Explore South America with an introduction to Rio de Janeiro and Buenos Aires as well as a visit to Iguassu Falls. Enjoy a tour of each city with plenty of free time to explore on your own, take in each city’s unique culture, sample different restaurants and learn about the local history. In Iguassu Falls, stay inside the National Park and tour both sides of the falls.
8 Days • fr. $3,959
Welcome to South America’s largest and most populous country. This afternoon, meet your Tour Director and fellow traveling companions for a drive along famous Ipanema and Copacabana Beaches to the base of 1,300-foot-high Sugar Loaf Mountain. Ascend by cable car to its summit, where you can savor spectacular vistas of the city. Next, toast the start of a memorable vacation from atop Sugar Loaf Mountain with caipirinhas, a favorite Brazilian cocktail, during a welcome cocktail party.
SHERATON RIO HOTEL AND TOWERS
Today, visit the statue of Christ the Redeemer crowning Corcovado Mountain, a rounded peak rising 2,300 feet from the bay below. Take the scenic cog railway ride to its top, where a 360-degree panorama affords sweeping views. Proceed to bustling downtown Rio. View the Sambodromo and visit the Cathedral.
This afternoon, you may wish to join an optional trip into a local favela to see where 20% of Rio’s population lives. Visits include a community center and a school.
This evening, it’s off to a CHURRASCARIA for a feast of barbecued meats marinated and roasted over charcoal in true Brazilian style.
Breakfast, Dinner
SHERATON RIO HOTEL AND TOWERS
Enjoy a day of leisure or consider an optional trip to historic Petropolis, once the former summer palace of Emperor Dom Pedro II and now a mountain resort.
Breakfast
SHERATON RIO HOTEL AND TOWERS
A flight from Rio takes you to Iguassu Falls. Experience the clouds of spray, the incessant roar, and the surrounding luxuriant tropical growth that make this an unforgettable natural wonder. Head into Brazil’s Iguassu National Park to enjoy the magnificent panorama of waterfalls from the Brazilian side. Your Local Guide introduces the spectacle of this 2-mile-wide torrential downpour, with some cataracts as high as 250 feet—it’s nothing short of hypnotic!
Breakfast, Dinner
WISH RESORT
Today, journey to the Argentine side of Iguasso Falls, where you will take the Ecological Jungle Train and enjoy a closer perspective on a walking tour of the falls. Meander along the walkways from atop the falls, and enjoy an exhilarating perspective looking over the precipice of the falls as the water plunges to the rocks below. You will also have the chance to walk through the rainforest on the lower falls trails that will bring you up close to some of the smaller falls. Return to the hotel, where the remainder of the day is at your leisure.
Breakfast
WISH RESORT
Today, fly to Buenos Aires. After arriving, an orientation walk acquaints you with the “Paris of South America” and its wide boulevards and outdoor cafés.
Breakfast
SHERATON BUENOS AIRES HOTEL
Your sightseeing starts in La Boca, a colorful district and site of the city’s first port. Take a short walking tour of this unique neighborhood and then on to San Telmo, famous for its late-colonial buildings and a popular gathering spot for artists. At Plaza de Mayo, see La Casa Rosada (the President’s Pink House) and the Metropolitan Cathedral, housing San Martin’s Mausoleum. Drive past the ornate Colon Opera House before reaching Recoleta Cemetary, burial site of Eva Perón.
Next, learn how to make a traditional Argentinean dish during your Empanada Cooking Class. After an afternoon at leisure, top off the evening at a famous Tango Club. Start with a dance lesson, followed by farewell dinner featuring Argentine steaks and other local specialties, and end with a show featuring flawless performances of Latin America’s most sensuous dance—the Tango!
Breakfast, Dinner
SHERATON BUENOS AIRES HOTEL
Today, head into the heart of the pampas (grasslands) and immerse yourself in the atmosphere of rural, country life at a working Argentine estancia (ranch). After a traditional welcome with empanadas and local beverages, get acquainted with the lifestyle of real gauchos (cowboys) on a horseback ride or carriage ride through the pampas. Later, at lunch, enjoy a colorful feast, complete with world-renowned Argentine beef, salad, desserts, local wine, and live music and dance by the gauchos themselves. Top off the day with a horsemanship show by the gauchos before saying adios to the countryside and heading back to the city.
Overnight in Buenos Aires.
Breakfast, Lunch
SHERATON BUENOS AIRES HOTEL
Your tour ends with breakfast this morning.
Breakfast
All rates listed are per person based on double occupancy and are subject to change without notice. Your land package pricing will be confirmed and guaranteed once your deposit is received and applied to the booking, except where price increases may result from increases in government taxes or fees. Room configurations are subject to availability. Guests added to your party after the booking are priced at the prevailing rate at the time they are added.