Brazil Green Travel

Both Wanessa and Bruno were incredibly generous and friendly people. They cared if we were enjoying the tour and always checked to see if we needed more time at the different locations. They advised about places to eat and looked after our wellbeing at all times. Communicating in English was easy with them. Bruno went above and beyond to give us the best experience touring Rio de Janeiro - Brasil. He helped us with different issues a few times.

Activity Reviews

Carioca Lifestyle and Carnival Culture (by Public Transport)

Rio de Janeiro

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Visit to the Botanical Gardens & Santa Teresa

Rio de Janeiro

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Excellent, excellent! Our wonderful tour guides were just like having local friends in Rio. I don't know what we would have done without them. They made sure that everything ran smoothly, organized activities for us that we thought of at the last minute and did some heavy duty problem solving - such as when my wife discovered she had left her medication at our hotel just as we arrived at Rio airport for our next destination. Thank-you KimKim, thank-you Renata and many thanks to Bruno and Wanessa, our lovely tour guides. I highly recommend your services, and I have left Brazil with very warm feelings.

Renata was great at providing various updates through the planning process, and dealing with some changing schedules.
But we ended up doing a lot of the work that we thought a travel agent would assist with. For example, we often found the better way to travel throughout the country and which flights to take instead of relying on her. Also in the past travel specialists have provided us with "must do" things or provided more guidance, and we were kind of left to do a lot of that ourselves.

Further, there were some things - like making sure water bottles were in the cars - were completely overlooked.

Hotel Reviews

Hotel Intercity Manaus

Manaus

It was fine, but nothing special. Good breakfast.

Juma Amazon Lodge

Autazes

It was fun staying in the tree lodges. But, there was no a/c.

Belmond Hotel das Cataratas

Foz do Iguaçu

Worth the extra money to be in the park. Sunset in the tower is a must do.

Activity Reviews

Transfer by hidroplane & immersion in the rainforest (JL - Day 1)

Brazil

Adventures in the Jungle Lodge (JL - Day 2)

Brazil

Some great activities. Wish there was a little more to do.

Iguaçu Falls Hike on the Argentina Side & Gran Aventura Boat Tour

Foz do Iguaçu

Amazing and our guide here was awesome.

Trip solid, but not perfect.
Renata was super helpful and very responsive. She was very good, and a pleasure to deal with in setting things up. A big thank you to her!!

The hotels were good, and very much inline with what I had asked for. That worked well. I am happy with the quality of the hotels given the quality/star level I requested. They fit the bill and were what I wanted and needed.

The logistics and information about contacting guides, and WhatsApp info was great, and very helpful in staying connected with guides.

The guides were all satisfactory to very good. It varied. Their English was all very good, and so there was no communication problem. Orico Soni Machado was fine to ok in Foz. He did was was needed, but he was busy preparing to leave on a personal trip the next day, and seemed distracted by that. He did though get me to the helicopter excursion, and that worked well; he clearly knew the area. His nephew helped to the final transfer to the airport, and helped me get boarding passes; he was responsive and communicative. Orico was fine, but I think he was ready for his personal trip the next day. The use of a group tour for the Argentine side worked very well, and the local guide, I've forgotten his name, did a fine if outstanding job keeping us moving and keeping track of us. This also kept costs down, and did not need to be a private trip. Good decision on that.

The best guide was Rocco Belletti. He also did both transfers to and from Paraty. He was very kind, and helped me understand Brazil, and gave me much information in general about his time as an immigrant to Brazil from Italy. He was top notch. He also gave me great recommendations on restaurants, and food to try and enjoy. He also went above and beyond and recommended a free Samba concert in Paraty. This ended up being one of the highlights of my entire trip because it was so nontouristic and filled with locals.

In Rio, Patricia was very professional, and did her absolute best to keep me safe and interested. She was very protective as I mentioned my concerns about safety. In my one free half day, things were fine, but I almost had my cell phone stolen from my shirt pocket on a street with people on it, during daylight. I only mention this to make you aware of this as Rio clearly remains a semi dangerous city. There is nothing Patricia could have done differently, and she was not on this half free day. It was after the group tour to Sugarloaf and Cristo the Redeemer. Again, it was a good decision to do those as group tours, and there would be no advantage to do those privately. The transfer to the airport was fine, on time and safe.

Overall, however, the private tours in both Paraty and Rio just seemed to lack something. They were only ok, and not terrifically interesting. In particular, the gold tour in Paraty just did not seem to have much of a point other than a short hike, the tasting at the end was rather perfunctory, and not super interesting. In addition, the Rio tours were ok, but I guess I did not learn too too much, but I did get good photos. Maybe I was expecting too much, but the private tours, though I did see what was advertised in the trip information I was given, just seemed uninspired. Not sure if I would not have been better off with more group, public tours to different areas rather than private tours in those two areas.

Lastly, the travel book info packet was very helpful having all the info in one place and in one document. It was very well organized and had all the info I needed in an organized fashion. Thank you Renata for that, and answering all my questions.

If any questions about my comments, feel free to contact me. I'm happy to elaborate.

Hotel Reviews

Pousada do Principe

Paraty

Loved this hotel. Best on the trip.

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Taroba Hotel

Foz do Iguacu

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Windsor Martinique Copacabana Hotel

Copacabana, Rio de Janeiro

Authenticity & Character

Safe place

Location

Great location between Copacabana beach, with easy walk to Ipanema beach

Staff

Very courteous and helpful

Cleanliness & Comfort

I felt very safe in this hotel

Activity Reviews

Full-Day Group Tour Argentinean Side Falls

Foz do Iguaçu

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Walking Tour of Paraty

Paraty

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Exploring the Brazilian Falls & Bird Park

Foz do Iguaçu

I did the bird park on my own, and Orico was helpful during the Iguazu Falls portion of the half day.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Gold Trail Tour

Paraty

Rocco was great, just the activity did not seem to have a lot of point to it other than a short hike outside of Paraty

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Carioca Lifestyle and Carnival Culture (by Public Transport)

Rio de Janeiro

Not sure what we really were seeing, but just walked old part of the city and saw many churches. Did not really seem like we had a precise plan of what we were going to see. It was ok, but no real theme to it.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Full-Day Group Tour Corcovado and Christ the Redeemer + Pão de Açúcar (Sugarloaf)

Rio de Janeiro

Group tour was best way to see the iconic sights where there is not much to add other than seeing the two landmarks.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport