The south coast of the state of Rio de Janeiro is also called costa verde (green coast), because it is mainly covered with atlantic rainforest, the northern coast is called costa do sol (sun coast).

Rio de Janeiro is famous, but not very far, 200 kms from Rio and 300 from São Paulo you find a wonderful region. Who was there once usually wants to return again.

Costa Verde

Paraty with its historical center makes you feel back in the 18th century. From here you can start a walk on the caminho de ouro, the gold trail, which reaches far to the inner of Brazil, City as the trail are world heritages. But Paraty offers much more.

Angra dos Reis, famous for its more than 300 islands with green ocean and beaches, also the Ilha Grande (big island) makes you feel in another world.

Costa do Sol

Búzioswas discovered in the sixties of the last century and changed from a small fisher village to one of the internationally most famous places in Southern America.

Something special:

If you have the time make a trip from Rio to Santos along the coast and return via the highway on the highland to Rio. You will follow a long valley (Vale Paraíba) with high mountains also places to stop and make a visit as in Aparecida (with its famous cathedral), Campo do Jordão in the mountains (cold in winter) a nacional park and more. And finally, approaching Rio from the mountains is spectacular. If you are interested, you can fill out a form here…

You will never forget the time you spent here

State of Rio de Janeiro in Google maps

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Búzios

The complete name is Armação dos Búzios.

1964 “discovered” by Brigitte Bardot and Jaques Cousteau, Búzios changed from a lonely fisher´s village to an internacional known place for vacations at the Costa do Sol (Sun Coast) of Brazil. Búzios is about 170 km (110 miles) east of Rio, very close to the always known town of Cabo Frio.

Also many foreigners settled, after the waterfalls of Foz do Iguaçu and the big metropoles as Rio and São Paulo no other place in Brazil registers more stays of foreigners beherbergt as this small city with its 30 thousand inhabitants. The high level in the touristic area may be unique in Southern America and despite being favorite to high society it still remained its special charme.

To preserve its character there are strict rukes for construction and the idyllic center of the city with its stone streets is especially in the evening hours full of live – when people com from the beaches or tours. The city is situated on a peninsula, beside a few hotels in the town the mosta are outside along the coast above the beaches. Usually these are small hotels or pousadas (guest houses).

There are 25 beautiful beaches on the peninsula, some are especially good for sun bathing and swimming, others for surfing. Besides tours with schooners there are also diving trips offered, giving the possibility to see the colorful fish in the ocean.

Búzios, internationally famous, on a high level,
but still with its special charme as a fishermen´s village.

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Hotels

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Pousada Gammeldansk

We can arrange everything, the search and booking for a hotel as well as the transfer to and from the region or to other places in Brazil.

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Rio – what can be said about Rio, the dream of many people all over the world.

Rio de Janeiro is Samba and carneval, the sugar loaf, the christ statue, the beaches as Copacabana and Ipanema with a blue ocean, the mountains, the bars and and and…

The place was discovered on January, 1st, 1502 and called Rio de Janeiro (River of January) because Gaspar de Lemos thought that the bay was a river. From 1763 to 1960 it was capital of Brazil (since then it is Brasilia), after São Paulo (about 500 kms away) it is the largest city and place of commerce. It has more than 6 million inhabitants, bigger Rio more than 11 million.

Different to São Paulo there is a bigger mixture of the cultures. For example, if you go to the bars in Lapa you meet rich and poor enjoying the nights together.

Of course it is necessary to visit the famous places as the sugar loaf (height: 394 m) and the christ statue on Corcovado (704m), from where you have a wonderful view over the city.

Also you should visit the beaches of Copacabana and Ipanema, make a walk along the beaches and also have a drink at the beach. Don´t worry, there is a lot of security during the day. Finally, no fan of soccer should miss a visit to the famous Maracanã Stadium.

Tours are offered at every hotel.

But there are more highlights in Rio, which you shouldn´t miss. If you want to make a tour on your own, you also may use the metro (the link to the site is in the column at the right).

In the center of Rio de Janeiro you still find many historical buildings, just as the “Teatro Municipal” (the muncipal theatre), the cathedral, a monastry, the buildings around Praca XV and many museums. For example the “Museu Chácara do Céu“ shows art of Pablo Picasso. At the other end of the square, where the muncipal theatre is, you can have a lunch or snack at the since 1921 existing restaurant Amarelinho, watching the life in the streets. Also in the center there is the Café Colombo founded in the year 1894. Have a cup of coffee and feel a century back.

In the “Jardim Botânico” (botanic garden) is preserved atlantic rainforest, with monkees in the trees as well as many birds and flowers, but also as well and an ammunition factory, which´s ruins are a museum today.

In Lapa there are nice bars and restaurants to enjoy the evenings, but also the “bonde” (tram) starts from there. It is a old tram, still used by public crossing the aquaduct „Arcos da Lapa“ from the 18th century going to Santa Teresa, a beautful quarter of artists, meanwhile slowly becoming a further well known attraction for tourists.

Ilha de Paquetá

In 1555, ten years before the Portuguese founded Rio de Janeiro, the French settled on this island in the Bay of Guanabara und and called the settlement Antarctic France. By ferry boat you reach the car free island in 70 minutes, starting at Praca XV, from where also the ferry boats to Niterói leave. Already the trip on the ferry boat is interesting, being with many Brazilians. Not many foreigners know about this island yet. Arriving on the Ilha de Paquetá you feel yourself in a different world, without the noise of cars, with many old houses and a simplre infrastructure – very close to the busy and loud city of Rio. Directly at the pier of the ferry are men waiting with their horse coaches to take the tourists on a tour around the small island. But also you may rent a bike. If you have time and are good by foot, we´d like to suggest to make a walk by foot, as there are many small things to discover. On the main street leading to the other side of the island there are some simple shops, bars and restaurants.

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Opposite the Bay of Guanabara is the city of Niterói, which can be reached by ferry boat or via the bridge crossing the bay. There is the architecturally interesting Museum Oscar Niemeyer. The city grew fast after the construction of the bridge as life is much calmer as in Rio. AT the coast there are wonderful beaches and also several lagoons.

Another city, worthwile visiting, is about 70 kms from Rio de Janeiro located in the mountains: Petrópolis. The emperor of Brasil had his summer residence there, which is museum today. From the central bus station (rodoviaria) a bus of the company Viação Única leaves every 30 minutes in the morning.

Rio de Janeiro, one of the most beautiful cities in the world!

Rio de Janeiro in Google Maps

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In Rio de Janeiro there is also the indigenous village “Aldeia Maracanã“, which is worthwhile a visit. Take your children and friends there to know a bit about these people “taking care” of the old indian museum, which is abandoned and demolishing.

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Angra dos Reis

Angra dos Reis (bay of the kings): these are 365 islands and more than 2000 beaches

Angra was founded in the 16th century and had an important harbor for the European immigrants as well as for the export of minerals as gold and diamonds, but also coffee from São Paulo.

After building a railway from Rio to São Paulo Angra dos Reis became unimportant, until there was a road constructed to the interior of Brazil in the 30s of the 20th century. Today Angra has a lot of industry, two nuclear plants nearby, also oil tankers arrive, but still the center of the city has its charme with some buildings from the colonial time and also the cadet´s school.

The speciality in tourism are the trips by a schooner to some islands for swimming and diving. The schooners may not stop at every beach, some are privat or only allowed to be visited by smaller boats, which can also be rented there.

At one of the beaches of the island Ilha Grande (big island) the schooners usually stop. The island was used to land slaves at the beaches of Palmas and Dois Rios when arriving from Africa until they were sold from there to work on farms or in mines. Also you can stay on the island in one of the pousadas (guest houses), some of them very luxury. From the peak of the highest mountain Pico do Papagaio (959 m) you have a wonderful sight.

Many pirates too stayed on the island, waiting for the ships full of gold leaving Angra dos Reis and Paraty. More than 50 ship wrecks are on the ocean ground.

Each island, each beach a place to dream!

Angra dos Reis in Google Maps

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Tours to places outside Angra dos Reis

Bananal

60 miles from Angra and about 1400 ft above zero and already in the state of São Paulo there is the small historic city of Bananal.  It is well conveserved, with many buildings from the time of colonization, also old fazendas (farm houses) that may be visited. Exciting, too, is the landscape with some waterfalls.

Have a look at the photos on the official site…

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Hotels

Guest House Villa Victoria

We can arrange everything, the search and booking for a hotel as well as the transfer to and from the region or to other places in Brazil.

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Paraty

Paraty is as Angra dos Reis also a historic city. The date of the first settlements is not known, but it must have been around 1550, it was the end point of a trail from São Paulo following the Paraíba Valley in the highland. From here the journey to Rio de Janeiro was continued by ship.

The complete historic center exists, small white houses of the 17th century with painted door and window frames with streets made by slaves. It is UNESCO world heritage. In Paraty also every year an internacional festival of literature takes place.

When gold and diamonds were found in the inner of Brazil (state of Minas Gerais) in the 17th century a trail of stones was built, the caminho de ouro. It was necessary for the transport of gold and diamonds to the coast, but also to get slaves and food into the inner of Brazil. Length: more than 1400 kms. It also is world heritage and close to Paraty a part is freed of the jungle, so you can make a walk on the caminho do ouro.

1728 the direct trail from Minas Gerais to Rio de Janeiro was completed and Paraty lost its importance. Only a few small periods Paraty became important again, when Rio grew fast and needed food from outside. The region is well known for its suger cane and of course for a product made of the cane, the alcoholic drink cachaça, which is used for the famous caipirinha. Finally, the farmers from the Paraíba Valley used Paraty to export the coffee via Paraty and buy slaves for the farms. When the railway Rio – São Paulo was finished in the mid of the 19th century, Paraty finally was forgotten, until the 50s of the 20th century.

When you visit the center today, you feel back in the 18th century, and although you meet many tourists, you notice this special athmosphere. Small shops, restaurants and bars as well as many artists make this place special. Sit inside a backyard of a restaurant, listening to brazilian music, or in front on the street, watching the people pass, talking, having fun. You will never forget.

You can make lovely tours by schooners during the day, visiting nice beaches along the coast or on an island … green water is waiting for you to swim between fish, get sun tanned. Meals and drinks are served on the schooners. To get to the place where the schooners leave in the late morning, you pass the historic center.

There is also a beach close to the city, but the better ones you find a few kms outside, the most beautiful is Trindade.

Also near Paraty there is the possibility to visit quilombos, villages founded by slaves that flew.

Finally, beside the trail, tours by schooner, visiting beaches and quilombos, you can make tours by bicycle (for rent) or make a trilha to waterfalls. The Cachoeira Tobogã is very close to the caminho de ouro, where there is a natural slide. And if you wish, you can make a tour by canoe and foot, sleeping one night in a hut in the rain forest.

Paraty, feel centuries back!

Parati in Google Maps

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Hotels

We can arrange everything, the search and booking for a hotel as well as the transfer to and from the region or to other places in Brazil.

Photos

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If you have the time make a trip from Rio to Santos along the coast and return via the highway on the highland to Rio. You will follow a long valley (Vale Paraíba) with high mountains also places to stop and make a visit as in Aparecida (with its famous cathedral), Campo do Jordão in the mountains (cold in winter) a nacional park and more. And finally, approaching Rio from the mountains is spectacular.

The tour in Google maps

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We want to inform you, that you need a car to make this tour. Also we organize the tour particularly for you, searching hotels. Because of this we have to charge a fee. Please ask us.

If  you are interested please fill out the form below