Has anyone been to Manaus Brazil?
I hear its a wild and advenurious trip,thinking of going in feb. Any info out there on this?
Thanks

I was in Manaus this summer and had a great time in the area. The main attraction is not Manaus itself, but the surrounding rainforest. The city of Manaus has a few interesting sites that you can see in a day, but the real treat is exploring the Amazon. I highly reccommend Acajatuba lodge... it's an hour or two boat trip down the Amazon away from Manaus... very remote and some great guides to show you the wonderful mysteries of the rainforest. I also did an Amazon cruise on the Clipper, which was fun and interesting too. So I would suggest using Manaus as a fly-into spot, maybe stay the night on the way in and way out, and then explore the rest of the area.

Thanks for the reply msteacher.
My plan was to use Manaus as a stop off point then do some exploring from there. Did you pre arrange your river and jungle trips or just look around when you arrived for guides ect.?
It will be several guys going so we thought of hiring someone when we got there. Did you find different places to stay or use the Acajatuba lodge as your central point? Do you have any prices??

We arranged everything in advance, so I'm not sure how easy or dificult it might be to arrange things on arrival, but if you want to spend time in a jungle lodge away from the city, I'd suggest doing it in advance. Remember that you're dealing with places that are pretty remote, so sometimes it takes several days to receive communication. In other words, you can't just call up a jungle lodge and say "I'm coming tonight" because they probably have no phone and they will need to send a boat to come get you.

For me, staying at Acajatuba was a highlight of my 3 weeks in Brazil. The cruise was fun too, but the lodge definitley gave a better feeling of adventure. They had great guides that did a number of interesting tours. We arranged it through Jim McDaniel at Amazonadventures.com

This is a good "guys trip." You'll go piranha fishing, rainforest hiking, etc. and at the end of the day you'll come home to pretty good food and cold beer at the lodge. The rooms are rather rustic, but have everything you'll need. Have fun!

Hi

I am interested, too, in the surrounding rainforest and river cruises.
Would you do it with 2 kids aged 11 and 5

Put it this way Fabio,
i wouldn't take my kids of that age
on "that" kind of trip.

With kids, you could do the cruise on the Amazon Clipper Premium (that's probably the only one they'd enjoy). That is the cruise I did this summer and it is the most luxury of the tour boats available. There were a couple of kids on our boat and they seemed to enjoy it, but realize there are no TVs, computers, etc. so some kids might not like it. Also, the vast majority of passengers were adults, and the activities are geared toward adults (though the kids had fun too) so, again, it may not be suitable for every kid.