Blog

A Family’s 3-Day Lençóis Maranhenses Trek: Olivia’s Brazil Story
One Austrian family, three and a half weeks in Brazil, and three days on foot across a desert of white dunes and freshwater lagoons, told in Olivia’s own words

Some trips start with a place, but this one started with a season. Olivia Rossignol, 48, works at the United Nations and lives in Austria. When she plans a trip for her family, she starts by ruling things out. She wanted somewhere warm to travel during the European summer, without landing in someone else’s rainy season, which pointed her toward Brazil. While July is winter in the south, the north of the country sits squarely in its dry season.

The exact destination came from her 15-year-old daughter. Googling Brazil one evening, she found the surreal images of Lençóis Maranhenses trending on Instagram and asked the obvious question: Can we go there? They built the entire three-and-a-half-week trip around it, adding Rio de Janeiro, Pipa, Salvador, Chapada Diamantina, and Morro de São Paulo along the way.

But Lençóis Maranhenses National Park, a 155,000-hectare sweep of white sand dunes and rainwater lagoons in the state of Maranhão, was always the anchor. It marked the family’s first time in Brazil, and, without a doubt, it stood out as the absolute highlight of their entire journey.

Olivia, her husband, and their daughter crossed the dunes and lagoons on a 3-day Lençóis Maranhenses trek, organized and led by PlanetaEXO’s team and local guides. Now we share her story to show you what this experience really feels like: for a family, for first-timers in Brazil, and for anyone weighing the same questions she had. Check it out below!

A destination her daughter found online

A year ago, Lençóis Maranhenses wasn’t even on Olivia’s radar, as she readily admits. “No matter who I tell that I was there, nobody knows it. And honestly, a year ago, I didn’t know it either,” she confessed.

The idea only survived because it solved her real problem (a dry-season destination in July) and because her daughter kept pushing for the images she had seen online.

So they reversed the usual logic. Instead of fitting Lençóis into a Brazil itinerary, they built it around Lençóis and filled in the rest afterward. For a first family trip to South America, letting a 15-year-old’s screenshot set the direction turned out to be a good call.

👉 Read more: Best time to visit Lençóis Maranhenses

Three days off the grid and an otherworldly landscape

The camps in the park offered Wi-Fi, but Olivia deliberately didn’t use it. “It was clear to me I wouldn’t have it for three days,” she said. “I was even a bit disappointed they offered it. We don’t get this anymore, being several days offline.”

That choice is a big part of why the trekking in Lençóis Maranhenses landed the way it did. “I had the feeling I was somewhere completely different, not on Earth,” she marveled, saying how she had been to the Moroccan desert in February and expected something similar, just in white. “It is not. It is much more spectacular.”

What surprised Olivia most was that the national park kept raising its own bar. “You do a full day hiking, you see the white sand, the dunes, the lagoons, you have a nice overnight… And then the next day is even more beautiful than the day before,” she remembered. “You don’t expect it, because you think you’ve already seen everything. But it gets better.”

The third and final day was the best of all, and the group got lucky with the timing. “We had a full moon, so we started walking at night and swam under it. That was really amazing.” Weather helped too: across three days, they had blue sky and, by her count, only about five minutes of rain.

👉 Read more: How many days should you spend in Lençóis Maranhenses?

The guides who stayed until the end

In a park with no roads, no signs, and no signal, the guides carry the trip. Olivia’s two, Patricio and Cristiano, left the strongest impression of anyone she met in Brazil. “I have never in my life met people as kind as those two guides.”

The moment that stuck with her came at the very end, in Santo Amaro, when the trip was technically over. The family had a transfer booked for noon and, in Olivia’s words, “in my European way, I started to get nervous” when lunch hadn’t arrived by then. The guide simply handled it: he stayed and ate with them, went into the kitchen to check on the food himself, carried it out, and made sure the transfer worked.

“When someone is supposed to take care of you, he takes care of you totally. And you feel it, because for them, this isn’t just a job,” she reflected.

👉 Read more: How to get to Lençóis Maranhenses?

Language barrier overcame by Brazilian friendliness

Olivia was satisfied with the whole trip, but when pressed for something that didn’t work, she said it was difficult to find anybody speaking English, and not only in a small village, which she expected, but in Rio too, which was a surprise.

While the family’s knowledge in Italian and Spanish helped, the communication was a bit of a struggle with some locals. Still, it was nothing that could sour the experience. “Everyone was still friendly, and I’d come back. I will sure come back. There’s so much more to see in this country.”

Was Brazil safe? Olivia’s honest answer

Before the trip, Olivia was a bit worried. “Not scared, but worried,” she clarified. The first thing friends asked when she got home was whether Brazil was dangerous. Her conclusion after three and a half weeks was practical.

“You just need to put some common sense into what you’re doing, and there’s no need to be afraid.” In practice, that meant a simple t-shirt, no jewelry, and not walking alone at night.

She doesn’t pretend nothing happened. In Salvador, a city she genuinely liked, a 20-minute walk to a supermarket took the family out of the center, and the mood shifted from the lively places they’d been before. “The streets got darker, and we suddenly felt alone, so we just stopped and took an Uber.”

Although a few moments brought brief unease, her anxiety stemmed mostly from facing the unknown rather than any actual trouble. In the end, the whole journey went smoothly.

The surprises Brazil had in store

Olivia is candid about arriving with a bias. “We have this stupid arrogance in Europe,” she acknowledged: the assumption that things outside it will be less punctual, less organized. Brazil dismantled it.

The family took three domestic flights. After a slow check-in, she braced for delays that never came. “Everything was punctual, everything worked out well. Even better, in some instances.”

The food was another quiet, delicious surprise. The briefing beforehand played it down, almost an apology that meals on the trek would be very simple. But in the end, Olivia and her family thoroughly enjoyed all the home-cooked meals the hosts prepared for them.

She rated the rest of Brazil highly too, but she insists nothing compares to Lençóis Maranhenses.

Olivia’s tips for first-time travelers to Brazil

Asked what she’d tell a friend going to Brazil for the first time, Olivia had three travel tips, based on her own experience:
- Learn a little Portuguese: Even a handful of common words goes a long way, especially outside the big hotels where English is scarce.
- Don’t let fear plan your trip: It’s not as dangerous as people think. Common sense does most of the work.
- Plan properly: Brazil is too big to just book a flight and see what happens. Decide where you want to go and what you want to do before you leave.
👉 Read more: 10 Travel Tips for Lençóis Maranhenses to Make the Most of Your Trip

Where Olivia wants to go next and her final thoughts on Lençóis Maranhenses

One trip clearly wasn’t enough. Olivia’s sure she will travel to Brazil again.

Top of her list is the Pantanal, followed by the Amazon Rainforest and the coast around Paraty, south of Rio de Janeiro. For a family that came for one desert and left planning a wetland and a jungle, that’s the strongest review of all.

Asked to sum the trip up, Olivia doesn’t reach for the landscape or the logistics but for the feeling. “Best time of our lives,” she said of the 3-day trek in Lençóis Maranhenses. “The communication and organization through PlanetaEXO were perfect, prompt, and trustworthy. The trekking itself was one of our best times ever. We can highly recommend it!”

Trekking in Lençóis Maranhenses with PlanetaEXO

Now that you’ve seen the park through Olivia’s eyes, you know what a trip to Lençóis Maranhenses here really gives back.

PlanetaEXO is an ecotourism platform specializing in the Lençóis Maranhenses tours and other adventures across Brazil. Working alongside experienced local guides, we handle the logistics (transfers, camps, meals, and the route) so you and your family can focus on the dunes, from your first booking to the last full-moon lagoon. Contact us now!
August 24, 2026
8 Facts About Mirante do Gavião: An Award-Winning Amazon Lodge in Brazil
From award-winning architecture to pink river dolphins at the doorstep, here are 8 facts about Mirante do Gavião Amazon Lodge, one of Novo Airão’s most distinctive places to stay

On the right bank of the Rio Negro, about 180 kilometers northwest of Manaus, sits one of the Brazilian Amazon’s most unique places to sleep. Mirante do Gavião Amazon Lodge stands in Novo Airão, directly facing the Anavilhanas archipelago, and it holds just 13 suites inside a building shaped like an upturned boat.

So what makes a small riverside lodge worth the trip up the river? The short answer is a rare mix of award-winning design, certified native wood, community-run hospitality, and a stretch of the Rio Negro where pink river dolphins surface almost daily.

Want to know what really sets it apart from an ordinary jungle lodge? PlanetaEXO, an ecotourism platform specializing in Amazon Rainforest tours in Brazil, has put together these 8 facts about Mirante do Gavião. Check it out below!

1 – What “Mirante do Gavião” means (and the eagle behind the name)

In Portuguese, “mirante” means “lookout,” and “gavião” means “hawk,” so the name reads roughly as “the hawk’s viewpoint.”

It totally fits: the lodge’s raised decks and terraces give guests a bird’s-eye view over the forest canopy and the Rio Negro, the same commanding angle a hawk has from above.

The name is not only poetic. The harpy eagle, known in Brazil as the gavião-real, is one of the largest and most powerful birds of prey on Earth, and it inhabits this part of the Amazon. Spotting one is rare and never guaranteed, but the forests around Novo Airão are genuine harpy country.

@kaigner

2 – Its front yard is Anavilhanas, the world’s second-largest river archipelago

Mirante do Gavião Amazon Lodge looks straight out onto Anavilhanas National Park, one of the natural wonders of the Amazon. The Anavilhanas archipelago is the second-largest river archipelago on the planet, made up of more than 400 islands scattered across the Rio Negro.

During the high-water season, much of the archipelago floods into igapós, or flooded forests, that you can paddle a canoe straight through. It is one reason the water around Novo Airão is considered some of the most scenic in the whole Amazon basin.

👉 Read more: The Amazon River, Brazil: A Guide to the World’s Greatest River

3 – A boat-shaped lodge with award-winning architecture

The first thing you notice about Mirante do Gavião Amazon Lodge is its silhouette. The main buildings were designed to resemble the inverted hull of a wooden boat, a nod to the fact that families in Novo Airão have built river vessels by hand for generations.

The design borrows directly from Amazonian shipbuilding techniques, with curved timber frames and elevated lookouts that some compare to the outstretched wings of a hawk. Rather than clearing the forest to impose a building on it, the architecture was made to sit inside the landscape and echo the river culture around it.

Far from merely claiming to be unique, the lodge features a roughly 1,678 m² design crafted by the studio Atelier O’Reilly. This distinguished project has been featured by ArchDaily, a premier global architectural publication.

In its opening year, the design won first prize from the Brazilian Association of Corporate Architects in the commercial building category. That recognition is a big part of how a former riverboat stopover in a small Amazon town became a destination in its own right.

👉 Read more:
- Best Amazon Jungle Lodges in Brazil
- Best Amazon River Cruises in Brazil
4 – Built entirely from certified reforestation wood

Every timber structure at the lodge is made from certified reforestation hardwood, mainly itaúba, a dense Amazonian wood well suited to the humid climate.

The buildings stand on stilts, following the same logic riverside communities have used for centuries to live with a river that rises and falls several meters a year.

Opting for certified, reforestation-sourced wood holds immense significance in an area facing continuous threats from illegal logging. By taking this approach, Mirante do Gavião ensures its architectural design actively supports its environmental mission rather than undermining it.

5 – Just 13 suites, by design

Mirante do Gavião Amazon Lodge is deliberately small. It has only 13 suites, split across three categories: Treehouse, Luxury, and Premium.

The Premium suites are the most spacious, some with hydromassage tubs (ofurôs) on private balconies that open right onto the forest.

Keeping the lodge to 13 rooms is a decision, not a limitation. Fewer guests means quieter decks, more personal service, and a lighter footprint on the surrounding forest, which is exactly what most travelers want after coming this far up the Rio Negro.

6 – Amazonian cuisine at the Camu-Camu restaurant

The Mirante do Gavião’s restaurant is named Camu-Camu, after a small Amazonian fruit with one of the highest natural vitamin C contents of any food on Earth.

The kitchen serves contemporary Amazonian food à la carte, built around regional ingredients such as tucupi, tambaqui fish, jambu, and cupuaçu.

The menu is led by chef Débora Shornik, who spent around eight years working alongside Argentinian chef Paola Carosella before bringing her cooking to the rainforest. The result treats regional Amazonian ingredients as fine dining rather than an afterthought.

7 – Wildlife from the lookout decks (including pink river dolphins)

True to its name, the lodge is dotted with elevated lookouts and observation decks. From them, guests regularly spot birds, sloths, and iguanas without leaving the property because the buildings sit right up against native forest, with Brazil nut and tucumã palm trees growing between them.

The main attraction, however, lies on the water. The stretch of the Rio Negro surrounding Novo Airão stands out as one of Brazil’s top locations to spot the pink river dolphin (also known as the boto-cor-de-rosa), an iconic species of the Amazon.

At PlanetaEXO, we favor natural encounters over staged ones. Watching a pink river dolphin choose to surface beside your canoe, on its own terms, beats any forced interaction. Sightings are never guaranteed in a wild ecosystem, but they happen more often than you think.

👉 Read more: 15 Amazon Animals: Unravel the Wildlife in Brazil

8 – More than a lodge: a community partner in Novo Airão

Mirante do Gavião Amazon Lodge is deeply tied to the town it belongs to. It was built largely by the local community, with around 60 residents trained and employed across roughly two years of construction, applying traditional boat-building carpentry to reforestation wood.

Its sustainability commitments run through the whole operation, from solar power for electricity and hot water to an organic garden, composting, effluent treatment, and rainwater use.

The lodge’s community ties reach well beyond its own walls. Mirante do Gavião is a sponsor of the Fundação Almerinda Malaquias (FAM), a Novo Airão non-profit that trains local people in craftwork and soap-making, runs environmental education for young people, and supports responsible ecotourism. In 2024 alone, FAM helped 190 people enroll in school and 45 families generate income across ten riverside communities.

That blend of comfort, design, and real community roots is what makes the lodge such a natural fit for ecotourism travelers.

👉 Read more: 8 conservation projects in the Amazon to support in 2025

Experience Mirante do Gavião Amazon Lodge with PlanetaEXO

Now that you know what makes this award-winning lodge in Novo Airão so distinctive, the next step is to see it with your own eyes, from the decks over the Rio Negro to the flooded forests of Anavilhanas National Park.

As an ecotourism platform, PlanetaEXO has a long partnership with Mirante do Gavião. From the moment of booking to the customization of your itinerary, our team helps organize your trip to ensure your experience is as hassle-free and fulfilling as possible. Contact us now!
August 21, 2026
Is it Safe to Travel to Mount Roraima in Venezuela?
Learn everything you should know for a safe trip to Venezuela and a smooth trek across Mount Roraima

Mount Roraima is the best known of the tepuis, the flat-topped table mountains that rise from the savannah where Brazil, Venezuela, and Guyana meet. Its sandstone plateau has stood for close to 2 billion years, and its summit reaches 2,810 meters (9,219 feet), making it Brazil’s 8th highest peak. About 85% of it sits inside Venezuela, which is behind most of the questions travelers have before they book.

So, is Mount Roraima dangerous? Not in the way the rumors suggest. The real dangers are the cold, the high plateau, rugged terrain, remoteness, and the Venezuelan border—not crime or wild animals. As long as you do it the right way, your travel experience has no reason to be a problem.

Photo: Lucas Gobatti

PlanetaEXO, an ecotourism platform specializing in Mount Roraima tours, has put together this guide to help ease your worries. Check it out below!

Approach from Boa Vista, on the Brazilian side

The plateau can technically be reached through Venezuela, flying into Caracas and traveling overland, but almost nobody does.

Brazil’s Roraima route is simpler, better serviced, and far less exposed. Boa Vista is a calm regional capital with daily flights and proper infrastructure, and the drive north on the BR-174 is straightforward.

But is it safe to travel to Venezuela at all? This is the reassuring part. Since the Brazil–Venezuela border reopened in 2022, a dedicated tourist corridor lets groups with the correct permits reach the trailhead without passing through the parts that advisories warn about.

Photo: Andreza Mariot

👉 Read more: How to get to Mount Roraima?

Respect the rules on both sides of the border for a smooth Roraima trip

Since the Mount Roraima trek crosses into Venezuela, you deal with two sets of border rules. A valid passport is required for every nationality, Brazilians included, valid for at least six months beyond your entry date.

Visa requirements vary: EU, UK, and most Latin American citizens enter Venezuela visa-free for tourism, while others, including U.S. and Canadian citizens, need a visa arranged in advance for Venezuela’s Roraima crossing.

To have a safe trip to Venezuela, you should be aware of some restrictions. The U.S. Department of State rates the country “Level 3: Reconsider Travel” (its June 2026 update, eased from “Level 4: Do Not Travel”) and keeps a stricter warning on specific regions such as the Colombia border and Amazonas state, not the Gran Sabana corridor used to reach Roraima.

This is where the tourist corridor matters. Since 2022, a dedicated, permit-controlled corridor connects the Brazilian border to Paraitepuy, so travelers move through a monitored route rather than the open country. Your time in Venezuela is short, guided from start to finish, and spent in the peaceful Gran Sabana, well away from the flagged areas.

If you’re wondering if it’s safe to go to Venezuela for the Mount Roraima hike, the answer is yes, as long as you properly plan your trip: stay on the tourist corridor and check your own government’s current travel advisory before you book, as the situation can change.

Photo: Paolo Stefano

👉 Read more: Do I need a Visa to visit Mount Roraima in Venezuela?

Trek with experienced, qualified guides and a reputable operator

Choosing a qualified guide and a trusted tour operator is your single most critical safety choice—and for Mount Roraima, it is mandatory.

National park rules require every group to trek with certified local guides, and independent trekking is not allowed. The guides are Indigenous Pemón from the Paraitepuy community, who handle the route, the camps, and the cooking.

A reputable operator does more than lead the trail: it arranges the border formalities, the transfers, the meals, and the shared gear so the logistics that trip up solo travelers are taken care of.

Venezuela’s park authority, Inparques, also caps groups at 8 trekkers in peak periods and 16 in regular season, always with at least two guides. That support structure is precisely what differentiates standard options from top-tier Roraima tours.

Photo: Lucas Gobatti

👉 Explore the adventure: Mount Roraima Trek: 8-Day Expedition to the Lost World

Follow your guide and keep the group together

The dangers of Mount Roraima become much less significant when you follow your guide’s lead. They read the weather, judge the river crossings, set the pace on La Rampa, and decide when the plan needs to change—which changes often on the plateau, as the mist can close in within minutes and rock turns slick the moment it rains.

Stay with the group, tell your guide early if you feel unwell or are struggling with the cold or the altitude, and don’t wander off the marked route on the plateau, where sinkholes and drop-offs hide in the fog.

Don’t see good communication as a formality but as a way to keep such a remote trek safe.

Photo: Lucas Gobatti

Pack the right gear, clothing and medication

The dangers of Mount Roraima are more about the cold, wet weather than anything else. To make sure you won’t have any health issues during the trek and go back home sick, your packing list is safety equipment.

Temperatures on the plateau can plummet to around 5°C overnight and hover near 0°C during rainfall. Combined with frequent exposure to heavy mist and rushing waterfalls, keeping warm and dry becomes a crucial defense to avoid hypothermia rather than a mere matter of personal comfort.

Here are the essentials:
- Well-worn, waterproof trekking boots (new boots cause blisters) and trekking poles for the steep descent.
- A high-quality rain jacket, pack cover, and dry bags to keep everything inside your backpack dry.
- Thermal base layers, a warm jacket, gloves, and one set of dry clothes kept only for sleeping.
- A sleeping bag rated to 0°C, a headlamp with spare batteries, and a 1-liter bottle with water purification tablets.
- A personal first-aid kit and any personal medication, plus sunscreen and a wide-brimmed hat for the exposed savannah.
Keep your international yellow fever vaccination certificate stored right alongside your passport. It’s also essential to carry cash in Brazilian Reais to cover expenses where cards aren’t accepted, as ATMs are extremely hard to find near the border.

Photo: Lucas Gobatti

👉 Read more: 10 Travel Tips for Mount Roraima to make the most of your trip

Take out adventure travel insurance

Some might consider Mount Roraima dangerous in the sense that, in a remote location such as this, serious injuries can mean a slow, weather-dependent evacuation.

Accidents are avoided when hikers follow the guide’s instructions, use the right equipment, and recognize their limits, but unforeseen events can still occur. That’s why travel insurance that covers remote, high-altitude trekking is mandatory.

Make sure your policy explicitly covers trekking to around 2,800 m, medical evacuation, and repatriation, because standard vacation insurance often excludes exactly this kind of trip.

If you’re not sure where to find coverage for everything you need, reliable operators can point you in the direct direction—another reason to book your Mount Roraima trek with specialists!

Know your limits and do your homework

The last piece of safety is honest self-assessment. The Mount Roraima trek is graded as challenging, including roughly 86 km on foot, a steep 4.5 km ascent, multiple nights in a tent, and days that run up to 8 hours. You don’t need to be an athlete, but you should be able to walk several kilometers with a loaded pack on consecutive days.

A couple of months of hiking, cardio, and leg training beforehand make the difference between suffering and enjoying it, so research the mountain, the route, and the season before you commit.

Photo: Lucas Gobatti

👉 Read more:
- How hard is it to trek up Mount Roraima?
- From New Zealand to the Lost World: a Solo Ecologist’s Trek Up Mount Roraima
Safely trekking Mount Roraima with PlanetaEXO

Mount Roraima is dangerous only if you go unprepared or alone. For a smooth trek, do it the right way: pack your gear, follow border protocols, get travel insurance, and hire local guides. If you just want to enjoy the trail and not worry about anything else, an experienced operator can take care of all that!

PlanetaEXO is an ecotourism platform that runs Mount Roraima tours with experienced Indigenous Pemón guides and trusted local partners, handling everything from the border crossing to the summit camps. Our team takes care of the logistics, the permits, and the safety of your trip to Venezuela. Contact us now!
August 19, 2026

Best Lagoons in Lençóis Maranhenses: Brazil’s Desert With a Thousand Lakes

Where each lagoon sits, how deep it gets, when it fills, and which ones are worth the extra drive across the dunes

Lençóis Maranhenses National Park covers 155,000 hectares of white sand in northeastern Brazil, forming the largest dune field in South America and the only one on the continent that fills with fresh water every single year.

Every year between January and June, heavy rainfall elevates the water table, creating thousands of crystal-clear pools in the valleys between the dunes. Recognized for its unique interplay between a desert-like environment and a living floodplain, UNESCO designated the park a World Heritage Site on July 26, 2024. That contradiction is where the nickname came from. Some people call it a desert with a thousand lakes, though the real count runs far higher after the rainy season.

But the lagoons in Lençóis Maranhenses are not interchangeable. Some sit 12 km from town on a flat sand track, while others need a 30-meter dune climb on foot, and a few hold water months after the rest have gone back to sand.

Want to know which one belongs on your itinerary? PlanetaEXO, an ecotourism platform specializing in Lençóis Maranhenses tours, has put together a guide to the five lagoons travelers ask about most: where each one is, what makes it different, and when it is actually full. Check it out below!

How the lagoons in Lençóis Maranhenses are formed

The lagoons are not fed by rivers or springs. The park receives roughly 1,600 mm of rain a year, according to ICMBio (Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation), more than six times the 250 mm that defines a desert climate, which is why Lençóis is not technically a desert at all. The sand absorbs that rain almost instantly, and a layer of less permeable coastal and fluvial sediment underneath stops it from draining away.

What you end up with is a water table that rises and falls with the season. When it climbs above the low points between the dunes, the groundwater surfaces on its own and fills the hollows: that is the moment the sand dune lagoons appear.

Most lagoons settle around 1.5 m deep, and after a generous rainy season, the larger ones reach 3 m. The same water table pins the dunes in place: while the sand is wet, the barchan chains stop moving and only start advancing again once they dry out, moving 4 to 25 m a year under easterly winds that gust to 70 km/h.

When the lagoons are full (and when they vanish)

The best time to visit Lençóis Maranhenses is May to September. The rain has stopped, the lagoons sit at their fullest, and the sky is clear enough for the water to read turquoise instead of gray.

From September to October, and again from February to April, the lagoons are just past or just before their peak. They still hold enough water to swim in, and the dunes are noticeably emptier. Between November and January, the park runs dry: the smaller lagoons evaporate completely and leave grass and bare sand behind, while the deeper, more sheltered ones hold on.

One practical consequence: if you travel outside the peak, ask your operator which lagoons still have water on the week you go, not which ones are the most famous. The answer changes fast, and it is the single biggest variable in a Lençóis itinerary.

Every lagoon on this list depends on the same thing: rain. They fill up between January and May, stay full from June to September and shrink from October on — some disappear altogether. Landing in the right window is what separates a swim from a walk on dry sand.

Period	Lagoon level	What to expect
January – May	Filling	The rain runs through the sand and starts filling the hollows between the dunes
June – September	Full	The window when the park becomes the postcard. It is when almost everyone goes
October – December	Drying out	The lagoons evaporate and a white desert is left. Fewer people, another landscape

👉 Read more: When is the best time to visit Lençóis Maranhenses?

The 5 best lagoons in Lençóis Maranhenses

All five sit inside the same national park, but the lagoons in Lençóis Maranhenses are reached from three different towns: Barreirinhas, Santo Amaro, and Atins. There is no road across the dunes connecting them, so you pick a base and work outward from it.

👉 Read more: How to get to Lençóis Maranhenses?

1. Lagoa Azul (Barreirinhas)

Lagoa Azul is the lagoon most people picture when they think of the park and the easiest of the five to reach. The 4×4 circuit leaves Barreirinhas, covers 12 km of sand track in about 45 minutes, then parks at the edge of the dune field for a walk of roughly 2 km to the water.

Broad and shallow at its edges, this lagoon lives up to its name with strikingly blue waters. Because its expansive sandbanks make it the safest desert lagoon for families with young children, most operators offer it as a half-day circuit. The tour lasts approximately 4 hours and departs after lunch to take advantage of the deepening afternoon light.

Where it is: Barreirinhas side, inside the park boundary, ~12 km from town.
Getting there: 4×4 only (45 min on sand track) + ~2 km on foot.
Size & depth: one of the wider lagoons on this side; ~1.5 m typical, up to 3 m after a strong rainy season.
Best months: June to September (afternoon).

2. Lagoa Bonita (Barreirinhas)

Lagoa Bonita sits 15 km from Barreirinhas, and the last stretch is vertical. You climb a 30-meter dune on foot, in loose sand, before you see anything at all, the steepest approach of the five, and the only one that pays you back with a view rather than just a swim.

From the summit, dune chains reach the horizon with pools tucked into every valley. As the premier sunset viewpoint on the Barreirinhas circuit, it provides the best vantage to see how the park earned its nickname as a desert of a thousand lakes. The lagoon itself is one of the most extensive in the area, with the blue tones people usually compare to the Caribbean.

Where it is: Barreirinhas side, ~15 km from town.
Getting there: 4×4 + a steep ~30 m dune climb on foot.
Size & depth: among the most extensive lagoons on the Barreirinhas side; depth follows the park average of 1.5–3 m.
Best months: June to September (late afternoon for the sunset).
Worth knowing: it is the best viewpoint in the park, not the easiest swim. If the dune climb is a problem, choose Lagoa Azul instead.

3. Lagoa do Junco (Santo Amaro)

Santo Amaro sits less than 2 km from the park boundary, which changes the rhythm of a visit completely. Here, the lagoons in Lençóis Maranhenses start where the town ends. Lagoa do Junco is its signature circuit: a short 4×4 transfer to the permitted parking area, then roughly 1 hour on foot through the dunes with a guide.

The walk is half the reason to do it. You cross a dozen smaller lagoons on the way in before the main one opens up, deep blue in the middle and pale turquoise along the rim, with dunes that visibly change shape between seasons.

Because the access takes real effort, it stays far quieter than anything on the Barreirinhas side. This is where you go if you’re trying to avoid crowds.

Where it is: Santo Amaro side, inside Lençóis Maranhenses National Park.
Getting there: 4×4 to the permitted parking area + ~1 hour walking each way.
Size & depth: one of the larger lagoons on the Santo Amaro circuit; 1.5–3 m depending on the rains.
Best months: June to September (the walk is hot, so morning departures are better).

4. Lagoa do Reflexo (Santo Amaro)

Lagoa do Reflexo is the main stop on the Ponta Verde circuit out of Santo Amaro, reached by 4×4 plus a walk of about 25 minutes. Its reputation rests on one thing: on windless mornings and late afternoons the surface goes completely flat and mirrors the dunes and the sky, hence the name.

As Santo Amaro’s most photographed lagoon, it rewards precise timing above all others on this list, since midday winds completely eliminate the mirror effect. It also holds water later into the dry season than most, which is why it keeps appearing on itineraries in October and November when smaller lagoons have already gone back to sand.

Where it is: Santo Amaro side, on the Ponta Verde circuit.
Getting there: full-day 4×4 outing + ~25 min on foot.
Size & depth: shallow and wide (the flat, still surface is what produces the mirror effect).
Best months: June to September for volume, but go at sunrise or late afternoon on a windless day; one of the safer picks in October–November.

5. Lagoa Tropical (Atins)

Atins sits where the Preguiças River, the dunes, and the Atlantic meet, a fishing village that turned into a kitesurfing and ecotourism base without losing much of itself. Lagoa Tropical is the headline stop on its Ponta do Mangue circuit: a 4×4 run along the beach and through mangrove before the track turns inland into the sand.

It is one of the largest lagoons on the Atins side, with turquoise water and a soft sand floor, normally combined with Lagoa da Esmeralda and Lagoa da Gorjeta on the same outing. Far fewer vehicles come this way than on the Barreirinhas circuits, so having a shoreline to yourself is realistic rather than lucky.

Where it is: Atins side, on the Ponta do Mangue circuit.
Getting there: 4×4 from Atins along the beach and through mangrove; usually a half or full day.
Size & depth: one of the largest lagoons on this side of the park; soft sand bottom, comfortable swimming depth.
Best months: June to September (combine with Lagoa da Esmeralda and Lagoa da Gorjeta).

Can you swim in the lagoons?

Yes, you can absolutely swim in almost all the lagoons in Lençóis Maranhenses. The water is fresh and warm, usually waist to chest deep, with a firm sand bottom and no current at all.

There is life in it, though nothing that bothers swimmers. More than 30 fish species survive in these temporary pools, including the wolf-fish (traíra). Some hatch from eggs that sit buried in the sand through the dry months and wait for the water to return, while others arrive as eggs carried in on the feet and feathers of migratory birds, which use the park as a rest stop on their routes.

One thing to consider is the preservation of the lagoons. Sunscreen is essential given the intense sun in Maranhão, but the use of creams and oils can harm water quality. The best approach is to apply sunscreen well before entering the lagoons so the skin has enough time to absorb it, and, if possible, to use biodegradable products.

👉 Read more:

Exploring the best lagoons in Lençóis Maranhenses with PlanetaEXO

Now that you know where each lagoon sits and when it actually fills, the only decision left is which base to start from: Barreirinhas for the classic circuits, Santo Amaro for the quiet ones, or Atins for the walk-in crossings. Or all three, which is what a full traverse of the park looks like.

PlanetaEXO is an ecotourism platform specializing in Lençóis Maranhenses tours, working alongside the local guides and families who live at the edge of the national park. From multi-day treks to class tours across this desert with a thousand lakes, we handle the logistics so you can spend your days in the water instead of on a booking page. Contact us now!

August 14, 2026

8 Best Places to Visit in Brazil for Nature and Adventure
Dunes, jungle, wetlands, reefs and waterfalls: eight destinations for adventure travel in Brazil, what each one is known for, and when to go

Brazil covers 8.5 million km² and six distinct biomes, which is why travel experiences here are rarely the same. A traveler heading to the Pantanal in July and one heading to Lençóis Maranhenses in the same week are seeing landscapes with almost nothing in common: one is flooded grassland full of large mammals, the other a desert of white sand that fills with rainwater every year.

Most lists of the best places to visit in Brazil open with Rio de Janeiro or São Paulo and stop at the coastline. While these are fantastic places worth traveling to, there is much more to see in a country as large and diverse as this.

The eight destinations below showcase a different side of Brazilian destinations, including national parks, wetlands, and archipelagos where the reason to go is the landscape itself.

Do you want to discover the possibilities for experiencing the best vacation of your life? PlanetaEXO, an ecotourism platform specializing in adventure travel in Brazil, has put together this guide. Check it out below!

1. Lençóis Maranhenses: dunes and lagoons

Spanning an expansive 155,000 hectares across the northeastern state of Maranhão, Lençóis Maranhenses National Park is a geographic marvel quite unlike any other place on Earth. While it bears the striking appearance of an arid desert, the region actually experiences an impressive annual rainfall of approximately 1,600 mm.

The rain collects between the dunes, and for a few months, the park fills with thousands of freshwater lagoons you can swim in. UNESCO added it to the World Heritage list in 2024.

Fun facts about Lençóis Maranhenses:
- The dunes reach roughly 40 meters high and keep moving with the wind, so the lagoon map changes every year.
- Lagoons fill from January to June and hold water into September; by October, most have evaporated.
- Some lagoons contain fish, carried in as eggs by birds and surviving in the mud between seasons.
When to go: June to September, when the lagoons are full and the rain has stopped. The gateway is São Luís, capital of Maranhão, and then Barreirinhas.

Photo: Leo Castro

👉 See more: Lençóis Maranhenses tours

2. Amazon Rainforest: jungle and rivers

Surely one of the best places to visit in Brazil, the Amazon Rainforest covers about 5.5 million km² across nine countries, though roughly 60% of it sits in Brazilian territory.

The Amazon River cuts through the forest for over 6,900 km, carrying one-fifth of all the world’s fresh water that flows into the ocean. There are almost no roads, which means the forest is mainly a boat destination. The forest you see from the water changes completely between the flood season and the dry season.

Fun facts about the Amazon:
- At the Meeting of Waters near Manaus, the dark Rio Negro and the sandy Solimões run side by side for about 6 kilometers without mixing due to differences in temperature, speed, and density.
- Water levels between the flood peak and the dry season can differ by more than 10 meters.
- The region holds the largest concentration of wildlife species, with over 75% of mammals and 80% of birds in Brazil.
When to go: flood season (May–July) to paddle into the canopy or dry season (September–November) for beaches, hiking, and better wildlife spotting on land. The gateway is Manaus.

👉 See more: Amazon Rainforest tours in Brazil

3. Pantanal: wetlands and jaguars

If you want the best of Brazil’s wildlife, this is the place you should head to. While the Amazon is incredibly rich in biodiversity, the Pantanal, as the largest tropical wetland in the world, has open fields and low vegetation, exactly what the rainforest lacks in terms of actually seeing the animals.

Boasting the Earth’s highest density of jaguars, the Northern Pantanal makes dry-season sightings along the rivers near Porto Jofre in Poconé routine rather than a matter of luck.

Fun facts about the Pantanal:
- You can visit two distinct regions: the Northern Pantanal in Mato Grosso and the Southern Pantanal in Mato Grosso do Sul.
- The floodplain can be 80% underwater at the peak of the wet season, which concentrates animals along the remaining dry ground later in the year.
- In addition to jaguars, other iconic animals of the Pantanal include capybaras, caimans, giant otters, macaws, tapirs, and giant anteaters.
When to go: July to October: peak dry season, best jaguar odds. The gateways are Cuiabá for the Northern Pantanal (Porto Jofre) and Campo Grande for the Southern Pantanal (and Bonito, 3 hours away, for its freshwater snorkeling rivers).

👉 See more: Pantanal tours

4. Foz do Iguaçu: water and thunder

Located directly on the border connecting Brazil and Argentina, Foz do Iguaçu is celebrated for the majestic Iguazu Falls. This extraordinary waterfall system features approximately 275 distinct drops that unfold beautifully over an expansive front spanning nearly 2.7 kilometers.

The centerpiece, the Devil’s Throat, is a horseshoe canyon about 80 meters deep where a large share of the river’s volume goes over at once. The Brazilian side gives you the panorama, while the Argentinian puts you on top of it. Iguaçu National Park has been a UNESCO World Heritage site since 1986.

Fun facts about Foz do Iguaçu:
- The number of separate falls changes with the river level. After heavy rain, individual drops merge into fewer, wider curtains.
- Great dusky swifts nest behind the falling water, flying straight through the curtain to reach the rock face.
- The surrounding park protects one of the largest remaining fragments of Atlantic Forest, home to coatis, toucans and, rarely seen, jaguars.
When to go: year-round. August to November balances good flow with fewer crowds; the January–March flood peak is the most dramatic, but access to some walkways can close.

👉 See more: Foz do Iguaçu tours

5. Itacaré: waves and forest

In southern Bahia, Itacaré is situated where the Atlantic Forest extends right to the waterline. While most Brazilian beach towns cut down their forests decades ago, it remains standing here, making the walk to various beaches a trek through a dense canopy instead of a road.

With a string of beach breaks within a few kilometers of the center, this is one of the best places to visit in Brazil if you’re into surfing.

Fun facts about Itacaré:
- The nearby Serra do Conduru State Park holds one of the highest tree diversity counts ever recorded, with well over 400 tree species measured in a single hectare.
- The Atlantic Forest has been reduced to a fraction of its original extent, which makes intact coastal stretches like this one rare.
- Itacaré’s beaches are reached in sequence (Concha, Resende, Tiririca, Prainha) with the surf getting more serious the further you walk.
When to go: September to March for the warmest, driest stretch. Surf works most of the year.

👉 See more: Itacaré tours

6. Fernando de Noronha: reefs and turtles

Fernando de Noronha is an archipelago of 21 islands about 545 kilometers off the coast of Pernambuco. The clearest water in the country is here, as visibility on a good day reaches 40 meters.

As the most strictly protected location on this list, a limit is imposed on the number of simultaneous visitors allowed on the island. Additionally, all guests are required to pay an environmental preservation fee. UNESCO listed it as a World Heritage site in 2001.

Fun facts about Fernando de Noronha:
- Baía dos Golfinhos holds one of the largest known resident groups of spinner dolphins, which enter the bay each morning to rest.
- The archipelago is volcanic, formed by activity on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, which is why the water is deep and clear so close to shore.
- Several beaches are closed to visitors during nesting season, as green and hawksbill turtles nest on the shores.
When to go: August to November for the best diving visibility, while March to July brings bigger swells on the outer beaches.

👉 See more: Fernando de Noronha diving packages

7. Chapada Diamantina: peaks and waterfalls

Chapada Diamantina National Park protects roughly 152,000 hectares of mountains, canyons, and rivers in the heart of Bahia.

The Vale do Pati crossing is widely considered the premier long-distance trek in Brazil. This journey takes 3 to 5 days to complete, leading hikers between remote valley farmhouses with absolutely no road access, meaning you must walk both in and out.

Some of the best hikes in Chapada Diamantina take you to gorgeous waterfalls, like Fumaça, Fumacinha, Sossego, and Encantada.

Fun facts about Chapada Diamantina:
- The name comes from the diamond rush of the 1840s; the villages that supply today’s trekking routes were mining settlements.
- At Poço Encantado, a shaft of sunlight hits an underground lake between April and September, painting the whole cavern blue.
- Rather than staying in tents, trekkers sleep in the homes of local families who live and farm inside the Vale do Pati.
When to go: April to October, during the dry season, when river crossings are easier and the trails are firm.

@marianahmmoreira

👉 See more: Chapada Diamantina tours

8. Jalapão: springs and savanna

One of the best places to visit in Brazil if you want fewer people and more nature. Jalapão State Park, in Tocantins, is covered by the Cerrado savanna and features golden dunes, table mountains, and river canyons.

The stars of the show, however, are the fervedouros: sand-bottomed springs where water pushes up from below with enough force that you cannot sink. You float upright, without swimming, in water clear enough to see everything beneath you.

Fun facts about Jalapão:
- The Cerrado is the most biodiverse savanna in the world and covers about 22% of Brazil’s territory.
- Capim–dourado (golden grass) grows here and nowhere else in the same form. Local communities have handwoven it into craftwork since the 1930s, and it is now protected by origin certification.
- One of its most beloved waterfalls, Cachoeira da Velha, is a horseshoe drop roughly 100 meters wide on the Novo River.
When to go: May to September, during the dry season, when the dirt roads are passable and the water runs clear.

👉 See more: Jalapão tours

Ready to visit the best places in Brazil? Plan your trip with PlanetaEXO!

Now that you have seen what each of these eight places actually offers, the next step is matching your dates to the right destination. These are not the only places to visit in Brazil, but they are the ones where the landscape does the work.

PlanetaEXO is an ecotourism platform specializing in Brazil adventure tours, working alongside the local operators who know each of these regions intimately. We handpick various nature itineraries, from guided treks to tailor-made routes across two or three destinations. Our team handles the planning so you can concentrate on the trip itself. Contact us now!
August 11, 2026
The 5 Best Hikes in Chapada Diamantina: Trails, Waterfalls and Distances
A practical guide to the 5 best hikes in Chapada Diamantina, with the location, distance, difficulty, and main highlights of each trail

Chapada Diamantina National Park protects 1,520 square kilometers of the Sincorá range in the center of Bahia, Brazil. It’s a maze of flat-topped peaks, deep canyons, and some of the tallest waterfalls in the country. People travel to this corner of the Northeast for one thing above all else: the trails.

The park lies roughly 400 kilometers inland from Salvador, and its paths run from half-day walks to four-day treks that cross the plateau on foot. One trail ends at a 340-meter waterfall, while another sends you wading up a riverbed to reach the base of the falls.

With dozens of routes fanning out from towns like Lençóis, Vale do Capão, and Mucugê, which of the Chapada Diamantina hiking trails is right for your fitness and your schedule? PlanetaEXO, an ecotourism platform specializing in Chapada Diamantina tours, has put together this guide to the best hikes in Chapada Diamantina. Check it out below!

Photo: Guillaume Leman

What to know before you hit the trails

A few ground rules shape almost every hike here. Most trails inside the national park require a licensed local guide—essential on the longer routes and a real safety measure, since paths are rarely signposted and the weather turns fast on the open plateau.

Trailheads sit in different base towns: Lençóis in the north, Vale do Capão to the west, and Mucugê and Ibicoara in the south. Below are the top hikes Chapada Diamantina travelers ask us about most.

Timing matters too. The dry season (May to October) brings firmer trails and cooler nights, the best window for the long treks. From November to April, the waterfalls run fuller and the scenery turns deep green, but river crossings get trickier and afternoon storms are common. Water flow can swing a hike from easy to dangerous in a single day, so always check conditions with your guide first!

Photo: Lucas Neves

👉 Read more:
- When is the best time to visit Chapada Diamantina?
- How to Get to Chapada Diamantina National Park?
1. Fumacinha, the toughest of the best hikes in Chapada Diamantina

Deep in the southern reaches of the park, Fumacinha is the trail serious hikers come for. The route follows a riverbed straight into a narrowing canyon until you reach a 105-meter waterfall whose name means “little smoke,” as the wind shreds the falling water into mist before it lands.

Expect around 18 kilometers of rock-hopping and river crossings. This is the hardest single day on the list!
- Location: Southern Chapada Diamantina, in a canyon reached from Ibicoara
- Distance: about 18 km round trip
- Difficulty: Hard (the most demanding trail here; a guide is essential)
- Highlights: the 105 m Fumacinha waterfall, the riverbed walk into the canyon, swallows diving over the pool
👉 Explore the adventure: 6-Day Ultimate Chapada Diamantina Hike

2. Cachoeira da Fumaça, one of Brazil’s tallest waterfall, seen from the top

The most famous hike in the park climbs to the rim of Cachoeira da Fumaça, a free fall of roughly 340 meters (long cited as up to 380) that ranks among the tallest waterfalls in Brazil.

From Vale do Capão, the trail gains height fast for the first hour, then flattens across the plateau to a lookout where the river simply drops off the edge into the valley. On the way back, many hikers cool off at the Riachinho waterfall.
- Location: Vale do Capão, about 70 km (1 hour) from Lençóis
- Distance: about 12 km round trip
- Difficulty: Moderate, with one steep opening climb
- Highlights: the ~340 m drop, the Morrão viewpoint over the valley, a swim at Riachinho
@abdalamc

@ojeanthome

👉 Explore the adventure: Chapada Diamantina Tour 7 Days

3. Vale do Pati, the trek often called the best in Brazil

If you have several days, the Vale do Pati traverse is the one to pick, as it is regularly voted the best trek in Brazil.

The classic route covers about 39 kilometers over 4 days, including overnight stays in the homes of families who have lived in the valley for generations.

On the Vale do Pati trek, you climb to the iconic Pati lookout, scramble up Morro do Castelo, and reach the Cachoeirão viewpoint, a 260-meter wall that spills more than twenty waterfalls after heavy rain.
- Location: Point-to-point across Vale do Pati; trailhead at Guiné, reached from Lençóis
- Distance: about 39 km over 4 days
- Difficulty: Moderate to challenging (multi-day trek)
- Highlights: the Cachoeirão viewpoint, the Funis and Calixto waterfalls, Morro do Castelo, family homestays
👉 Explore the adventure: Pati Valley 4 Days: Chapada Diamantina Trek, Brazil

4. Cachoeira do Sossego, a rugged day hike from Lençóis

One of the best hikes in Chapada Diamantina starts right in Lençóis and never lets up. The path traces the Ribeirão do Meio streambed over slick rock and through several river crossings before opening onto the 20-meter Cachoeira do Sossego, which pours into a pool wide enough that you swim across it to stand under the falls.

Reckon on 12 to 15 kilometers round trip; most guides rate it advanced and suggest saving it for the end of your stay, once your legs are used to the terrain.
- Location: Starts in central Lençóis, along the Ribeirão do Meio
- Distance: about 12–15 km round trip
- Difficulty: Hard (advanced day hike)
- Highlights: the 20 m falls and its swimming pool, the Ribeirão do Meio natural waterslide, the rocky river route
@psibeatrizmg

👉 Read more: Chapada Diamantina Waterfalls: Best Trails and Hidden Gems

5. Cachoeira da Encantada, a technical trek to a 230-meter fall

For hikers who want a canyon adventure without the crowds, Cachoeira da Encantada in the park’s south delivers a 230-meter waterfall at the end of a demanding route up the Rio Samina.

Much of the walk happens in the riverbed itself, hopping boulders and crossing water between canyon walls that rise close to 400 meters, past panels of ancient rock paintings.

You can view the falls from an easier trail above the canyon or take the harder line below, which involves scrambling and short swims.
- Location: Southern Chapada Diamantina, in the Rio Samina canyon near Itaetê
- Distance: full-day technical trek (about 3 hours up the riverbed each way)
- Difficulty: Hard / technical
- Highlights: the 230 m Encantada waterfall, canyon walls near 400 m, prehistoric rock art
👉 Read more: 10 facts about Chapada Diamantina National Park

How many days do you need, and how do you link the trails

You can sample the park’s best hikes in 3 or 4 days from a single base, but the classic mistake is trying to cram everything into a weekend.

A short trip suits the day hikes near Lençóis, like Sossego and the easier waterfalls, while the best treks in Chapada Diamantina (Fumacinha and Vale do Pati) need a multi-day itinerary with guides, transport, and overnight logistics already arranged. Most travelers spend between 3 and 7 days here, matching the route to their fitness and the season.

👉 Read more:
- What to do in Chapada Diamantina?
- How many days should you spend in Chapada Diamantina?
Ready to hike Chapada Diamantina? Plan your trip with PlanetaEXO!

Now that you know the best hikes in Chapada Diamantina, from the short, brutal climb to Fumacinha to the 4-day crossing of Vale do Pati, all that is left is to pick the trails that fit your trip.

PlanetaEXO is an ecotourism platform specializing in hiking in Brazil, working alongside the best local guides in Chapada Diamantina. From a single day on the trail to a full multi-day traverse, we handle the permits, transport, and homestays so you can focus on the walking. Contact us now!
August 7, 2026
Amazonian Food: 7 Typical Dishes to Try in the Brazilian Amazon

Native river fish, cassava in a dozen forms, and fruits you’ll find nowhere else are some of the Amazonian food that await you in the largest rainforest on Earth

Amazonian food starts with three ingredients and thousands of years of practice. The first is fish, as the Amazon basin holds more species than any river system on Earth. The second is cassava (mandioca), a root domesticated in the southwestern region roughly 10,000 years ago. The third is fruit: açaí, cupuaçu, tucumã, and dozens more that grow wild in the forest.

Layered over all of it is the deepest influence of all: the Indigenous and ribeirinho (river-dweller) kitchens that invented most of these dishes long before anyone wrote them down.

That makes food here far more than dinner. Cassava alone sustains the regional economy: the North region grows 36% of Brazil’s crop, with the state of Pará producing almost 4 million tons a year. Açaí is a billion-real business: Pará supplies over 93% of Brazil’s production and is the world’s largest exporter of the fruit.

Dishes like tacacá and pato no tucupi anchor festivals, religious processions, and daily rituals from Belém to Manaus, which is why Amazonian cuisine is treated as heritage, not just a menu.

Want to know what actually lands on the table? PlanetaEXO, an ecotourism platform specializing in Amazon rainforest tours, has put together this guide to 7 typical dishes, featuring what they are, where they come from, and how to eat them the way locals do. Check it out below!

1. Tambaqui

The tambaqui (Colossoma macropomum) is one of the largest scaled fish in the Amazon River basin, reaching up to 108 cm and 40 kg.

It is also a frugivore, which means that when the rivers rise, it swims into the flooded forest and eats fruit and seeds, cracking hard nuts with a powerful set of teeth and scattering seeds over long distances: a single fish can carry up to 1 kg of seeds in its gut. That fruit diet is exactly why its meat is prized: firm, fatty, and mild.

It is the fish the region cooks most. The tambaqui is the most farmed native fish in Brazil, second overall only to imported tilapia. On an Amazonian table, it shows up two ways above all.

Costela de tambaqui are the ribs, salted and grilled over charcoal until the fat crisps, eaten with farinha and lime. Caldeirada de tambaqui is a stew in which the fish is simmered for about 20 minutes with tomato, onion, pimenta-de-cheiro, and cilantro, then served with white rice and cassava flour.

Where to try it: Grilled tambaqui is on nearly every menu in Manaus and Santarém, and it’s a staple lunch on a 7-day Amazon River Cruise.

@tambaquidebanda

👉 Read more: Best Amazon River Cruises in Brazil

2. Açaí

In the Amazon, açaí is not a dessert. The frozen, sweetened açaí bowl topped with granola and banana that went global (and the sugary version eaten across the rest of Brazil) would puzzle people born and raised in the Amazonas and Pará.

Authentic Amazonian açaí is thick, deep purple, unsweetened, and savory, usually poured over a plate and eaten with farinha, fried fish, or dried shrimp as a main meal. It comes from the Euterpe oleracea palm and has fed Indigenous and ribeirinho communities for centuries.

It is also one of the Amazon’s economic engines. According to the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics, Pará produces an average of nearly 1.7 million tons a year, shipping 8,200 tons abroad in 2023, led by the town of Igarapé-Miri (25% of the exports). For millions of families, the daily bowl is both dinner and income.

Where to try it: Ask for it puro (pure, unsweetened) with farinha at any market in Belém or Manaus.

@paraiaca

3. Tucumã

Tucumã is the fruit of the Astrocaryum tucumã palm, common across central Amazonia. Its name comes from the ancient Tupi tukũ, “fruit of the spiny plant,” after the black thorns covering the trunk and leaves.

The edible part is a bright orange, fibrous pulp (firm, oily, rich in vitamins A and C, and in omega 3, 6, and 9) with a flavor somewhere between pumpkin and roasted nut.

In the state of Amazonas, it is recognized as cultural heritage and a marker of local identity. Its most famous form is the X-caboquinho: a French roll filled with tucumã, fried plantains, and queijo coalho (curd cheese), usually washed down with milky coffee. This is a breakfast so tied to the city that it is listed as intangible cultural heritage of Manaus.

Locals also turn tucumã into patê, farofa, and arroz de tucumã (rice cooked with the pulp).

Where to try it: Any bakery or street stall in Manaus sells the X-caboquinho from dawn.

@yasaibrasil

4. Tapioca

You’ll find tapioca griddled on street corners from São Paulo to the beaches of the Northeast, a fixture of Brazilian food nationwide. It is made from cassava starch, the goma that settles out when grated cassava is soaked and pressed.

Although tapioca is widely consumed throughout the country, its origins are in the Amazon region, and even the name is Indigenous: tipi’óka is the Tupi word for the “clot” that forms. The Tupi-Guarani were extracting it and safely detoxifying the poisonous bitter cassava millennia before any chemist explained how.

Cassava is still the backbone of the regional diet and economy: Pará is Brazil’s largest producer, growing almost 4 million tons (about 17.9% of the national crop).

Tapioca itself is endlessly versatile, taken sweet with coconut and condensed milk or savory with cheese and meat. But the most Amazonian way to eat it is simple: a hot tapioca folded around queijo coalho and tucumã, the two regional flavors meeting in one bite.

Where to try it: Anywhere in Brazil, from North to South, but the authentic Amazonian version can be found in Amazonas and Pará.

@iloveacainer

👉 Read more: When is the Best Time to Visit the Amazon Rainforest in Brazil

5. Cupuaçu

Cupuaçu (Theobroma grandiflorum) is a close relative of cacao, native to the eastern Amazon. The fruit is large, with a hard brown shell and a white, juicy, intensely aromatic pulp that smells like a cross between chocolate and pineapple.

Indigenous peoples ate the fresh pulp and roasted the seeds into a bitter chocolate long before the fruit had a scientific name. Today, those roasted seeds make cupulate, an Amazonian answer to chocolate.

As an Amazonian food deeply rooted in locals’ lives, it is the region’s most versatile dessert ingredient. Rich in fiber and enzymes, the pulp goes into juices, mousses, ice cream, puddings, sweets, compotes, and liqueurs.

Most of Brazil’s cupuaçu comes from Pará, Amazonas, and Amapá, where it also feeds sustainable agroforestry systems.

Where to try it: Order a cupuaçu juice or ice cream anywhere in the north of Brazil.

@fazendabomsossego

@slechipitangueiras

6. Pato no tucupi

Pato no tucupi (duck in tucupi) is the most iconic dish of Pará. It brings together duck, tucupi (the bright-yellow broth pressed from bitter cassava and slowly cooked until its natural cyanide is gone), and jambu, an Amazonian leaf that leaves a tingling, slightly numbing buzz on the lips and tongue. Garlic, pimenta-de-cheiro, and chicory round it out, and it is served with fluffy white rice and farinha.

Its origin is the story of Amazonian food in miniature: the tucupi and jambu are Indigenous and ribeirinho, mastered on the rivers centuries before contact, while the duck arrived with European colonizers: a fusion cooked in a single pot.

Today it is the traditional dish of the Círio de Nazaré, the Marian procession in Belém that draws around two million people every October, where families gather over pato no tucupi as part of the celebration.

Where to try it: There are several options for eating pato no tucupi in Belém, the capital of Pará, such as the restaurants Ver-O-Açaí and Amazonia na Cuia.

@combu_da_amazonia

7. Tacacá

Tacacá is Amazonian food at its most ceremonial and its most everyday. It’s served scalding hot in a cuia (a gourd bowl) and sipped straight from the bowl, formed with a base of tapioca goma, flooded with tucupi, and then loaded with jambu and dried shrimp.

The result numbs and warms the mouth at once. It descends from mani poi, an Indigenous soup that European travelers were already describing in the 16th century. Nowadays, it is sold on the street by tacacazeiras, women who have made it the same way for generations.

For over 20 years, the Tacacá na Bossa festival has filled Largo de São Sebastião, the square in front of the Teatro Amazonas in Manaus, with free regional music performances and steaming bowls of tacacá.

Meanwhile, in the community of São Braz in Santarém, Pará, the Tacacá Fest brings together regional music, cultural attractions, religious rituals, and traditional Amazonian food.

Where to try it: You can enjoy tacacá at various spots in Belém, with street stalls being the most traditional option (Barraca da Fafá, Tacacá da Dona Maria, and Tacacá da Flávia). In Manaus, it is worth checking out Tacacá da Tia Socorro, Tacacá da Gisela, and Netos Tacacá.

@tacacadatiasocorro

👉 Read more: Best Amazon Jungle Lodges in Brazil

Taste delicious Amazonian food while traveling with PlanetaEXO!

Now that you know these mouthwatering dishes, the best way to understand Amazonian food is to eat it where it’s made, whether that is in a market stall in Belém, a festival in Manaus, or a boat gliding across the waters of the Rio Negro.

PlanetaEXO is an ecotourism platform specializing in Amazon rainforest tours. Working alongside the best local operators, guides, and cooks in the region, our team handles everything, from hassle-free vacation planning to tailor-made experiences. Contact us now!

August 4, 2026
How many days should you spend in Chapada Diamantina?

Planning your trip depends on several factors, such as logistics, the season, and your travel style

The Chapada Diamantina National Park protects around 152,000 hectares (1,520 km²) of central Bahia, which means you need at least 3 full days to truly experience its plateaus, canyons, and waterfalls, though there are options for shorter day trips around the viewpoints and river pools.

Logistics also plays a big part when it comes to planning, as this is a remote region that requires long journeys to reach the base town of Lençóis. The season, the weather, and each traveler’s pace should also be considered when deciding how many days you should stay in Chapada Diamantina.

Need a hand with your trip? PlanetaEXO is an ecotourism platform specializing in Chapada Diamantina tours that knows the region’s trails, seasons, and valleys inside out. Check it out below!

Photo: Agata Fetschenko

What determines how many days you should stay in Chapada Diamantina?

Logistics

In the interior of Bahia, Chapada Diamantina is a remote area. After arriving in the state capital, Salvador, it takes about 6 hours by road (roughly 400 km) to reach Lençóis, the town most travelers use as a base.

The main options are buses, private transfers, or cars, with overnight buses and a small regional airport near Lençóis (LEC) as alternatives worth checking.

Areas like the Vale do Capão, Igatu, and the Vale do Pati add extra transfer time on slower roads and trailheads, so many travelers spend their first and last nights in Lençóis to avoid rushed connections.

👉 Read more: How to Get to Chapada Diamantina National Park?

Photo: Rudolf Ernst

Season and weather

The weather shapes the experience, so knowing the best time to visit Chapada Diamantina matters: some seasons suit certain trips better than others, depending on what you are looking for.

The dry season runs from May to September, bringing stable weather and firmer trails. This is the right window for long hikes like the Vale do Pati trek, and it marks the busiest, high season.

The rainy season runs from October to April, filling the rivers and turning the landscape green. The waterfalls are at their strongest then, especially the Cachoeira da Fumaça and the Cachoeirão, but trails get slippery and some areas can be hard to reach after heavy rain.

One timing detail: the sunbeam that lights up the Poço Encantado and the Poço Azul only appears around midday between roughly April and September. Swimming isn’t allowed at the Poço Encantado, but the visit is still worth it.

Don’t forget: before deciding how many days you should spend in Chapada Diamantina, check the forecast and trail conditions for your dates.

👉 Read more: When is the best time to visit Chapada Diamantina?

Travel style and pace

The flat-topped mountains, deep canyons, and quiet river pools give Chapada Diamantina a calm, wide-open feel, perfect for travelers who want nature and disconnection from everyday life.

But there is also plenty of adventure: multi-day treks with nights in local guesthouses, caves with underground lakes, and waterfalls you reach only on foot.

Your Chapada Diamantina itinerary depends on the pace and interests of each traveler, but the region works for every scenario, from short stays built around viewpoints and river pools inside the national park to multi-day crossings deep into the Vale do Pati.

3-day trip: the essentials

Even on a tighter schedule, three days are enough to experience the heart of Chapada Diamantina, simply by choosing the pace of your adventure.

If you prefer comfort, the 3-day Chapada Diamantina tour is a hotel-based itinerary with short hikes and vehicle transfers, linking the classic sights: the sunset from Morro do Pai Inácio, the blue water of the Poço Azul and the Poço do Diabo, the Cachoeira da Fumaça viewpoint, and a cave like the Gruta da Lapa Doce.

Prefer to earn the views? The 3-day Vale do Pati trip packs Brazil’s most famous trek into a compact route, with long hiking days and nights in local guesthouses, best for travelers who are short on time.

Photo: @deborahbannach

4 to 5-day trip: digging deeper

For those with a little more time, four to five days is the best way to do the Chapada Diamantina trek properly and get into the rhythm of the valley.

The 4-day Pati Valley hike is a more relaxed take on the classic trek, with shorter daily distances and extra time at spots like the Morro do Castelo cave and the Cachoeira do Calixto.

If hiking is your thing, the 5-day trek in Vale do Pati is the full, classic crossing: entire days through surreal plateaus, swimming in isolated pools, climbing to the top of the Cachoeira da Fumaça, and staying with the families who live in the oases inside the valley.

Photo: Guillaume Leman

6 to 7-day trip: the full experience

Six or seven days open the door to the most complete trips in Chapada Diamantina, whether you want a challenge or a varied, family-friendly pace.

The 6-Day Ultimate Chapada Diamantina Hike is built for experienced hikers who want variety: it goes beyond the Vale do Pati, combining different regions and reaching harder-to-access falls like the Cachoeira do Buracão and the Fumacinha. One of the best options if you’re looking forward to hiking in Brazil!

If you’d rather mix things up without long treks, the 7-day Chapada Diamantina trip spreads light hikes, cultural visits, and natural attractions across the park, pairing the Vale do Pati with waterfalls, caves, historic Igatu, and the viewpoints of the Vale do Capão at a gentler pace.

👉 Read more: Chapada Diamantina Waterfalls: Best Trails and Hidden Gems

.

Frequently asked questions about Chapada Diamantina

How many days do you need in Chapada Diamantina?

You need at least 3 full days to see the classic highlights around Lençóis, and 5 to 7 days if you want to trek into the Vale do Pati. Three days cover the main viewpoints, waterfalls, and river pools, while a week lets you combine different regions without rushing.

Is 3 days enough in Chapada Diamantina?

Three days is enough for the essentials, either as a comfort-based tour of the viewpoints and caves or as a compact Vale do Pati trek. It is a tight schedule, so if you can add even one day, you will see more at an easier pace.

How many days do you need for the Vale do Pati trek?

The classic Vale do Pati crossing takes 4 to 5 days done in full, or 3 days in a compact version for travelers short on time. The extra days mean shorter daily distances and more time inside the valley.

Your vacation in Chapada Diamantina with PlanetaEXO

If you’re still not sure how many days you should spend in Chapada Diamantina, we are here to help!

PlanetaEXO is an ecotourism platform specializing in Chapada Diamantina tours, from tailor-made itineraries to bookings and transfers. We work directly with experienced local guides and responsible operators so you can enjoy everything in the most authentic, low-impact way. Contact us now!

August 1, 2026
Amazon Rainforest Vacation: 7 Activities That Fill Your Days in the Jungle

Hiking, canoeing the flooded forest, piranha fishing, night spotting, community visits, and much more. Plus, how your choice of lodge, cruise, or camp decides which ones you get!

The Amazon runs on water. The river gauge in Manaus harbor has been read by hand every single day since 1902, telling a simple story: the Rio Negro rises to its peak between May and July, usually in June, then falls to its low point at the end of October. This information is crucial to the people of the state of Amazonas because the water level dictates a lot of what happens in the region, including tourism.

Therefore, it’s important to understand it before you book your Amazon Rainforest vacation. At high water, you paddle a canoe through the forest, between branches, over ground you would have walked on in October. At low water, white sand beaches appear where the canoe was. Same place, same trip name, completely different days.

PlanetaEXO, an ecotourism platform specializing in Amazon Rainforest tours, has put together this guide to the 7 main activities that fill almost every itinerary in the forest—and to how lodges, cruises, and camps change each one. Check it out below!

Lodge, cruise or camp: where you sleep decides your days

.

Aerial view of an Amazon river cruise boat moored at a white-sand river beach at sunset

Pink river dolphin (boto) surfacing with its mouth open in the dark waters of the Amazon

Before any activity, one decision shapes all of them: your base. The three options are not three price tiers of the same Amazon jungle vacation, as they give you different access to the forest.

An Amazon jungle lodge is fixed. You get a bed, a fan or air conditioning, a restaurant, and a radius: everything you do happens within a couple of hours of the dock. For many travelers, that radius is the trade-off, as the good lodges sit inside territory worth staying still in. Anavilhanas Jungle Lodge, for example, faces the Anavilhanas archipelago, a blackwater maze of islands protected as a national park covering 350,469 hectares.

On the other hand, Amazon river cruises are all about reach. The boat moves overnight, so you wake up somewhere new and never repeat a stretch of river. That is how vessels can take in Jaú National Park—one of the largest protected areas in the Amazon and a UNESCO World Heritage site—plus Indigenous communities and dolphin encounters all in one itinerary.

A camp gives up both. On tours that involve jungle survival courses, like the 4-day Amazon Survival Tour, people sleep in hammocks under tarps, with a mosquito net and a guide awake through the night watching for animals.

1. Forest hiking

.

Naturalist guide teaching two travelers to read the forest during an Amazon jungle hike

Young monkey perched among the leaves in the Amazon rainforest canopy

Here is the honest version of an Amazon rainforest hike: you will not see a jaguar. What you will see are trees—and that turns out to be the point once somebody teaches you how to read them.

Across the basin, a 2013 study in Science estimated roughly 16,000 tree species among about 390 billion individual trees and found that just 227 of those species (1.4%) account for half of every tree standing in the Amazon. Diversity that dense is invisible to an untrained eye.

That’s why having a guide by your side is crucial. A trained professional walks the same trail you do and narrates a different world, including which bark brings down a fever, which vine holds drinkable water, which scratch on a trunk was left by a peccary that morning, and which animal belongs to a call you hear among the trees.

Expect heat, stagnant humidity, mud, and a pace closer to a museum than a workout (trails typically run 2 to 3 hours). The forest floor is dark and quiet because nearly all the life is in the canopy above.

2. Canoeing the flooded forest

.

When the Rio Negro rises, it does not just fill its banks, but it crawls into the forest and stays for months. The result is igapó, a blackwater flooded forest stained the color of strong tea by tannins from decaying leaves. Its whitewater counterpart is várzea, flooded instead by the sediment-heavy Solimões River. Both are forests you paddle through rather than past, and the canopy that was 15 meters over your head in October is at eye level in June.

A motorboat cannot go there. The gaps between trunks are too narrow, the water hides submerged branches, and the engine noise would empty the place. Instead, you take a paddle canoe, whose quiet gliding lets you get close to the inhabitants of the area, such as sloths, caimans, squirrel monkeys, and many more.

The best water is the Rio Negro and its side channels known as igarapés, plus the flooded lakes of Anavilhanas and, on the Pará side, the Arapiuns and Tapajós.

One catch worth planning around your Amazon Rainforest vacation: at low water, the igapó is dry land. If paddling under the canopy is your reason for going, travel between roughly May and August.

3. Traditional fishing

.

Long before it was an activity, fishing was lunch—and across most of the Amazon, it still is. The basin holds over 2,400 described fish species, while the Rio Negro alone accounts for 1,165 of them, with 156 found nowhere else on Earth. This is the most fish-diverse river system on the planet, and the people living on it have eaten from it for millennia.

Piranha fishing is the version almost every itinerary includes. It’s low-tech on purpose: sticks, lengths of line, hooks, and scraps of meat are all the equipment you need, plus a lot of slapping the water to imitate something in trouble.

Before you get scared, piranhas are not the animal the films sold you. Of the roughly 30 species in South America, most are omnivores and scavengers. In fact, people swim in piranha water every day across the Amazon. It’s important to be mindful, of course, but follow your guide’s instructions and you’ll be just fine.

Other fish you may meet:

Tucunaré (peacock bass), the largest cichlid in the Americas, at up to 99 cm and 12.2 kg.

Aruanã, which reaches 90 cm and jumps clear of the water to take insects off low branches.

Tambaqui, up to 108 cm and 40 kg, which eats fruit and seeds dropped into the flooded forest.

Pirarucu (Arapaima gigas), one of the largest freshwater fish in the world at up to 4.5 meters and 200 kg, is an air-breather that has to surface every few minutes.

Traditional Amazonian fishing does not harm the ecosystem the way mass fishing does. Many local communities manage their own lakes, counting fish, setting quotas, and monitoring the entry of outside boats. This not only helps keep the practice respectful and sustainable but also contributes to these families’ income.

On Amazon Rainforest travel itineraries, you and your guide will fish using handlines, keeping only what will be consumed and returning the rest to the water.

4. Night spotting

.

Caiman with glowing eyeshine spotted on the forest floor at night in the Amazon

Tree boa coiled around a branch during an Amazon night walk

After dinner, you get back in the boat. Someone kills the engine, someone else sweeps a flashlight along the margin, and the bank lights up with pairs of orange coals floating on the water.

That eyeshine is not a trick of the light. Caimans have a tapetum lucidum: a layer of guanine crystals behind the retina that bounces incoming light back through it a second time, doubling the chance each photon is caught. It is why they hunt well in near-total darkness and why they are easy to find at night and nearly impossible to spot by day.

Two eyes wide apart and low in the water mean a big animal; the gap between them scales with the skull, so an experienced guide estimates the length before anything moves. The black caiman is the one to hope for—it’s the largest predator in the Amazon basin, reaching around 5 meters.

Other animals might make an appearance after dark. Expect tree frogs, fishing bats, boa constrictors, potoos, kingfishers, and, with luck, a night monkey, the only nocturnal monkey in the Americas.

👉 Read more: How to Get to the Amazon Rainforest in Brazil?

5. Survival techniques and jungle camping

Survival guide weaving palm fronds during a jungle survival course in the Amazon

Hammocks with mosquito nets strung between trees at an Amazon jungle survival camp

In a survival camp, you carry what you need into the forest, sleep where you stop, and spend the days learning how the people who live there stay alive. The setup is deliberately spare: hammock, mosquito net, a tarp overhead against the rain, a fire for cooking, and a guide awake through the night. Meals are simple and partly caught that day.

A jungle survival course in the Amazon typically covers making fire in wet conditions, building a shelter from what is standing nearby, finding drinkable water in vines and rainwater traps, orientation without a trail, identifying edible and medicinal plants, basic traps and knots, and cooking over an open fire.

You learn all this and much more from expert survival guides who know the forest like the back of their hand. The goal here is to learn to read the forest’s signs , so follow their instructions and don’t leave with any unanswered questions.

Not everyone enjoys an experience like this. Amazon jungle camping is aimed at travelers who want to immerse themselves in the rawest form of nature. If you want to develop survival skills and are fine with heat, insects, not using a proper bathroom, and being totally disconnected from the outside world, then this is the right option for you!

6. Visiting riverside and Indigenous communities

.

Aerial view of children holding hands in a circle in an Amazon riverside community

Hand reaching into a woven basket of roasted seeds at an Amazon riverside community

A large proportion of those living in Amazonas reside in Manaus or other urban areas, but the forest is not inhabited solely by animals.

Brazil’s 2022 census counted 1,694,836 Indigenous people across 391 peoples speaking 295 languages—and 867,900 of them, 51.2%, live in the Legal Amazon. Alongside them are the ribeirinhos, the river-dwelling communities whose houses stand on stilts or float outright.

When you book your Amazon Rainforest vacation with respectful operators, visits are arranged in advance, the community sets the tone, and the money lands locally. What you actually do depends on who is hosting.

At São Marcos, near Alter do Chão, the living is made from cassava—you will see the flour mill that produces the farinha eaten with nearly every meal in the region. At Aldeia Atodi, a female-led Indigenous village on the Arapiuns, the guardians walk you through the forest on the theme of medicinal plants.

At Coroca and at Santo Antônio, the day runs through orchards, flour houses, and forest trails with the people who work them. At the Aturiá community on the Rio Negro, the visit is deliberately unhurried: local customs, family histories, seasonal fruit straight from the orchard, and even a football match with the kids.

The deepest version on offer is the Pico da Neblina expedition, where the trek to Brazil’s highest peak at 2,995 meters enters Yanomami territory and is guided at every step by Yanomami leaders.

Beyond the incredibly rich cultural experience, guided tours contribute to the maintenance and development of the communities. Many families derive a significant portion of their livelihood from ecotourism, which benefits not only the people but also the forest, as individuals can earn a living without engaging in practices that are potentially harmful to nature.

If cultural experiences are something you’re interested in, remember: ask before you photograph anyone, buy the craftwork, and take the guide your operator arranged rather than turning up unannounced.

👉 Read more: Ecotourism in the Amazon Rainforest: A Solution to Deforestation

7. River beaches

.

When the water falls, the Amazon hands back something most visitors never expect: beaches. Fine white sand, warm water, no salt, no tide, and no way to get there except by boat.

An Amazon river beach is a sandbank that spends half the year underwater. As the river drops from its June peak toward the end of October’s low, the banks surface one by one, and by the time the level bottoms out, they can stretch for hundreds of meters. Then the floods return and erase them completely. They are seasonal in the strictest sense, which means the beach you swam on last year may not come back in the same shape.

The best time to visit the Amazon Rainforest for beaches is, therefore, the mirror image of the canoeing season—roughly September through December, peaking around the low water. The clearest water is on the blackwater and clearwater rivers: the Tapajós at Alter do Chão, known as the Caribbean of the Amazon, and the Rio Negro around Anavilhanas.

What you do on a river beach is not that different from a traditional beach—with the exception of the lack of ocean, of course. Swim, eat lunch on the sand (don’t litter!), get a tan, or take a nap by the banks. Perfect for a slow-paced, relaxed moment in your Amazon jungle vacation.

Ready to plan your Amazon Rainforest vacation? Start with PlanetaEXO!

Now that you know what actually fills the days in a nature tour on the largest rainforest on Earth, the only real question left is which base gets you the version you want and which month puts the water where you need it to be.

PlanetaEXO is an ecotourism platform specializing in Amazon Rainforest tours. Working alongside the best local operators and guides in the region, our team handles everything from hassle-free vacation planning to tailor-made itineraries for travelers from all over the world. Contact us now!

July 31, 2026
How to Visit the Pantanal in Brazil: Travel Guide
Are you wondering what the best way to visit the Pantanal is? In this travel guide, you’ll find everything you need to plan your trip to Brazil’s wildlife haven.

Home to the greatest population of jaguars in the world, and the best wildlife watching destination in Brazil, the Pantanal has hundreds of different species of birds and mammals. Its vast expanse and unique ecosystem offer an unparalleled experience for nature enthusiasts, making it a must-visit place for those seeking adventure and connection with nature.

As a platform specialized in Pantanal tours that works with the best local operators, PlanetaEXO has put together a comprehensible travel guide with essential information for your trip, such as when is the best time to visit, how to get there, what to do and where to stay. Check it out below!

Table of contents:
.

About the Pantanal

The largest wetland on the planet and a UNESCO World Heritage site, the Pantanal harmoniously combines fauna, flora and water. Fed by the Paraguay, Cuiabá, Miranda and Taquari rivers, it’s characterized by seasonal flooding and directly influenced by three major Brazilian biomes: Amazon Rainforest, Cerrado and the Atlantic Forest.

The Pantanal’s rich biodiversity is complemented by its cultural significance, allowing visitors to immerse themselves in the traditional lifestyle of local communities that have coexisted with this ecosystem for generations.

Economically, the Pantanal thrives on fishing activities, tourism, and cattle farming, all with a strong commitment to conservation. Over the years, efforts to educate locals and tourists about the socioeconomic benefits of preserving the biome have been successful, fostering a balanced, imperative relationship between wildlife and human activities.

@matthias_kern_photography

👉 Read more: 10 facts about the Pantanal

Where is the Pantanal?

The Pantanal is so massive it extends itself across Brazil, Bolivia and Paraguay, but most of its territory is located within Brazilian borders, in the states of Mato Grosso and Mato Grosso do Sul.

Divided by Northern and Southern Pantanal, the biome spans over 210,000 square kilometers — only a bit smaller than the entire territory of Guyana (214,969 km²)!

What is the wildlife like in the Pantanal?

Despite being often overshadowed by the Amazon, the Pantanal hosts the continent’s highest concentration of wildlife. It’s a haven for wildlife observers and photographers, boasting around 325 species of fish, 656 birds, 159 mammals, 53 amphibians and 98 reptiles.

Jaguars are the stars of Brazilian wetlands, but other native animals are often spotted roaming around, like capybaras, giant otters, jabiru storks, mash deer and the mysterious maned wolf.

Photo: Keith Ladzinski, Caiman

👉 Read more:
- Pantanal or the Amazon: Which One Should You Choose?
- 15 Pantanal Wildlife Animals and Facts
How to get to the Pantanal in Brazil?

When planning your trip, it’s important to understand if you’re going to the North or South Pantanal. Naturally, different routes should be considered.

For adventurers exploring the Northern Pantanal, the gateway is Cuiabá, capital of Mato Grosso, accessible via Marechal Rondon International Airport (CGB) and served by direct flights from Brazilian capitals (São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Belo Horizonte, Brasília, etc). If you’re going to Porto Jofre via Poconé, the journey continues along the Transpantaneira Highway.

👉 Compare our Pantanal tours from Cuiabá

Campo Grande, capital of Mato Grosso do Sul, is the starting point for traveling to Aquidauana, Miranda, and Corumbá — cities that surround the Southern Pantanal. Campo Grande International Airport (CGR) offers direct flights from São Paulo, Rio, Campinas, Brasília, etc.

👉 Compare our Pantanal tours from Campo Grande

Photo: Felipe Castellari, Caiman

👉 See more details: How to get to the Pantanal, Brazil

When is the best time to visit the Pantanal?

The Pantanal is a year-round destination. Each season has its own unique charm and opportunities for exploration.

The rainy season (November to December) turns the vegetation into a vibrant green, while the wet season (January to March) is known for the plain floods and river overflows — perfect for boat tours and birdwatching.

During the intermediate season (April to June), the water levels start to drop, making it a great time for the fauna. The dry season (July to October) is even better for wildlife watching, as well as horseback riding and hiking.

Photo: Felipe Castellari, Caiman

👉 See more details: When is the best time to visit the Pantanal?

What to do in the Pantanal?

Pantanal experiences are as abundant as the biome itself. See the main activities below!

Horseback riding

Horseback riding is a traditional way of exploring, allowing visitors to cross flooded areas and access hard-to-reach places. That’s how you dive deep into the true Pantanal lifestyle!

Photo: Layla Motta, Caiman

Jaguar sighting

The Pantanal is the best place in the world to see jaguars in their natural habitat. In the Northern Pantanal, particularly around Porto Jofre, jaguar sightings are frequent along the banks of the Cuiabá River. Most lodges offer boat safaris that provide excellent opportunities to observe and photograph the largest feline of the Americas.

👉 Compare our Pantanal jaguar tours in the north and south

Spotting jaguars in South Pantanal is less likely, but definitely not impossible. Casa Caiman, in Miranda, is the only place in the area where these animals can be seen.

.

Photo safaris

Pantanal photo safaris are conducted in 4×4 vehicles, which allow visitors to explore diverse landscapes and capture stunning images of the wildlife, while also enabling access to remote areas. Naturally, this increases the chances of encountering rare species and getting close-up shots of the biome’s rich biodiversity.

To guarantee the best shots, photo safaris are led by experienced guides who know the perfect spots to photograph birds, reptiles, and mammals.

Photo: Felipe Castellari, Caiman

Boat trips

Boat trips are incredible options to observe the wildlife from the water. As you navigate the rivers, you can spot a wide variety of Pantanal animals, including capybaras, caimans, giant otters, and numerous bird species.

Photo: Felipe Castellari, Caiman

Night spotlighting

When night falls, tour guides take visitors to the wetlands to watch nocturnal animals, like owls and caimans. Using spotlights and flashlights, experiencing the Pantanal come alive at night is unforgettable, as many species are more active and easier to see under the cover of darkness.

@allecgomes.jpg

Ecological walks

Ecological walks across the Pantanal are guided hikes that allow visitors to discover the area’s flora and fauna on foot. These walks are led by seasoned guides who share insights about the ecosystem, plant species, and animal behaviors.

Photo: Felipe Castellari, Caiman

👉 Check our Pantanal tours and enjoy these incredible experiences!

Where to stay in the Pantanal, Brazil?

In general, the accommodations in the Pantanal are typically found on traditional farms that have been transformed into conservation areas due to ecotourism efforts. This provides an authentic taste of the Pantaneiro lifestyle while you enjoy a wonderful stay experience with delicious meals, comfortable rooms and premium services.

If you’re heading to Northern Pantanal, book your stay in Porto Jofre, Poconé, Barão de Melgaço or Cáceres. You’ll find simple, yet cozy accommodations with a charming rustic style that reflects directly into local day-to-day life.

Miranda, Aquidauana and Corumbá, in Southern Pantanal, have a great variety of accommodations, from modest to luxury. Regardless of the category, they all combine hospitality, comfortable facilities and sustainability.

Photo: Felipe Castellari, Caiman

👉 Read more: Where to stay in the Pantanal?

How many days should I stay in the Pantanal?

You need at least 4 days to truly enjoy the richness of the Pantanal with safaris at sunrise and sunset, explore different habitats, and increase your chances of seeing species like jaguars, giant otters, hyacinth macaws, capybaras, etc.

By staying 5 days or more, you’ll have the opportunity to visit more remote regions, join specialized activities (jaguar tracking, birdwatching expeditions, photography-focused tours), and engage more closely with local conservation projects.

Don’t forget: reaching one of the biome’s gateway towns requires a considerable amount of time on the road due to the distances involved, so be prepared to set aside at least 3 hours. The drive itself is a mini-adventure that offers great opportunities for wildlife spotting. Enjoy this journey as a part of your Pantanal trip!

Photo: Felipe Castellari, Caiman

👉 See more details: How many days should you spend in the Pantanal?

What is the best Pantanal safari?

When choosing your Pantanal safari, several factors come into play: type of wildlife, comfort level, preferred activities and budget.

The Northern Pantanal, especially around Porto Jofre, is perfect for wildlife watching. Boat safaris often sail across Cuiabá River in search for jaguars and other native species. Check it out: Pantanal Jaguar Safari in Porto Jofre, Cuiabá.

Alternatively, the Southern Pantanal also offers remarkable safari experiences. If you have a larger budget, the best option is the ecological refuge for jaguars, notable for its conservation and education efforts that help sustain local wildlife and promote eco-friendly tourism.

This is also the only place in the South that guarantees a 98% chance of jaguar sightings while also providing luxury accommodations. Check it out: Pantanal Luxury Safari.

For those on a limited budget, there are other options for safaris in the Southern Pantanal, including Pantanal tours from Campo Grande. Adventures like this provide an incredible wildlife viewing experience with horseback riding, boat tours, jeep safaris, and ecological walks. Accommodations are simple, yet incredibly cozy.

Photo: Felipe Castellari, Caiman

👉 Read more: Which is the best Pantanal Safari Tour in Brazil?

What should I pack for a Pantanal trip in Brazil?

When preparing for a trip to the Pantanal, packing the right gear is essential to ensure comfort and safety. Here’s a list of must-bring items to make the most of your experience:
- Light clothes, including at least one UV long-sleeved shirt and shorts/pants (earth or light colors)
- Lightweight jacket
- Windbreaker or rain jacket
- Swimming suit
- 2 pairs of shoes (sneakers/walking shoes and hiking boots)
- Sandals (or water shoes)
- Socks
- Hats
- Sunglasses
- Waterproof sunscreen (SPF30+)
- Insect repellent
- Bath towel and washcloth
- Camera, batteries/battery charger for cameras (underwater camera is also highly recommended)
- Headlamp or flashlight + extra batteries
- Dry-bag for cameras and personal gear
- Daypack for hiking and short outings
- Binoculars
- Non-perishable snacks
- Non-breakable reusable water bottle
.

What makes the Pantanal so special?

Traveling to one of the world’s most fascinating ecosystems not only allows for an escape from the urban pace, but it also provides an authentic immersion in untouched nature.

The Pantanal is a one of a kind destination, offering the opportunity to witness rich biodiversity while encouraging local tourism, supporting communities, and helping conservation efforts.

Local customs also add an enriching cultural layer to the journey. Through ecotourism activities, visitors dive deep into the unique blend of tradition and nature to live experiences found nowhere else on Earth.

.

Book your trip for the Pantanal in Brazil with PlanetaEXO

We hope you’ve enjoyed our Pantanal travel guide! Now that you know everything about this incredible place, it’s time to start vacation planning.

PlanetaEXO specializes in Pantanal tours and connects you with the best ecotourism operators while assisting with tailor-made itineraries, transfer options and much more. Book now!
July 27, 2026