Brazil trip planner: Plot your perfect route

Best for: Waterfalls nearly 3km wide, tubing waves and coastal rainforests.
Why go? To see the thundering Iguaçu falls, which spans two countries; to catch Brazil’s best waves; and to discover a beach in the heart of a huge coastal rainforest reserve.
Route: Curitiba; Serra da Graciosa; Paranaguá; Ilha do Mel, Foz de Iguaçu; Florianópolis; Santa Catarina Island.

“Poor Niagara,” Eleanor Roosevelt reputedly said when she saw the Iguaçu Falls for the first time. They’re nearly twice as tall as their North American counterpart and over three times as wide. It is appropriate, then, that Iguaçu translates as ‘great water’. But while Niagara is fringed with casinos and malls, Iguaçu’s environs are still wild, dwelling deep in a rainforest park larger than Greater London. Jaguars and pumas prowl here (they’re a relatively common nocturnal sight on the park roads), and you will see myriad racoon-like coatimundi, monkeys, toucans, hummingbirds and flocks of trilling parakeets as you walk the extensive trails.

The falls straddle the border between Brazil and Argentina, lying just upstream from the Paraná River and the frontier with Paraguay. There’s plenty to see, and you need to get your logistics right, so you should allow at least two days for a visit. It’s a taxi ride between all the hotels (but one) and the falls, so you are best off pre-booking a guided tour.

Make sure it takes in both sides of the border. Start with Brazil, whose trails run to the base of the Garganta do Diabo (Devil’s Throat), where the Iguaçu river thunders over a steep-sided gorge. Then visit the Argentinian side, which is both better for wildlife and is reached via a purpose-built tourist railway.

Boardwalks span the river and take you to the top of the Garganta, as well as running around dozens of ancillary waterfalls. Take the rest of your stay to ride a boat up to the base of the falls and to walk the lesser-known trails in search of primates. You can also visit the triple frontier on the Paraná River, where Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay meet.

Encompassing three Brazilian states, there’s much more to the south of the country than Iguaçu. Santa Catarina Island, near the city of Florianópolis (it has easy connections by air to the rest of Brazil), is fringed with glorious surf beaches. These are reached on paths that clamber over forested ridges and drop through small fishing communities.

Surf-friendly Ilha do Mel island in Paraná sits at the heart of a vast and important stretch of mangrove and Atlantic coastal rainforest, which runs around the Paranaguá Bay. The whole area is protected via a series of national parks and is also a UNESCO World Heritage site. Many endangered endemic plants and animals live among these forests, including tiny black-faced lion tamarin monkeys (which were first documented in 1990), the red-tailed Amazon parrot (which, despite its name, is only found in south-east Brazil) and a gamut of sought-after wildlife sightings, including jaguar, puma and tapir.

While getting into the heart of the wild will involve bespoke boat hire, Ilha do Mel is easy to reach. The best way to arrive is to first take the Serra Verde Express train through the Serra do Mar mountains from Curitiba (which is well-connected to the rest of the country by air and has an impressive Oscar Niemeyer architecture museum). The train ride is the most spectacular in Brazil, passing thick cloud forest, crossing dizzying viaducts and offering sudden views of deep gorges and high peaks before arriving at Paranaguá, from where there are regular ferries to Ilha do Mel.

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