Brazil: Rio de Janeiro, Paraty and Iguazú Falls

1. Jour 1 : Arrive in Rio de Janeiro

   Rio de Janeiro airport (GIG) to your hotel near Copacabana or Ipanema

   • Welcome dinner
   • Nuit : Rio de Janeiro
   Détail du jour 1

   Fly into Rio de Janeiro's international airport, Galeão (GIG). A driver meets you in the arrivals hall for the drive of about 45 minutes to an hour, depending on traffic, to your hotel near the beach in Copacabana or Ipanema. Rio sits between steep granite hills and the Atlantic, and that setting of mountain, forest and sea has been listed by UNESCO since 2012, so even the airport drive gives you the shape of the city. If you land early, walk the black-and-white wave pavement of the Copacabana promenade or sit at a beach kiosk with a coconut. At about 6 pm your See Sight Tours guide meets the group for a short briefing on the days ahead: how they are paced, what to carry, and what to leave in the hotel safe in a big city. Then we walk to a local restaurant for a welcome dinner together. Plan to land by mid-afternoon to make the briefing; late arrivals are met and briefed the next morning.

   Compris

   • Pick-up at Rio de Janeiro airport (GIG)
   • Welcome briefing with your guide
   • Welcome dinner

   Temps libre : Free until the evening briefing

2. Jour 2 : Christ the Redeemer on an early train, then Santa Teresa

   Copacabana to Cosme Velho and Corcovado, then Santa Teresa and the Selarón Steps

   • En train
   • Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
   • Nuit : Rio de Janeiro
   Détail du jour 2

   We leave the hotel at about 7:30 am, an early start, for the Cosme Velho station and one of the first trains of the day up Corcovado (the first usually runs at about 8 am), a rack railway that has climbed through the Tijuca forest since 1884. Going early matters: by mid-morning the terrace at the foot of Christ the Redeemer is packed, and cloud often gathers on the summit as the day warms. The statue, finished in 1931 and about 30 m tall, stands on a peak of about 700 m, with Sugarloaf, Guanabara Bay and the beaches laid out below. Back down, we drive across to Santa Teresa, the hilltop neighbourhood of old mansions, artists' studios and the yellow tram, and walk its streets with your guide. Lunch is a sit-down meal in Santa Teresa. Then we walk down the Selarón Steps, the 215 steps that Chilean-born artist Jorge Selarón covered in tiles sent from around the world, and drive back to the hotel. The rest of the afternoon is free for the beach.

   Compris

   • Corcovado train and Christ the Redeemer, on one of the first departures
   • Santa Teresa on foot with your guide
   • Sit-down lunch in Santa Teresa
   • The Selarón Steps

   Option plus facile : Skip the Selarón Steps and ride back to the hotel after lunch; the van meets the group at the bottom.

   Temps libre : Afternoon free

   Activité : About 3 km on foot, on cobbles and steps; the steps are walked downhill.

   

3. Jour 3 : Tijuca Forest, the Botanical Garden and Sugarloaf at sunset

   Tijuca National Park and the Vista Chinesa, the Botanical Garden, then Urca and Sugarloaf

   • Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
   • Nuit : Rio de Janeiro
   Détail du jour 3

   Rio has a rainforest inside the city. Much of Tijuca National Park was replanted from the 1860s on cleared coffee land. We drive up through it in the morning, stop at the Vista Chinesa pavilion for the view over the lagoon and Ipanema, and walk to the Cascatinha Taunay waterfall. Then down to the Botanical Garden, founded in 1808 by the Portuguese prince regent, for its avenue of royal palms and the orchid house, and lunch nearby in the Jardim Botânico neighbourhood. The afternoon is free to rest or swim, and that break is what makes a forest morning and a sunset evening sit comfortably in one day. Late in the day we take the two cable cars up Sugarloaf, first to Morro da Urca and then to the 396 m summit, timed for sunset, when the lights of Copacabana come on and Christ the Redeemer catches the last of the sun across the bay. Dinner afterwards is your choice; Urca and Botafogo are good for it.

   Compris

   • Tijuca National Park: the Vista Chinesa and the Cascatinha Taunay waterfall
   • The Botanical Garden
   • Sit-down lunch in Jardim Botânico
   • Sugarloaf cable cars at sunset

   Option plus facile : Skip the forest walk and spend longer in the Botanical Garden, with a coffee in its café.

   Option plus active : Hike Pedra Bonita instead of the Vista Chinesa: a steep forest trail of about 1 km to a granite summit at about 690 m, where hang gliders launch, with a view over São Conrado and Pedra da Gávea.

   Temps libre : Afternoon free

   Activité : Sugarloaf times move with sunset through the year; your guide confirms the time each week.

   

4. Jour 4 : Little Africa and the old centre

   Gamboa and Saúde in the port district, then Praça XV and Cinelândia

   • Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
   • Nuit : Rio de Janeiro
   Détail du jour 4

   This morning a local guide from the community leads a walk through Pequena África, Little Africa, the port district at the heart of Afro-Brazilian Rio. At the Valongo Wharf, uncovered during port works in 2011 and listed by UNESCO in 2017, you stand on the stone landing where enslaved Africans were brought ashore in the early 19th century, in numbers the UNESCO listing puts in the hundreds of thousands. Nearby, the Instituto Pretos Novos keeps the memory of a burial ground found under a family house in 1996, and Pedra do Sal, the rock stairway where Bahian dockworkers and musicians gathered, is remembered as one of the birthplaces of samba. We walk on past the Museum of Tomorrow on Praça Mauá into the old centre: Praça XV and the colonial Paço Imperial, then the Theatro Municipal on Cinelândia. Lunch is a sit-down meal in the centre. The afternoon is free, and in the evening your guide can take anyone who wants to the samba at Pedra do Sal when it runs.

   Compris

   • Little Africa walk with a local guide: the Valongo Wharf, the Instituto Pretos Novos and Pedra do Sal
   • The old centre: Praça Mauá, Praça XV, the Paço Imperial and the Theatro Municipal
   • Sit-down lunch in the centre

   Activités en option

   • Samba at Pedra do Sal, when it runs (usually Monday nights)
   • A samba school rehearsal (roughly September to Carnival)
   • A football match at the Maracanã when the fixtures fit

   Temps libre : Afternoon and evening free

   Activité : About 4 km on foot on city pavements, with short van hops between areas.

5. Jour 5 : The Costa Verde road to Paraty

   Rio de Janeiro to Paraty on the BR-101 along the Costa Verde

   • Environ 4 h de route
   • Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
   • Nuit : Paraty
   Détail du jour 5

   After breakfast we leave Rio on the Rio-Santos road, the BR-101, which follows the Costa Verde, the green coast, for about 250 km and four hours to Paraty. It is the most scenic drive of the trip: forest running down to the sea, fishing villages and the island-dotted bay of Ilha Grande. We make a coffee and viewpoint stop on the coast and reach Paraty in time for lunch. Paraty grew rich in the 18th century as the port that shipped gold from Minas Gerais to Portugal, then fell quiet for more than a century when trade moved to other routes, which is why its centre survived almost untouched; with Ilha Grande it was listed by UNESCO in 2019. In the afternoon your guide walks you through the car-free historic centre, with its uneven stone streets built so that the highest tides wash into them, past the white church of Santa Rita, before a tasting at a cachaça distillery just outside town. The evening is yours.

   Compris

   • Drive along the Costa Verde with a coffee and viewpoint stop on the coast
   • Sit-down lunch in Paraty
   • Guided walk of Paraty's historic centre
   • Cachaça tasting at a local distillery

   Temps libre : Evening free

   Activité : The stone streets are uneven and slippery when wet; wear shoes with grip.

   

6. Jour 6 : Trindade's natural pool and a schooner into the evening

   Paraty to Trindade and back, then a schooner in Paraty Bay

   • Environ 1.5 h de route
   • Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
   • Nuit : Paraty
   Détail du jour 6

   We leave at about 8 am and drive about 25 km south, over a steep forest road, to Trindade, a fishing village of granite boulders and surf beaches on the edge of the Serra da Bocaina National Park. From Praia do Meio a rocky trail of 20 to 30 minutes leads to the Cachadaço natural pool, a basin of clear, calm sea water walled off by boulders. It is at its best at a low tide and before the day-trip buses arrive around midday, which is why we go early. Swim, snorkel or sit on the rocks, then a sit-down lunch in Trindade. We are back in Paraty by about 2 pm, and in mid-afternoon we board a schooner chartered for our group, not a shared party boat with loud music, and cruise the bay among its forested islands, with two stops to swim from the boat or a small beach. We sail back into the harbour as the light goes gold behind the mountains, and the evening is free.

   Compris

   • Trindade and the Cachadaço natural pool
   • Sit-down lunch in Trindade
   • Afternoon schooner cruise in Paraty Bay, chartered for our group, with swim stops

   Option plus facile : Stay on the beach at Praia do Meio with a coffee while the others walk to the pool, or skip Trindade and spend the morning in Paraty before the schooner.

   Option plus active : Paddle a kayak or stand-up board from the schooner at the swim stops, where the crew carry them.

   Temps libre : Evening free

   Activité : The Cachadaço trail crosses rocks and roots; water shoes help in the pool. Tide times decide how early we leave.

   

7. Jour 7 : Back along the coast and a flight to Iguazú

   Paraty to Rio de Janeiro airport by road, then a flight to Foz do Iguaçu

   • Environ 4.5 h de route
   • Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
   • Nuit : Foz do Iguaçu
   Détail du jour 7

   Today is the trip's one long travel day, and we keep it to one road leg and one flight. We leave Paraty at about 8 am and drive back along the coast to Rio's Galeão airport, about 270 km and four to four and a half hours with a coffee stop. That is slightly over our usual four-hour cap because there is no shorter way from Paraty to an airport with direct flights to the falls; going via São Paulo would mean a longer drive. Lunch is a sit-down meal near the airport before check-in. The flight to Foz do Iguaçu (IGU) leaves in the mid to late afternoon (ops confirm the schedule) and takes a little over two hours, and the airport sits between the town and the national park, so you reach the hotel by late afternoon or early evening. Foz is a working border city close to where Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay meet at the junction of the Iguaçu and Paraná rivers. The evening is free; your guide suggests places to eat and briefs you on tomorrow's border crossing.

   Compris

   • Drive from Paraty to Rio de Janeiro airport with a coffee stop
   • Sit-down lunch before check-in
   • Flight from Rio de Janeiro to Foz do Iguaçu (IGU)
   • Transfer to your hotel in Foz do Iguaçu

   Temps libre : Evening free

   Activité : Pack your swimsuit and wet things in a separate bag for the flight; we confirm the baggage allowance with the airline when we book the flight.

8. Jour 8 : The Argentine side and the Devil's Throat

   Foz do Iguaçu across the Tancredo Neves bridge to Iguazú National Park in Argentina and back

   • Environ 1.5 h de route
   • Petit-déjeuner, repas du midi et repas du soir
   • Nuit : Foz do Iguaçu
   Détail du jour 8

   We leave Foz at about 7:15 am, the trip's earliest start, cross the Tancredo Neves bridge into Argentina with your passport, and are at the gate of Iguazú National Park, a UNESCO site since 1984, when it opens at 8 am. We go straight to the little forest train to the Devil's Throat station, then walk about 1 km on walkways across the wide, slow upper river to the edge of the Garganta del Diablo, a U-shaped chasm where a great share of the river drops about 80 m into a column of spray. Going first usually means fewer people on the platform. From there we walk the Upper Circuit along the lip of the falls and, after a sit-down lunch in the park, the Lower Circuit, which brings you close to the foot of the cascades through forest where coatis, toucans and butterflies are common. We are back in Foz by late afternoon for a farewell dinner together.

   Compris

   • Border crossing to Argentina and back with your guide
   • Iguazú National Park from opening: the park train, the Devil's Throat walkway, the Upper and Lower Circuits
   • Sit-down lunch in the park
   • Farewell dinner in Foz do Iguaçu

   Activités en option

   • Boat ride from the Lower Circuit into the spray at the foot of the falls (price shown at booking)

   Option plus facile : Skip the Lower Circuit, which has stairs, and rest at a café near the park station while the others walk it.

   Option plus active : Take the boat ride from the Lower Circuit up into the spray under the falls; you will be soaked.

   Activité : About 6 to 7 km on walkways and paths, with stairs on the Lower Circuit. Border queues vary; your guide handles the paperwork.

   

9. Jour 9 : The Brazilian side and departure

   Iguaçu National Park in Brazil, then Foz do Iguaçu airport (IGU)

   • Petit-déjeuner
   Détail du jour 9

   After breakfast and check-out we are at Brazil's Iguaçu National Park, a UNESCO site since 1986, when it opens at 9 am. Most of the falls lie on the Argentine side, which is exactly why this side has the view: a park bus takes us to the start of the Falls Trail, about 1.2 km of path along the canyon with the whole front of the cascades in sight across the water. It ends on a walkway that reaches out into the spray below the Devil's Throat, so wear clothes that can get wet or bring a light poncho, and a panoramic lift climbs back to the upper viewpoint. The walk takes about two hours at an easy pace. Afterwards there is time for the Parque das Aves bird park across the road, or a coffee, before the short drive, about 15 to 20 minutes, to Foz do Iguaçu airport (IGU). Book a flight leaving after about 2 pm to see the falls first; your guide sees you to the airport.

   Compris

   • Iguaçu National Park from opening: the park bus, the Falls Trail and the Devil's Throat walkway
   • Drop-off at Foz do Iguaçu airport (IGU)

   Activités en option

   • Parque das Aves bird park (price shown at booking)
   • Helicopter flight over the falls (price shown at booking)

   Option plus facile : Ride the panoramic lift both ways and watch from the upper viewpoint instead of walking the full trail.

   Activité : Book a flight leaving after about 2 pm. For an earlier flight we go from the hotel straight to the airport, and you see the Brazilian side only from the air.

   

Faune et météo : April to June and August to November bring warm days and less rain than the summer. From December to March Rio is hot and humid with afternoon storms, and the falls are often at their fullest. The volume at Iguazú changes with rain upstream, and after big floods the Devil's Throat walkway can close for a time; we tell you before you travel. Coatis, toucans and large butterflies are common in the parks; do not feed the coatis, which bite.

• Rio de Janeiro4 nuits
• Paraty2 nuits
• Foz do Iguaçu2 nuits