mosqueteiros drops. Nothing you are carrying stays dry, which is the point.
The bird park, the dam and the border
Foz is a three-country corner. The bird park sits at the falls’ gate, Itaipu is twenty minutes upriver, and Paraguay is over the bridge.
What a real day out in Brazil costs.
Every tour on the site, grouped by what it actually costs. The bands come from the prices on these pages, not from a rule of thumb.
Entry tickets, favela walks, samba lessons and the cable cars — most of Rio’s greatest hits sit here.
The full-day classics: both sides of Iguaçu, the Christ-and-Sugarloaf combinations, schooner days with lunch.
Jungle lodges, helicopter minutes over the bay, private drivers and the flights off Pedra Bonita.
Brazil’s most popular tours.
Every review →The tours more travellers take than anything else in the country, and what each one is actually like on the day.
1
6-Stop Highlights of Rio with Lunch
See Rio’s top sights in one day, from Christ the Redeemer and Sugarloaf to Selarón Steps, with lunch and hotel pickup.
From · $130
Read our review →2
Christ the Redeemer Entry Ticket by Corcovado Train
from $45
3
Rio’s City Tour – Tickets for Christ, Sugar Loaf & Lunch included
from $159
4
Rafting – Brotas – Rio Jacaré Pepira
from $37
5
Full Day: Christ Redeemer, Sugarloaf, City Tour & Barbecue Lunch
from $74
6
Rocinha Favela Walking Tour with Local Guide
from $36
7
Sugarloaf Cable Car Official Ticket
from $46
8
Rio’s Full Day: Selarón Steps, Christ & Sugarloaf – Tickets & Lunch Included
from $159
Three things that only happen in Brazil.
Beaches and rainforest exist elsewhere. Launching off a mountain into a city beach, a stadium treated as a cathedral and a samba school rehearsing for a February that is still months away do not.
The Pedra Bonita Launch
A wooden ramp on the shoulder of Pedra Bonita, a run of four steps, and then eight or nine minutes of silence over the Tijuca forest before you land on São Conrado beach with the traffic going past. It is tandem only and it is weather-called on the morning: no wind from the right quarter, no flight, and every operator will simply move you to the next clear day.
- 1Hang gliding Hang gliding Experience Rotorfly★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 2,009 reviews
- 2Hang Gliding Adventure★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 760 reviews
- 3Hang Gliding Tandem Flight★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 426 reviews
The Samba School Night
Each escola de samba has its own hall, and from spring onwards they rehearse the coming Carnival in public most weeks. There is no stage: the drum line sets up in the middle and the room turns around it until two in the morning. Sambadrome seats are the February version and they are sold by sector, but the rehearsals are the year-round one.
- 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
Maracanã
The tour walks you down the players’ tunnel, through the changing rooms and out to pitchside, past the handprints of the men Brazilians argue about. It runs on non-match days only, and the fixture list for Flamengo and Fluminense lands late, so a tour booked weeks out can be moved by a kick-off.
- 1Maracanã Stadium Official Entrance Ticket★★★★★★★★★★ 4.4 · 1,632 reviews
- 2Skip The Line to Christ Redeemer By Train with Maracanã Stadium★★★★★★★★★★ 3.5 · 235 reviews
- 3Skip the Line Maracana Stadium Entrance Ticket★★★★★★★★★★ 4.0 · 203 reviews
The Amazon begins where two rivers refuse to mix.
Black water from the Negro runs alongside sandy water from the Solimões for kilometres before they blend, and every Manaus trip starts by driving a boat down the seam. After that it is lodges, night canoes, and a guide who hears things you cannot.
- 1One-Day Amazon Jungle Experiencefrom $100
- 2Full-Day Tour on the Amazon Riverfrom $55
- 3Indian Village and Meeting of the Waters Tourfrom $150
Book these before you fly to Brazil.
Most of Brazil can be arranged from your hotel the night before. These four cannot: they run on ticket releases, wind, and a football calendar that nobody publishes far enough ahead.
- 01Carnival Backstage Tour at Samba City with CocktailFive nights a year, sold by sector and grandstand. The good boxes are spoken for long before February.
- 02Christ the Redeemer Entry Ticket by Corcovado TrainThe cog train runs to a fixed timetable and entry is by time slot. Morning slots, the ones with the clear view, go first.
- 03Maracanã Stadium Official Entrance TicketThe tour stops on match days, and the fixtures are confirmed only a few weeks ahead. Book it, then check the calendar again.
- 04Hang gliding Hang gliding Experience RotorflyOne ramp, a handful of tandem slots a day, and a flight that only happens if the wind agrees. Give it a spare day in the itinerary.
Brazil has 7,400 km of coastline. Start here.
Rio’s beaches are city beaches, and glorious for it. The ones that empty your camera are further out: the schooner islands off Angra, the turtle water at Arraial, the dunes above Fortaleza where the road runs out and the buggies take over.
Rio does not go quiet when the beach empties.
All nights out →
More than a Pub Crawl: An Authentic Night Experience in Rio
Read our review →More than a Pub Crawl: An Authentic Night Experience in Rio
Read our review →
A Rio afternoon can flood in twenty minutes.
The Brazilian summer is also the wet season, and the rain arrives as a wall rather than a drizzle. It passes as fast as it came, and the hour in between is best spent somewhere with a roof: a kitchen, a drum hall, a museum, a stadium tunnel, a bar with a decent cachaça shelf.
By region — wherever you land
Rio de Janeiro611 tours
São Paulo117 tours
Foz do Iguaçu221 tours
Salvador & Bahia68 tours
Manaus & the Amazon116 tours
Paraty & the Costa Verde103 tours
Fortaleza & Jericoacoara94 tours- All 14 regions →
By experience — what kind of day is it?
Rio to the Amazon, the way most first trips run.
The newest Brazil tour reviews.
All recent →
Cidade do Samba Behind-the-Scenes Carnival Tour in Rio de Janeiro
Read our review →
Christ Statue and Sugarloaf Private Tour with a Photographer
Read our review →
PRIVATE TOUR – Christ the Redeemer and Sugar Loaf
Read our review →
Private Tour of Christ the Redeemer in Rio de Janeiro
Read our review →
Christ the Redeemer, Selaron Steps and Santa Teresa Half-day Tour
Read our review →
Christ The Redeemer & Sunset At Sugarloaf with Tickets
Read our review →
Rio Carnival Experience at Backstage of Carnaval Factory (Pick-up included)
Read our review →
Rio Gay Tours: Christ Redeemer and Santa Teresa Artistry Area
Read our review →
Private Carnaval Experience with Pickup: Carnival backstage, Drink, Samba & more
Read our review →