dova

I am flying to rio on January 22 for three weeks and will go to Iguazu Falls. I am from the U.S. and will be travelling with my friend from Taiwan and her 68 year old grandmother. I have two questions I hope someone can help me with.

1)Many people have posted about taking buses or flying to the waterfalls, but no one mentions taking a rental car. We would like to rent a car and drive there. How feasible and safe is this?

2)My visa will be a multiple entry visa, however, for them, being from Taiwan, they can only get one single entry visa to Brazil, and are told that if they leave Brazil they will not be able to get back in. Some have mentioned here that you can take taxis to the Argentina side of the waterfalls and back. My question is, do they check the Visas in this region when crossing by taxi and would you recommend to do this or not, considering their situation?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!!!

Jill_Brazil

Are you considering driving to Iguacu Falls from Sao Paulo or Rio? That would be a very long trip and not recommended for someone who is not familiar with Brazil or the Portuguese language. My advice would be to purchase a Brazil Airpass before leaving the US. Your friends can buy this from any Varig Office in Asia as well. It can only be purchased outside of Brazil. The price will only be about $411.00 and will allow you up to 5 coupons, so you will be able to visit a few more cities while in Brazil.
Of course you will need a passport and visa to enter Brazil.
If you want to visit the Argentinian side of the falls, I suggest signing up for a tour at your hotel. Ask the concierge. If you stay at the Hotel das Cataratas on the Brazilian side, you can sign up for the tour at the little travel agency near the lobby.
We did not need a visa for Argentina when we took this tour. Apparently if you do not stay longer than one day in Argentina, you do not need the visa. It still would be a good idea to double check with the Argentinian Consulate while you are still in the US.
Regarding your friends situation, definitely check with both the Argentine Consulate and the Brazilian Consulate before attempting the visit to Argentina. Better safe than sorry!

dova

Thank You Jill! This really helps. I think we will probably buy an airpass. I will look into that. Yes, we were planning on driving to the falls from Rio. If we could do it comfortably in three days or less and not get lost, it might be worth it for us, but you make a very good point that with an airpass we will see a lot more of Brazil.

Graziella5b

Hi Dova of course Jill is a 100% right, before going I think it will be good to look at a Map and realize the size of Brasil, it is huge......larger than the continental US plus another Texas...driving>? I am not sure if it is safe and it will be not a good idea.

Graziella5b

It just occured to me that the falls approached from Bs As are a short inexpensive flight.