Brazil Explorer Trips

Nicely paced trip with Ilha Grande a break from the cities and Paraty interesting for its history. No words to describe Iguassu Falls, just spectacular. An extra day or 2 in Rio advisable. Two nights at the rainforest lodge, Argentinian side of the Falls , would have been preferable to 2 nights at Taroba Express. Our guide Diego was very knowledgeable both about Argentina and Brazil, and struck the right balance between being professional and efficient and friendly and sociable. I would recommend adding this trip on to North West Argentina which I did before as the dates fitted. The contrasts in landscape were stunning and worth the effort of spending a month travelling.

This was a fabulous trip, our tour leader Diego, was brilliant. He worked tirelessly to ensure we were all safe and got the best out of our time there. I travelled in October the weather was untypical, hot, cold, wet and dry, all extremes of, so I'd recommend taking a full range of clothing. Use the laundries, washing doesn't dry in the humid air. All the hotels were fine, but none had a kettle/coffee making facilities, so if it's important to you, squeeze one in your luggage. A couple of the rooms were quite small, especially for a twin share, but manageable. The travelling between towns was ok. There's lots and lots to see and do in Buenos Aires, including lots of market stalls around the Recoleta area with handmade crafts etc. The hop on/off bus helps sort out your own explorations. And Argentina's reputation for steak is well deserved! Iguazu did not disappoint, both sides were staggering. Be sure to have a waterproof phone cover. Paraty was charming and Ihla Grande a delight sadly a bit too cold for swimming. Traffic into Rio was like the M25. Rio itself is a vibrant place. Loads of places to eat, explore, far too many highlights to fit into the time available. If you can manage an extra day at each end of this trip you won't regret it. Still humming The girl from Ipanema.

This trip is not for the faint- hearted. But for me, part of the appeal was very basic accommodation, sleeping in a hammock on deck and showering in cold river water. If you don't expect any luxury on the water, you'll love it. With no changing facilities on board apart from a rudimentary loo/ shower you get to know your fellow travellers very well. And great teamwork when the boat was caught in a storm, battening diwn the hatches. Explore make it clear that it isn't what most people would describe as a cruise!

The accommodation was as a described in the trip notes varying from a Radisson hotel to cute beach huts, cramped metal cabins on the ferry and hammocks close together on the deck of our private boat. If you can't cope with that then don't book this trip. We had a great group and a wonderful guide who coalesced as friends and had an amazing experience. Don't expect to see much mammalian or reptilian wildlife apart from some monkeys, dolphins and Cayman but on the motorised canoe trip on the smaller reaches of the Rio ***** and on Marajo there was copious exotic bird life. Be super careful about food hygiene on the public ferry - a few of us succumbed - but otherwise the food was good and the fruit delicious as was the piranah soup made from the piranah we caught that day.

This is an excellent trip which gives an insight into life and living on the mighty Amazon. From Belem over to Marajo Island, the size of Holland, to understand the importance of the buffalo on this island and sample all of the products, and then back to Belem. From Belem to Santarem the hustle and bustle of a passenger ferry, living life on board in a hammock alongside the ultra friendly locals. I loved the stops at towns en route to watch the frenzy of loading and unloading, and even better watching how the traders stranded on the ferry when it left dealt with still being on board. Option 1, jump off and swim to the dock. Option 2, try to get a small boat to come alongside and grab a lift back to the dock, or Option 3, accept you're going all the way from Monte Alegre to Santarem (a few hours) and explain to your wife where you've been!!!!!! From Santarem to Alter de Chao, a lovely little town on the banks of the Rio Tapajos, beautiful beaches and forests, the best pineapple, sweet and juicy, and I actually don't even like pineapple, and add in some purple dragonfruit, lovely. From Manaus the voyage up the river will put you right into the Amazon and life around it. Go and do some piranha fishing, pink dolphin observing and steamy jungle walking, but its a busy part of the trip so dont expect a lot of downtime. And finally, the slightly weirdness of the Meeting of the Waters, where the ***** and Solimoes join to form the Amazon proper. Just make sure you enjoy with the odd caipirinha

What set this apart was the CEOs (Oscar and Flor). They really made this tlwhole trip easy. They relayed all the information so you could just relax and enjoy the holiday. Their experience, knowledge and support was invaluable to make this a holiday to just sit back and relax. They made all the travel, border crossings and activities seem so easy but the amount of work they do behind the scenes to enable all of this, I give them a lot of credit.