Rio fills three days. Brazil fills the rest of the trip.
Which Christ the Redeemer ticket avoids the two-hour queue. What a day at Iguaçu costs from the Brazilian bank. Whether the favela walk is the right thing to book. Reviews of every tour you can book in Brazil.
01
The cable car at sunset, a samba lesson in Ipanema, both banks of Iguaçu, a sail off Sugarloaf.
Four bookings that a first week in Brazil gets built around. What each costs, and what the travellers who took it say.
01The late afternoonSugarloaf Cable Car Official TicketTwo cable-car stages onto the Pão de Açúcar. Go up an hour before sunset and come back down after the bay lights up.
02The evening classBeginner Samba Lesson in IpanemaAn hour of samba with a teacher in Ipanema, so you are not the one standing still in Lapa on Friday night.
03The day at the fallsFull-Day Tour of Brazil & Argentina SidesBoth banks of Iguaçu in one long day, ending on the Argentine walkways over the Devil’s Throat.
04The last eveningSunset Sailing TourTwo hours under sail out of Marina da Glória, with the light going off Sugarloaf behind you.
Corcovado, the Pão de Açúcar and the Maracanã: which one to book first.
The views everyone flies in for, and what each costs before you add the taxi. Cloud sits on Corcovado through most summer afternoons, so the statue takes the morning and the cable car takes the sunset.
The days out more travellers book than anything else in Brazil.
See every Brazilian tour →The tours with the longest queue of travellers behind them, and what earns each one the slot.
Sugarloaf Cable Car Official Ticket
Make your own way to Sugarloaf Mountain, exchange your voucher or scan your official ticket, and ride both cable-car routes to the summit. You get free time for viewpoints, shops, bars, and food. Sunset is beautiful but busy, so arrive early and consider fast-track access if available.
From · $46
Read our review →
Christ the Redeemer, Sugarloaf, Selaron & BBQ Lunch
from $69
Half-Day Rocinha Favela Walking Tour
from $35
Angra dos Reis and Ilha Grande Full-Day Tour
from $77
Maracanã Stadium Official Entrance Ticket
from $24
Full-Day Tour of Brazil & Argentina Sides
from $63
Beginner Samba Lesson in Ipanema
from $25
Canela Cable Car Park Ticket
from $23
Sunset Sailing Tour
from $75
Pub Crawl in Lapa with Cachaça Tasting and Live Samba
from $33
Christ, Selaron Steps, and Tijuca Park Tour
from $68
Brazil by price: what each kind of day costs.
Every tour on the site, grouped by what it costs. A cable car, a samba lesson and a guided favela walk all land under the price of dinner in Ipanema.
Entry to the statue and the cable car, samba lessons, guided favela walks and the Lapa pub crawl.
The full days: Iguaçu from the Brazilian bank, Ilha Grande by schooner, the Tijuca jeep run, city tours that end at lunch.
Helicopters over the bay, hang gliding off Pedra Bonita, and a driver who waits while you swim.
- 1Hang Gliding Adventurefrom $229
- 2Helicopter Tourfrom $220
- 3Hang Gliding Tandem Flightfrom $301
South of Rio the road is slower than the boat.
Schooners out of Angra dos Reis to Ilha Grande, the green water at Arraial do Cabo, the beach run around Búzios and a sunset sail from Marina da Glória. This coastline was laid out for hulls, not for hire cars.
Three Brazilian days that could not happen anywhere else.
Mountains and beaches are everywhere. A staircase tiled by one man for twenty years, a glider launching off a city cliff onto the sand, and a desert that fills with blue lagoons are not.
The Selarón Steps
Jorge Selarón spent two decades covering the staircase between Lapa and Santa Teresa in tiles sent to him from every country he could reach, and called it his gift to the Brazilian people. There are 215 steps under roughly two thousand tiles. Walk up early: from midday the stairs are a photo queue that moves one person at a time.
- 1Christ the Redeemer, Sugarloaf, Selaron & BBQ Lunch★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 2,428 reviews
- 2Christ, Selaron Steps, and Tijuca Park Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 857 reviews
- 3Santa Teresa, Lapa, and Cinelândia with Tram Ride and Selarón Steps★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 274 reviews
Hang gliding onto São Conrado
The ramp sits on Pedra Bonita, about 1,700 feet above the beach, and the flight lands on the sand at São Conrado roughly ten minutes later. Pilots fly tandem all year and cancel on wind rather than argue with it, which is why the morning slot is the one that actually flies. No experience is asked of you; a running start is.
- 1Hang Gliding Adventure★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 760 reviews
- 2Hang Gliding Tandem Flight★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 426 reviews
- 3Paragliding Tandem Flight★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 186 reviews
The lagoons at Lençóis Maranhenses
Rain falls on 600 square miles of white dunes between January and May, cannot drain through the sand, and leaves lagoons the colour of a swimming pool. They are deepest around July and mostly gone by November. Trips run in 4x4s out of Barreirinhas, and the walk over the last dune is the part everyone describes afterwards.
- 1Full-day excursion Lencois Marnahenses, Lagoa Azul & Lagoa Bonita combined★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 171 reviews
- 2Full Day Tour -2 Lagoons (Azul and Bonita)★★★★★★★★★★ 4.4 · 137 reviews
- 3Sunset Experience in Bonita Lagoon★★★★★★★★★★ 4.4 · 86 reviews
When the cloud sits on Corcovado, go low and go indoors.
Summer afternoons here build a thunderstorm out of a blue morning, and the statue disappears into cloud for hours at a time. Waiting at the top is the one plan that never works. The stadium, the samba halls, a long churrasco and the alleys of Santa Teresa all run whatever the sky is doing.
São Paulo eats, the south turns cold, and first-timers expect neither.
Seven hours of São Paulo in a single day, a cable car over the canyon at Canela, cocoa and winter cabins in Gramado, and an island at Florianópolis with more than forty beaches on it. The second trip to Brazil usually starts down here.
- 1Canela Cable Car Park Ticketfrom $23
- 2Jolimont Winery Tour – Visitation and Tasting – Canela RSfrom $23
- 3Main City Sights in 7 Hours – Shared Group Tourfrom $85
Rio first, then whichever corner of Brazil your next flight reaches.
The city that owns half this catalogue, the falls on the Argentine border, an island coast reached by schooner, the clearest water on the Atlantic side, the country’s biggest city and the old capital in the north. Six starting points, and the best day out in each.
Four things in Brazil you cannot leave until you land.
Most of this country can be arranged over breakfast. These four run on timed entry, a football calendar, a rainy season and a wind that decides each morning.
- 01Christ the Redeemer Entry Ticket by Corcovado TrainEntry to the statue is timed and capped. The cog train and the vans both sell their early slots first, and those are the ones that beat the cloud.
- 02Maracanã Stadium Official Entrance TicketStadium hours shrink to nothing whenever there is a fixture, and two big clubs play here. Pick the day around the match calendar, not the other way round.
- 03Full-Day Tour of Brazil & Argentina SidesThe Brazilian bank is a half day; crossing to the Argentine walkways takes a whole one, and some passports need the visa sorted before you leave home.
- 04Hang Gliding AdventureFlights go when the wind off the ocean allows, which usually means the morning. Operators rebook rather than push their luck, so keep a spare day behind it.
By place — Rio, the coast, and the long way north
By kind of day — summit, beach, forest or dancefloor
Rio, the coast road south, then the falls: the run most first visits make.
Arraial do Cabo
Ilha GrandeReviewed this week, from Copacabana to the Amazon.
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