Recently got back from a wonderful 2 week trip to Brazil! We visited Rio, Buzios, Ilha Grande and Parati.
Overall, Brazil exceeded all our expectations in every way.

Some highlights/tips:
- if you don’t speak Portuguese or Spanish, I would highly recommend a Portuguese phrase book. We found it to be very helpful.
- Bus travel in between the cities was very comfortable and cheap.
- Rio sites are stunning, and a must see. If you are there even for a day, you can see Sugar Loaf & Corcovado. Do stay in Ipanema or Leblon, not in Copacabana.
- Buzios is lovely, we loved the main square and the beaches. Do rent a buggy and explore for yourself.
- Ilha Grande is paradise. It’s not the most developed in terms of hotels/real estate, but if you want untouched nature, this is it. Do a tour of the island by speedboat and not schooner, you will see a lot more even though it’s slightly pricier. The ferry to the island only leaves a few times from Angra, so make sure to plan ahead.
- Parati, wonderful place. Do do the tour of the islands in the bay of Parati, we spent 5 hours out and stopped for swimming/snorkeling at any point we wanted. The town is charming!

These are just some quick pointers. I would be happy to help in answering questions re: the places we visited... just post back!

We are planning exactly the same trip in March/April. In which order did you visit all the places? We thought of doing Rio first and then going straight down to Paraty and slowly working our way back up to Buzios. The only difference is we have a flight to Iguassu at the end of our trip. (We have 3 weeks in Brazil). Did you book all you accommodation or just take pot luck when you arrived? How did you get from the bus stop to your hotel....hopefully not schlepping your luggage up a hill!! We would love any recommendations for accommodation that you enjoyed!

Hi Fish, I think it’s great you have 3 weeks to do all this & the falls, that will give you plenty of time in each place. The order we went in was Rio to Buzios to Ilha Grande to Parati. If you decided to do Parati and work back towards Buzios, that would be very doable too. There was no specific reason we chose the order we did, and at the end of the day, the travel time is what it is, no matter how you do it.

We booked all our accommodation prior to going, mainly because we are a bit particular in the type of hotel we stay at, and we like not having to deal with the uncertainty when arriving into a town (for these types of trips). Re: travel from the bus stop to the hotel, we would grab a taxi which are always easy to find and usually wait at the bus stops to transport the arrivers.

Not sure of your budget for hotels, but these are the places we stayed at and would recommend:

Buzios – Casas Brancas
Parati – Pousada Bamboo Bambu (the website doesn’t do this place justice, and the service was top notch)

In Rio we stayed at Praia Ipanema which I didn’t feel was worth the money, and would not recommend. In Ilha Grande, we stayed at Sagu Mini-resort which was nice, but again, not sure if it was entirely worth the money. I’ve posted reviews on all the hotels at tripadvisor, so you may want to have a read there. My user name is wbuddy.

Do post back if you have any more questions… you will love Brazil & the places you’ve picked are all wonderful!!! Cheers!

Hi Taia,
Very interesting and informative trip rpt. Could you elaborate on how you get to visit islands off Parati. Did you arrange for a tour/boat before arrival or make arrangement there. We're visiting Rio, Parati in March. Thanks for your suggestions.

hi, a good option in ipanema is the praia ipanema, not quite so centrally localted for ipanema but much nicer, on sea front, the mar palace is other option but noisier location and where the breakfast is served is now a bar open till around 1am. Noisy!