The plane descends over the Atlantic and Rio opens up — a strip of beaches between granite hills and blue ocean. At the airport, your guide meets you* - and your Rio de Janeiro private tour begins.On the way to the hotel, the city appears like a film: flashes of ocean between buildings, palm trees, tunnels through the rock. Your guide introduces the city's neighborhoods, helps you with currency exchange, and gets you settled. After check-in, the first free hours are yours. You can walk to Copacabana beach - the famous wave-patterned mosaic under your feet and a long line of surf ahead. Or head to Ipanema beach with a cold coconut water and live music in the background. This luxury Rio de Janeiro travel experience sets the tone for the whole journey: relaxed, thoughtful, and beautiful.

Evening recommendation: dinner at Cipriani Rio de Janeiro (1 Michelin star), located in your Belmond Copacabana Palace hotel. Quiet light, salt air, and the first real taste of Brazil. 

*Or use the Fast Track Gold airport service.

After breakfast, today is about VIP access Sugarloaf - a 4-hour excursion with your guide. The Sugarloaf Mountain cable car first lifts you to the Urca Hill viewpoint. Below: yachts and boats in Guanabara Bay, Copacabana beach stretching to the right, and the dense Tijuca forest behind. There is a bar and restaurant here if you want to stop and take in the view.A second cable car takes you to the top of Sugarloaf itself at 396 meters. From here Rio reveals itself completely: the arcs of Copacabana and Ipanema, islands in the ocean, the Niteroi bridge, and the Christ the Redeemer statue on Corcovado. After Sugarloaf, the tour continues to the historic center - old churches, monasteries, the Cathedral, and colonial facades. Your guide takes you to lunch where you try your first local dishes. Included: VIP access to Sugarloaf Mountain.Lunch recommendation: Fogo de Chão restaurant - meat on long skewers with views of the rocks. 

Evening: Al Mare restaurant at Fasano Rio de Janeiro on Copacabana - seafood with the sound of the ocean.

After breakfast, you head to Corcovado - the symbol of Rio. The eco-friendly Corcovado train climbs the winding hillside through the Tijuca Forest: damp air, thick vines, bright birds, monkeys, and armadillos visible through the windows. The climb takes about 20 minutes, and at 700 meters the platform opens up at the foot of the statue.This is the Christ the Redeemer tour: the statue's outstretched arms seem to hold the ocean, the mountains, and the city all in one frame - a symbol of openness and light. From this height you see the whole city: Guanabara Bay, the Maracanã stadium, Sugarloaf, the endless beaches, and the ocean to the horizon.After coming down, coffee and Brazilian desserts at the historic Confeitaria Colombo. 

Evening recommendation: Marius Degustare restaurant — fresh seafood in an interior designed like a sunken ship.

Breakfast at the hotel and a day without a fixed schedule. 

You can slow down, revisit a favourite spot, or add one of these optional extras:Angra dos Reis boat tour / Ilha Grande day trip (8 hours)After breakfast, you travel to Angra dos Reis and board a schooner. Before you: 365 islands scattered along the coast, transparent blue-green water, and a coastline cut into dozens of bays. On one island, lunch with local food. Then a walk through tropical greenery, swimming in a sheltered bay, and the schooner brings you back to Rio.

Your guide takes you to an evening show where professional dancers in feathers and sequined costumes take the stage. Samba is all fast footwork, hip movement, and precise rhythm. Capoeira is a circle, kicks, acrobatics, and a martial art turned into a performance. The energy in the room is contagious. Dinner with traditional Brazilian food is available during the show. Your guide takes you back to your hotel afterwards.

The helipad is at the foot of Sugarloaf. A short briefing, then the city drops away below you. Copacabana beach and Ipanema beach stretch out in one long arc. The Botanical Garden Rio de Janeiro appears as a dense green island in the middle of the city. The Rodrigo de Freitas lagoon glimmers below. Then the Christ the Redeemer tour statue appears on the ridge of Corcovado - closer than you expect from above. The helicopter flies along the coastline and between the rocks at low altitude: waves, rooftops, yachts in the bay. This is luxury Rio de Janeiro travel from the air.

The class takes place on the rooftop of a beachfront hotel with views over the ocean and the line of lights along the beach. An Atlantic breeze, a bar counter, ice in the shaker - and you learn to make Brazil's most famous drink. Your instructor shows you different types of cachaça: aged amber with soft woody notes, and clear white with a sharper taste. You build the flavor step by step: sugar, ice, the right measure of spirit. Then you taste it - sharp and sweet, with a cold finish. This is the Caipirinha masterclass - a skill you can bring home.

The class is held at one of the city's best restaurants, at an open fire where meat is cooked on long metal skewers. You prepare different cuts of meat alongside cheese, garlic bread, corn, and chicken hearts. The highlight: pineapple with cinnamon, caramelizing over the flame. You cook it yourself and eat it straight off the skewer. This is the Brazilian churrasco masterclass - and the result is delicious.

Rio's Botanical Garden covers 137 hectares at the foot of Corcovado Mountain. Founded by King João VI in 1808, it is now home to more than 7,000 plant species. The tour begins on the Royal Palm Avenue: 134 trunks forming a 750-meter alley. Beyond that: orchids under glass, bromeliads with vivid red cups, bamboo as tall as a house, and a pond with giant Amazon water lilies. Toucans fly overhead and monkeys appear on the branches. This is Botanical Garden Rio de Janeiro at its most peaceful.

For those who want to reach the viewpoint under their own power. The trail starts from Urca Hill, through dense green, over stones and roots, with the sounds of the tropical forest all around. The main section takes about 30 minutes. From the top: a rocky summit with the ocean spread out behind you. 

Recommended Rio restaurants: Gero Trattoria Rio (Ipanema, Italian and European), Oro (Leblon, Brazilian), Satyricon Rio (Ipanema, seafood), Aprazivel Rio (Santa Teresa, Brazilian - with beautiful city views), Santa Teresa neighborhood.

Morning transfer to the airport - the flight south takes about 2 hours. The city fades behind the clouds and the landscape changes: instead of ocean, dense green and wide rivers. On arrival in Foz do Iguaçu, your guide meets you and accompanies you to the hotel. The road passes through a quiet border town where Brazil almost touches Argentina and Paraguay - and you can already feel the closeness of one of the most powerful waterfalls in the world.

After breakfast, your guide takes you to the Brazilian side of Iguazu Falls - part of your Iguazu Falls tours experience. You hear the water before you even enter the park: a low, growing roar.The trail runs along the edge of the cascades. The river breaks into separate waterfalls and 275 streams drop down, dissolving into white mist. Sunlight breaks in the spray and dozens of rainbows appear in the air. Then the trail leads to the "eye of the storm" - the Devil's Throat Iguazu. Here the water crashes from about 80 meters into a narrow gorge, throwing up a thick wall of steam. The roar fills the space and you feel it in your chest. The cascades surround you on all sides. The scale and power of Iguazu Falls tours here is unlike anything else.

Iguazu Bird Park - just next to the falls, a series of large walk-through enclosures. Birds fly at eye level, walk along the paths, and sit on branches right above your head. Bright toucans with large beaks, scarlet macaws, rare protected species recovered from illegal trade. The space feels open and alive.

Macuco Safari - a boat ride Iguazu Falls that starts with an open jeep ride through the tropical forest. Trees 30 to 40 meters tall, vines as thick as an arm, giant ferns. Then a short walk to the river, and a motorboat takes you right up to the base of the falls. The spray soaks you in seconds, the noise is huge, and rainbows appear all around you.

After breakfast, you cross to the Argentine side Iguazu Falls - this is the second half of your Iguazu Falls both sides experience. The approach here is completely different: not panoramas, but immersion. Wooden walkways pass directly over and between the streams - you see the water from below, from the side, almost at the level of the fall itself.To reach the main point, you take a small train inside the park. The park covers about 55,500 hectares of dense tropical forest with a network of trails and viewpoints. The forest is alive: coatis walk out onto the paths, dragonflies hang over the water, birds call from the canopy.The final section is a walk across a bridge over the river - and then you are at the edge of the Devil's Throat Iguazu. This is the largest single cascade: 150 meters wide and 82 meters high. The water drops directly beneath your feet - and this is roughly half the entire flow of the Iguazu River. Walk right into the heart of the falls. These impressions stay with you for a very long time. 

Evening recommendation: Itaipu restaurant at Belmond das Cataratas hotel - Brazilian and European cuisine.

Breakfast at the hotel. Transfer to the airport and flight to Rio de Janeiro - about 2 hours. On arrival, a driver meets you and the journey continues along the coast: the road to Buzios takes about 2.5 hours.The city gradually falls away: dense buildings give way to hills, scattered houses, and patches of green. The air becomes drier, the light softer. Buzios sits on a peninsula washed by the Atlantic, with dozens of small bays and beaches. Check in to your hotel on the tropical coast. The pace slows down here - this is luxury Buzios Brazil: calmer water, quieter streets, and every morning starts with the ocean on the horizon.

Enjoy your Buzios beach vacation - time on the tropical coast. This small peninsula is famous for its bays: more than 20 beaches, each with its own personality. João Fernandes beach has clear water and a gentle entrance. Geribá has waves and a long strip of sand. Ferradoura beach is sheltered from the wind, with calm flat water.In the evening, life moves to Rua das Pedras Buzios - restaurants and shops, soft light, and beautiful views over the hills and the sea.Recommended restaurants: Chez Françoise Buzios (French cuisine), Mistico restaurant Buzios (seafood and Brazilian), La Gare Buzios (seafood and Brazilian), 74 Restaurant Buzios at Casas Brancas —- seafood and European cuisine.

A free day in Buzios - time with no schedule. In the morning you can walk to the nearest bay: calm water, almost no waves, fine white sand. There is no rush today - the day is made of simple things: swimming, resting in the shade, short walks between beaches.If you want more: a Buzios boat tour or Buzios schooner cruise* along the coastline (optional extra). The boat passes islands and closed-off bays that are hard to reach by land. At the stops, you step down into warm, clear water and snorkel over the rocks. From the deck you can see how Buzios is laid out: beaches, hills, and small houses scattered along the ocean.

Breakfast at the hotel and departure towards Rio. The drive from Buzios takes about 2.5 to 3 hours: first the narrow streets of the peninsula, then coastal sections and a highway with views of the ocean. The resort pace falls behind — denser buildings appear, traffic, and the familiar silhouettes of Rio's hills. Transfer to Rio de Janeiro airport for your international flight.This is the moment when the impressions are still fresh - and they fall into a clear picture of Brazil multi-destination itinerary that you will want to come back to. This is bespoke Brazil travel at its most complete: a private Brazil tour designed around what matters most.