Carnaval Champions Parade in Rio de Janeiro

Friday 28 February 2020. Your Rio de Janeiro Carnaval Champions Parade Tour begins as our guide meets you at the airport and describes the Marvellous City during the journey to your hotel. After checking in and some time for lunch, you head out for your first look at Rio from the cable car ride to the top of Sugar Loaf Mountain guarding the entrance to Guanabara Bay. The views over Rio, along the beaches and to the mountains behind are spectacular. After returning to your hotel late afternoon you can enjoy sunset from Arpoador, the headland between the two main beaches, and enjoy your first evening in the city.

Saturday 29 February 2020. The day is free to relax around the beaches. In the evening, you transfer to the Sambodromo where the largest festival in the world takes place. The best 6 of the 12 main Rio samba schools from the main parade the weekend before parade again, but this time more in celebration than competition, with spectacular floats of costumed dancers and drums batteries passing for hours. The parade is a riot of colours & costumes, feathers & flesh, the scale of the spectacle of Carnaval in Rio de Janeiro has to be seen to be appreciated, and the ideas seem to get wilder and more exotic every year!

Sunday 1 March 2020. With the Carnaval Champions Parade likely to last until early morning, you may be in need of an easy Sunday! Some fresh fruit juices from the colourful bars on every corner of Rio help to replenish your vitamins. Sunday in Rio, and the best day to have free in the city. You can spend your whole day with world-class people watching on the beaches, and break from there to visit the Ipanema Hippie Market in Praça General Osorio. The beach and a long lunch is the order of the day on a typical Brazilian Sunday though, and there is nowhere better to appreciate that than around Ipanema and Copacabana.

Monday 2 March 2020. Your final day in Rio takes you to see the historic side of Rio, the Municipal Theatre and the grand buildings from the 19th Century. The modern Metropolitan Cathedral and the antique Arches of Lapa are two more postcard sights of Rio before you climb up to Corcovado, the steep 710m mountain topped by the 31m statue of Christ The Redeemer. The views from the base across Rio, its beaches and mountains, the lagoon, Guanabara Bay and the Atlantic Ocean are as spectacular as city views can be. Afternoon is free to enjoy the beaches, with sunset from the Arpoador headland one possibility.

Tuesday 3 March 2020. With your flight home likely to be overnight, you have the morning to relax, spend some final time on the beaches and enjoy lunch. There may be time for some activity, with a tandem hang-gliding lesson and jump one possibility for rounding off your trip in adventurous style. However you prefer to spend your final day, in the afternoon you transfer to the airport for your flight home. Your Carnaval Champions Parade Tour of Rio de Janeiro may leave you with the desire to explore more with Brazil Adventure Tours. This tour can also be extended to include trips to Iguazu Falls, the Costa Verde, Buenos Aires or the Amazon.