Brazil holidays

The Pantanal is almost 17 million hectares of wild wetlands, rivers, lakes and forest that sink under floods every wet season. On our holidays you’ll follow in the footsteps of the wildlife and rise above the waters on canoe and boat trips skippered by a local guide. You’ll need their expertise to seek out the crocs, tapirs, anacondas, capybaras and giant anteaters that hide away – and you’ve got a better chance of seeing wildlife here compared to the tangled Amazon Rainforest. It’s not all sunken waterways, either. The dusty Transpantaneira Highway bumps through the northern Pantanal, where you’re most likely to see jaguars.

Rio de Janeiro  is hard to pin down: it’s a city where hillside favelas overlook million-dollar yachts, but its striking geography – Sugarloaf Mountain, forested hills, the sandy bays with their dotted islands – provide recognisable waypoints. Our holidays don't just show you the sights: sure, there are spectacular views from Christ the Redeemer, but there are also opportunities to play volleyball and eat barbecue on the beach, and to explore Rio Botanical Garden… And you can't help but celebrate the city’s music: even outside Carnival, a medley of samba, hip-hop, bossa nova and Carioca funk drifts out of houses and cafés. Our city tours put you at the centre of Rio de Janeiro, showing its heart and soul, as well as the truths of living in a city with such an astonishing gulf between the rich and poor.

Travelling in Brazil with kids is easy when you go with us. We know how to source just the right accommodation and activities, and tweak journey times to your brood’s ability to sit still. Brazil doesn’t have a boring bone in its body, so you might zipline through rainforests, track jaguars, monkeys and toucans by boat, stare wide-eyed at waterfalls, and join Brazilian families as they pile onto beaches made for barbecuing and snorkelling. Even cities are an adventure playground, with a cable car hoisting you up Sugarloaf Mountain in Rio de Janeiro and interactive science museums like the Museu Catavento in Sao Paulo.