Multigenerational Brazil Journeys, Every Age

01

Rio de Janeiro

Day 1-4

4 nights

Four nights, because with children the first one is written off by the flight and the fourth is the one everybody remembers. Your guide and driver collect you inside the terminal and are with you every day, which with a group of five or more is the difference between a holiday and an administrative exercise.

1. Day 1

   Landing, pool, early night

   Met inside the terminal, driven to the hotel, and then nothing. Children handle long-haul flights better than adults do and recover faster, but only if the first day stays empty. Beach or pool, dinner far too early, everyone asleep by nine.

   • Airport pickup
   • No schedule
2. Day 2

   A train up a mountain, and a very old tram

   Corcovado is reached by cog railway through the forest, which for most children is the better half of the outing, and we time it early so you are ahead of the coaches. Afterwards the mosaic Selarón steps, which are made of tiles from 60 countries and are the one photo the teenagers will actually take, and the little yellow tram up to Santa Teresa.

   • Cog railway
   • Selarón steps
3. Day 3

   Monkeys before breakfast, cable cars at sunset

   Tijuca is the largest urban rainforest on earth and, oddly, a man-made one: coffee plantations cleared these hills and from the 1860s the forest was replanted by hand, tree by tree. Fifteen minutes from Ipanema there are capuchin monkeys, toucans and a waterfall to stand under. Late afternoon, the two glass cable cars up Sugarloaf as the bay turns gold.

   • Tijuca by jeep
   • Sugarloaf
4. Day 4

   The day the group splits

   A beach day with options rather than a programme. Surf lesson for whoever wants one, a calmer stretch of sand with shade and a booked lunch table for whoever does not, and a second guide if the two halves want to be genuinely apart. Everyone meets for dinner and nobody has spent the day waiting for anybody else.

   • Beach
   • Split day

02

Foz do Iguaçu

Day 5-7

3 nights

275 waterfalls over a cliff nearly three kilometres wide. For a family this is the easiest of the four stops: the walkways on both sides are flat and paved, the distances are short, and there is a bird sanctuary and a soaking boat ride for the days when waterfalls alone are not enough.

1. Day 5

   Inside the aviaries, then three countries at once

   You land at lunchtime, so the afternoon belongs to the bird sanctuary by the park gates, where you walk through the aviaries rather than looking into them: rescued toucans an arm's length away, scarlet ibis, harpy eagles, a flamingo lagoon and macaws flying loose overhead. At dusk, the point where Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay look at each other across the water, three countries in one photograph.

   • Walk-in aviaries
   • Three borders
2. Day 6

   The panorama, and getting completely soaked

   The Brazilian trail gives you the whole sweep of the falls in one frame and ends on a catwalk in the spray. Watch your snacks: the coatis are charming and entirely professional thieves. In the afternoon, the inflatable that powers up the rapids and straight under the cascades, which is the single loudest memory most children bring home. Anyone who would rather stay dry watches from the platform.

   • Panorama trail
   • Boat, optional
3. Day 7

   Standing over the Devil's Throat

   Across the border for the Argentine walkways, which run out over the water to the lip of the Garganta del Diablo, the 80 metre throat where half the river disappears beneath your feet. Flat the whole way and doable at any age, with a little park train covering the longer stretch. Loud, wet, and the one place where teenagers put the phone away.

   • Devil's Throat
   • Flat walkways

03

Manaus & the Rio Negro

Day 8-12

4 nights · riverboat

The boat rather than a jungle lodge, and for a family that is the deciding detail: everyone sleeps in the same place all week, the bathrooms are ten steps away, meals are on board, and there is a deck to be bored on. The Rio Negro is also dark with tannins from the flooded forest, which is exactly why there are so few mosquitoes on this river.

1. Day 8

   Onto the black water

   Board in the early afternoon at Manaus and the city is gone within the hour. Cabins are air-conditioned, there are two decks to spread out on, and the crew have done this with children many times. First sunset from the deck, then a canoe into the still side channels once it is dark.

   • Embarkation
   • Evening canoe
2. Day 9

   400 islands, and eyes in the dark

   The Anavilhanas is the largest freshwater island archipelago on earth, around 400 islands that flood and drain with the river every year. Canoe in the morning and a short forest walk with a naturalist. After dark, the night safari: the guide sweeps a torch across the bank and the caiman eyes light up orange, which no child forgets.

   • Anavilhanas
   • Night safari
3. Day 10

   Piranhas, then pink dolphins

   The best day of the trip for most families, and it is not close. Piranha fishing in the morning with a hand line, which children are usually better at than their parents. Then a visit to a caboclo river family, whose year runs on the water level and not the calendar. In the afternoon, swimming in the warm water while the pink river dolphins come to you.

   • Pink dolphins
   • River community
4. Day 11

   The Meeting of the Waters

   A slow last morning with kayaks off the deck for whoever wants them, then the moment the dark Rio Negro meets the pale Rio Solimões and the two refuse to mix, running side by side in one bed for kilometres. You can see the seam from the rail. Back in Manaus around midday.

   • Two rivers
   • Kayaks
5. Day 12

   On to the coast

   A morning in Manaus at your own pace before the flight east, and the transfer up the coast from Salvador in the afternoon. A travel day, planned as one rather than pretended away, with the rooms ready when you arrive.

   • Travel day

04

Praia do Forte

Day 13-16

4 nights · or 3 to 5

A former fishing village with one sandy lane, no through traffic and calm, palm-backed water. After twelve days of highlights this is where children are allowed to be bored and adults finally sit down. Four nights is our default, three if flights are tight, five if you would rather not pack again.

1. Day 13

   Turtles, ten minutes from your room

   The flagship station of Brazil's national sea turtle project is on the beach here, with open-air pools of green, loggerhead and hawksbill turtles and, in nesting season, hatchlings being released. It is the rare conservation visit that holds a six year old and a sixteen year old at the same time.

   • Sea turtle project
   • All ages
2. Day 14

   Snorkelling in pools that appear twice a day

   At low tide, natural pools form in the reef in front of the village: warm, shallow, no current and full of small fish. It is the safest introduction to snorkelling a child will get, and it happens a hundred metres from where you are sitting. Tide times decide the plan, which is why we check them before we set the day.

   • Tide pools
   • Village
3. Day 15

   A castle, or a kayak

   On the hill above the village stand the ruins of the Casa da Torre, a fortified manor begun in the sixteenth century and one of the oldest colonial buildings in Brazil. An hour, big views, usually empty. Or, inland, the Sapiranga reserve, where Atlantic forest trails and a tea-coloured river make for an easy paddle. Or both, split between the two halves of the group.

   • 16th century
   • Kayaking
4. Day 16 · Finale

   Nothing, and whales if the month is right

   Between July and October humpback whales pass this coast to breed, and a morning boat gives you a fair chance of seeing one breach. Outside those months the plan is deliberately empty. This is the day the trip settles, and with children it is the day you find out which part they will still be talking about at Christmas.

   • Whales July to October
   • Or nothing at all