Summary
The personification of tropical wonder, Brazil is a destination full of fascinating sights. South America’s largest – and only Portuguese-speaking – nation, it has a culture that’s unrivalled, traditions that take influences from across the globe and landscapes which are hard to find fault with. These range from the depths of the Amazon rainforest and crashing of Iguazu Falls to a coastline incorporating some of the best-known beaches in the world. The nation’s cities aren’t to be ignored either, with Rio de Janeiro in particular containing a wealth of captivating attractions including its statue of Christ the Redeemer.
Explore Brazil
Brazil
Description
To explore Brazil fully could take a lifetime. Bordered by no less than nine neighbouring nations and with an area equal to that of the United States, guided tours of Brazil are an advisable means of ensuring the country’s sheer size doesn’t limit what you can take out of travelling there.
Most travellers, whether joining Brazil escorted tours or other organised holidays, begin in Rio de Janeiro. And what an introduction this city known throughout the world simply as ‘Rio’ is able to provide! Visible from much of the city, the statue of Christ the Redeemer has been attracting crowds since it was first unveiled in 1931.
But this takes nothing away from this extraordinary public monument on Corcovado Mountain. One of several peaks creating arguably the most dramatic urban coastline in South America, Corcovado’s viewing platforms are worth reaching for their ever-enticing panoramas. The cable car to the even better-known Sugarloaf Mountain is similarly packed with sweeping vistas.
Before leaving Rio, be sure to hit the beach. Copacabana and Ipanema are likely to need no introduction, and for many residents they are as essential to city living as the metro system and town hall services. At their busiest on weekends and public holidays, when the entire city seems to head to their sands, even on a weekday morning visitors will encounter a whole spectrum of society there.
A two-hour domestic flight will see you swap the residential towers of Rio for the towering cascades of Iguazu Falls on the Brazil-Argentina border. A key attraction on our Wonders of Brazil and our Argentina and Brazil tour, Iguazu Falls offers a true appreciation of the might and majesty of the natural world.
Consisting of 275 individual falls, Iguazu forms the largest waterfall complex on Earth. As such, this is not an attraction to admire and leave straight away. Instead, it’s one that deserves at least two days of your time. Thankfully for those on Brazil and Argentina escorted tours, there’s a fantastic array of places to stay overlooking the falls on both sides of the frontier.
Should you feel like going further afield, Brazil’s Pantanal region is the largest tropical wetland area and biggest flooded grassland zone known to man. Its unique habitat is home to over 1,000 different species, including the guinea pig-like capybara (the world’s largest rodent), giant river otters, tapirs, jaguars and giant anteaters.
