It’s small wonder that the largest country on the world’s most biodiverse continent is considered a must-visit by nature lovers. Brazil is a Europe-sized land with two major rainforests, South America’s largest swampland, towering mountains and a plethora of animals to match.

How much time you should devote to Brazil depends on your penchant for hopping about from place to place – and in any and all cases, expect to take an internal flight or two.

One week in Brazil

To be very honest, a week is a very short amount of time to travel to Brazil. The long international flights on either end mean that for anyone visiting from outside Latin America it will feel like a whirlwind, even if you like fast-paced travel. A short and sweet visit can definitely be had, though you’ll want to focus on one location.

And if there’s one location I’d recommend above all others for nature lovers in Brazil, it would be the Pantanal. More specifically, the northern end of the Pantanal. Leaving the state capital of Cuiaba, you can drive down the dirt road southwards called the Transpantaneira, cruising past flocks of waterbirds and giant hyacinth macaws. Dispersed along the way are farm stays and pousadas, where countryside hospitality more than makes up for the high prices. At the southern end of this one-way road is the jaguar capital of Porto Jofre. Not only are there a lot of them here, but several individuals have become habituated to the sound of fishing boats and relax in plain view of camera-clicking visitors. Spotting multiple jaguars on a single trip is not uncommon here. While Porto Jofre could be reached in a day from Cuiaba, a week will enable you to properly appreciate all the Transpantaneira’s wildlife.

Suggested itinerary: Make a beeline for Cuiaba, and collect your car on that day if you can. Start the next day driving at dawn, so that you can be at the Transpantaneira in the morning, the best time for wildlife. It is possible to drive directly to Porto Jofre in this one day even at a leisurely pace, and you’ll want to stay here at least two mornings for the best chances of spotting jaguars. Spend the rest of your time driving back to Cuiaba, and stop off at some other fazendas on the way.

Another great location for anyone with only seven days to spare is Foz do Iguacu, and the border area with Argentina and Paraguay. The big ticket attraction here is, of course, Iguazu Falls, and the sight of 400 gushing waterfalls clustered around a gaping gorge is truly astonishing. There are also trails through the surrounding rainforest in which one can spot monkeys, various Brazilian birds and coatis. As well as the falls, there’s also a hummingbird garden in Argentina and a series of forest reserves in Paraguay along Lake Itaipu where one can find free serviced campsites. You read that right.

Suggested itinerary: Make a beeline for Foz do Iguacu. Stay in the Argentinian side for three nights in order to see their side of the falls, the hummingbird garden and the tri-border viewpoint (Brazil has one, but you’ll need to pay for it), two nights in Brazil to see their side of the falls and two nights in one of Paraguay’s nature reserves if you have a car and camping gear. 

Finally, a week is also enough time to take in the Amazon’s highlights. While spotting wildlife here isn’t as easy as in the Pantanal, there are still some amazing things to see: sloths, monkeys, bright red macaws and a bird that reeks. You can also swim with bright pink dolphins here. Trips from Manaus tend to last three-four days, although six day tours exist too. All tend to involve being whisked upriver one way or another. Budget tours will have you sleeping on dry land (well, semi-dry) while those with cash to splash will want to consider a river cruise in order to explore more of the Amazon.

Suggested itinerary: take one of the longer tours since you’ll have the time here, and use any leftover days to enjoy all that Manaus has to offer. 

Two weeks in Brazil

Two weeks will allow you to pay a visit to a few different sites, explore each at a more leisurely pace and squeeze in a little rest day or city break at the start.

Once again, I’m going to tend towards recommending the Pantanal. The southern Pantanal is a great option for anyone who wants to get the best of Brazil’s nature without a hefty price tag, and has enough to fill a fortnight. Giving a lay of the land for this part of the Pantanal is a bit more difficult since multiple roads traverse it, as opposed to a single one in the north, but most of them are a little ways off the highway to Bolivia. Additionally, this area is more developed and farmed than the north, but offers many of the same animals and more. A few nights at Fazenda San Francisco should turn up ocelots and jaguars on one of their night safaris, and a few days at the cheap Pantanal Jungle Lodge and/or Pousada Sao Joao will be good for getting out onto the water. South of the highway is another spot of natural beauty visitors to Brazil have plenty of lyrical to wax about: the town of Bonito. Making its bread and butter from ecotourism, this town is surrounded by an unfairly large number of natural attractions, including stalagmite-strewn caves and rivers where visitors can snorkel with friendly fish in crystalline waters. There’s also a sinkhole where visitors can observe bright red macaws swirling about beneath them.

Suggested itinerary: Fly to Campo Grande and spend a night there. If you’ve an afternoon to spare and aren’t feeling tired there’s a park full of capybaras in the city’s centre. Drive out to Fazenda San Francisco for three nights, which will give you three night safaris and a variety of daytime activities. Next, move on to one of the accommodation options along the Estrada and stay there for another two nights, which will give you another bunch of Pantanal activities. You’ll probably also spot some more animals since the vegetation is slightly different here. Bonito, to the south, is worth spending at least three nights in. With the remaining five nights, you could either take this entire itinerary slower, or squeeze in Iguazu Falls. Travelling from Campo Grande to Iguazu Falls by bus will either require a 16-hour bus or an internal flight.

For those with deeper pockets and who are dead serious about spotting some of Brazil’s wildlife highlights, a great two-weeker is combining the northern half of the Pantanal with the Amazon. Spend your first week doing the one-week itinerary along the Transpantaneira, jaguars et al. Then, once you’ve returned to Cuiaba, head north to the Cristalino Reserve in northern Mato Grosso. Be warned – the distance is great, such is Brazil’s size, and you’ll either have to drive for ten hours or take an internal flight. Once you get to Alta Floresta though, you’ll encounter one of the best-preserved stretches of the Amazon and one of the top spots in the world for spotting the ferocious-looking harpy eagle, the world’s largest bird of prey.

Suggested itinerary: between the Pantanal and Alta Floresta, split your time as evenly as practicalities such as when flights are cheaper will allow.

For some nature combined with the best of Brazil’s rich culture and history, consider touring Rio de Janeiro State and Minas Gerais. One can get their first taste of Brazilian wildlife in Rio de Janeiro’s botanical gardens, where habituated toucans and monkeys delight visitors and city residents alike. In Rio de Janeiro itself is the bay area, where the series of peaks rising out of the ocean had it voted as one of the Seven Wonders of the Natural World. Sugarloaf Mountain and Christ the Redeemer get all the fame, but Duque de Caxias hill is a great alternative for a low-cost, no-queue and easy hike.

Just a little bit east of Rio de Janeiro is the town of Buzios where a nearby forest harbours golden lion tamarins and there are some excellent beaches, making this a great side trip.

Minas Gerais, to the north, was the birthplace of Brazilian independence and the site of some gorgeous old towns that look like they were plucked straight out of Portugal. And in a certain sense, they were. Ouro Preto is the best option, since it lies near to Minas Gerais’s wildlife highlight: at the Monastery of Santuario do Caraca, one can spend the day hiking the hills, searching for exceptionally rare titi monkeys and hummingbirds, and enjoying waterfalls tricking down the red earth. Then, at night, the monastery gets visited by one of its resident maned wolves, a bizarre creature that looks like a cross between a giraffe and a fox. Having put food out for this animal for decades, the maned wolves of Caraca walk up the steps and feed right in front of spectating visitors.

Suggested itinerary: Plan to spend three nights in Rio de Janeiro since this city offers a lot to do, and two in Buzios going there and back from Rio. Next, fly to Minas Gerais’ capital Belo Horizonte. If driving to Santuario do Caraca you could probably head there on the same day, but you’ll need to spend the night in BH if using public transport. Three nights in Caraca is best and will practically guarantee your chances of maned wolves coming to visit. Travel on to Ouro Preto and spend three nights there. Finally, head back to Belo Horizonte, and use its airport to fly out. An international airport, it is possible to fly to Lisbon and Panama from here, and onward to your country. 

Three to four weeks in Brazil

Spending three to four weeks in this country will enable you to combine some of the itineraries mentioned above and will make for a truly amazing and diverse trip (biologically and culturally speaking). For example, you could easily combine the Rio-Minas itinerary with the Pantanal and Iguazu Falls, as long as you don’t mind a lot of internal flights.

Getting around Brazil

There are two main modes of transport: internal flights and long-distance buses. There is a scenic railway from Curitiba into the mountains but other than this, train travel is practically nonexistent.

What’s flying within Brazil like?

Flying in Brazil is smooth and easy. Large airports are modern and air-conditioned, staff sometimes speak English, Brazilian airlines generally have online check-in and mobile boarding passes, and flights tend to leave on time if my experiences and those of people I spoke to are anything to go by. Most of the buying and check-in process can be done in English, though there may be a chewy translation here and there. In short, it isn’t too different from flying in Europe, and a number of new budget airlines means that it’s now much cheaper to get around Brazil by plane.

Insider tip: After completing online check-in, either screenshot your boarding pass’ QR code or click the option to send it to your email. One flight I took with GOL had its boarding pass on its website, and I couldn’t get it emailed, so I took a screenshot. I was very glad I did, because ten minutes before boarding it malfunctioned and I could no longer access the website version of my pass.

What is bus travel within Brazil like?

While flying in Brazil isn’t too different from Europe, bus travel in this country puts European bus travel to shame. Seats are comfortable, with squashy headrests, the ability to recline, plenty of legroom and air conditioning. Buses tend to leave on time, although if your station is midway along the route it may be delayed. 

Bus terminals, called rodovarios, are often centrally located. The surrounding streets are generally not the safest, so you’re best off taking an Uber to and from them. Bus journeys themselves are quite safe, although you should still keep valuables on you at all times. 

Tickets are cheap and can generally be bought online, though some websites will require you to have a CPF (Brazilian ID number) in order to buy tickets. For that reason, I tended to use Busbud, since my passport number was accepted on there. Mobile tickets are sometimes accepted, but not always – Busbud tells you if you’ll be sent a voucher, and if you are you’ll need to go to the company’s counter at the station, present your voucher and passport and get a paper ticket printed.

Bags that are left in the hold have a tag attached to them, and you’ll be given a matching stub. Be sure to hold onto it, so that the attendant can give you your bags at the end. If you lose it you should be able to convince them that bag is yours (describe it in Portuguese to grease the wheels, for example “mochila azul” for blue backpack). In theory though, you’ll be scuppered, so try not to let it happen.

When you get your ticket you’ll be assigned a seat number. Expect your fellow passengers to follow it religiously, even if the rest of the bus is empty. 

Buses usually don’t have Wifi, and phone signal can be patchy in remote areas. Be sure to bring a book or download some things to keep yourself entertained.

Falling asleep on standard bus seats isn’t too difficult, but overnight buses will often also have sleeper class seats that offer even more legroom and rotate 180 degrees. Taking one of these is a great way to save time for exploring places, and will also save you a night of accommodation, so they can often be a better alternative to flying. Not to mention, travelling by bus is much better for the planet.

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Best site for accommodation in Brazil: Booking.com

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Best site for booking tours: Viator

Photos credits

“Jaguar in the Pantanal” by Bart vanDorp is licensed under CC BY 2.0.

“Dolphin man” by Zemlinki! is licensed under CC BY 2.0.

“A scarlet macaw enjoying breakfast” by takashi muramatsu is licensed under CC BY 2.0.

“Squirrel Monkey” by Phillie Casablanca is licensed under CC BY 2.0.