Carnaval Experience: Backstage Tour At Samba City With Cocktail

This experience is a great way to spend a couple of hours to see the behind the scenes of the Rio Carnival, making the floats and the costumes and the chance to dress in the costumes made it a fun experience

Inez was an amazing guide. She was kind, knowledgeable and pleasant. This experience was the best ending to a week in Rio. Learning the culture, history and experiencing samba, dressing in costumes and learning the behind the scenes hard work that goes into the production of Carnaval. It was one of a kind experience! Highly recommended. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Lydia was our guide and she is fire for Carnival! So passionate, knowledgeable and fun! Made the experience epic! Must do when in Rio!

Carnival Experience was well-organized, with our group seeing the factory where they disassemble last year's floats and build new ones, seeing and trying one elaborate costumes, and hearing the way the parade entries compete for the top prizes. You can easily enough take a taxi or Uber to and from the location (from Copacabana, our cost was $12-13 USD each way).

Lydia was the bomb she was so passionate and an excellent guide. She loves what she does and was a great guide

Highly recommend the tour guide spectacular ,beautiful person we had lot of fun would come back a thousand times ❤️ the costumes the dancer incredible ❤️🌹🌷🌸👍

A must do if you are a carnival fan. The history the processes the floats the costumes and a dance lesson. It is an experience as intended.

This was a fun and informative tour. We saw a few floats and several costumes. We got to try on Carnival costumes. The guide was very knowledgeable and explained the samba schools and timelines for Carnival. She was very personable and answered all questions thoroughly. Well worth the time!

If I could give this six stars, I would. Ines was a friendly and interesting guide on a tour which was both informative and enjoyable. It was great being close to this year's floats, and seeing and trying on some costumes and headdresses. I learned a lot about Carnaval: this experience made me keen to see it for myself one day. Highly recommended.

We had so much fun! We were there in March, we were able to see the floats they used in Rio's carnival in Feb. Though we missed the actual carnival, we felt lucky seeing the actual stage items for the competition.

It was a decent tour. The best part was the surprise Samba dance. Only thing I will say is it felt rushed. Bring water and fans. A lot of history during the tour. Wasn’t what I expected but we were given free drinks at the end but the rooms were not air conditioned. The warehouse seemed run down but our tour guide was AMAZING!! 🫶🏽

Very nice tour to learn more about carnival. Rosa Maria was incredible from beginning to end. Thank you!

Brilliant afternoon at Samba city. Hopefully they will win this year at Carnaval. Our guide was very enthusiastic about her part in the Samba experience. She told of the history of Carnaval and what fun when it came time to dress up in these fabulous outfits. Everyone had a ball.

Book today! It was so cool to learn while getting to try on the costumes! Perfect way to end our trip. So unique and fun.

The only improvement would be to do separate tours for English and Portuguese. Telling each story in both languages, one stba time, means half the group is standing around doing nothing..other than that it was perfect.

Really interesting learning the production of the Carnival and the amount of time it takes to put it all together.

This was a very informative tour --- although you can enter the space of only one samba school, it is eye-opening as to the amount of work and the volume of people involved that goes into the preparation for what ends up being 70 minutes in the (highly competitive) spotlight. There were at times difficulties hearing our guide given that we had a combination of English and Portuguese-speaking travelers; however she seemed to try to diplomatically manage the interruptions.

Amazing backstage tour about the history and culture of samba. Great time trying on some of the samba costumes and seeing the floats in the middle of production. Highly recommended.

While the core content of the tour aligned with what we were hoping to experience - namely, the history of Carnaval, the preparation process, its cultural and economic impact, and the broader tradition- the overall execution felt extremely disjointed. The meeting point was very difficult to locate and did not match the directions provided in Viator. There was no clear signage or explicit confirmation that we were in the right place. We ultimately found ourselves following a French-speaking group and later joined a much larger group of English-speaking tourists, assuming, without any guidance, that this was the correct tour. This should have been clearly explained by the guide from the outset. Additionally, the group size was far too large for this type of experience. With so many participants, there was little to no opportunity for the full group to take photos, ask questions, or engage meaningfully with the guide. This tour would run far more smoothly and deliver significantly more value if capped at no more than 10 participants at a time; at the current scale, it felt chaotic rather than immersive. I'm disappointed since there are so many rave reviews, which is what prompted us to book this tour in particular.

This was top tier!! I was disappointed that I couldn't take pictures in the beginning but no big deal. I understand the reason. While the ladies were putting decorations on a piece I asked to help and they let me. That was cool. Learning all the information was very interesting. The costume activity was fun!! The dancing was super fun. So glad I arranged this for my group. Highly recommended.

Fun experience learning about carnival and samba. Dressing up in carnival costume and having a go at dancing samba were highlights. Ton our guide was informative, passionate and suitably artistic.

This is an amazing tour and really good opportunity to understand what is Carnaval about. We get to try on the beautiful costumes and learn how to do samba . Highly recommended

The Carnaval Experience was one of the highlights of my trip to Rio! Our guide, Rosa, conducted the tour in Portuguese and English and gave an excellent overview of the year-long prep process for Carnival. It was awesome seeing the floats and costumes up close. The best part was trying on a costume and getting a dance lesson from a samba pro. Such a fun experience!

Downtown walking tour - fantastic- I would have missed so much if I hadn’t taken this. From the stairs to the cathedrals

This tour had everything we were looking for! Backstage tour of the parade floats, talk about the history of Carnaval and the school’s accomplishments, video showcasing a routine, and time to try on costumes and dance samba!

Initially, we expected a great experience since the guide was communicative about asking us to come later. However, after spending $120R to get there, we not only couldn’t find the tent, but no workers for the Yup Star were really able to help. We spent 20 min walking around a strange area, and the guide did not respond to any attempts of contact. We are currently working on getting a refund.

This is a great tour to learn about the history of samba from past to present. You will learn so much and you will walk away with a deeper understanding of all it takes to make Carnaval the greatest show on earth!!!

We turned up for our tour at the allotted time and was approached by a person who did not have any uniform or id to identify her as a member of staff but who told us that the tour was cancelled. She didn’t speak any English and so we had to communicate via a translation service on the internet. She then proceeded to do this for the 5 other people hanging around waiting for the tour to start. We hung around for a bit just to make sure she was telling the truth. After 30 mins we decided to leave. We were told we could rebook or get our money back. We were leaving the country the next day so couldn’t rebook. I tried to email the company and used their contact form on their website but got no response. I’m now having to dispute the transaction with my credit card company in an attempt to get my money back. We also wasted uber fares there and back which I can’t recover when they could have messaged me using the contact details I gave when I booked.

Truly remarkable experience that lets you have a taster of Rio Carnival You explore the workshops and costumes behind the scenes

This tour show you the splendor and magic of the carnival of Río de Janeiro. You see how the carnival is plantel, you see the vestuary, samba class. Very nice tour

My friend and I arrived to the location across town from hotel, only to find out that the tour wouldnt happen due to electricity. They made no effort to reach out and tell us or take action on how we get a refund. DONT RECOMMEND THIS COMPANY

Learned a lot about Carnaval and Lucas could not have been a better guide. Loved trying on the outfits.

The tour is in a warehouse and only one room (and the gift shop) have air conditioning, just as a FYI. There's a lot of standing around as the guide does the tour in multiple languages. My guide was Vitoria and she was pretty impressive. It was very interesting to learn about the Carnaval competition and the theme, rules etc around it. All of the staff were friendly. I would recommend if you're interested in Carnaval!

I enjoyed learning about Carnaval. The money, work, and time it takes to put one show together for one house….I was blown away. Learning to Samba and play dress up was fantastic. No matter how big or small, they have an outfit for you. It was definitely a memorable afternoon.

We caught an uber from Copacabana beach and were happy to do this tour last minute. This was such a fun way to learn about Carnaval in Rio. To see all the work and preparation that goes into each years design.We arrived into Rio two weeks after Carnaval so this was a great way to still get to experience a bit of it. We had no restrictions on photo taking because of this timing. When will you ever be able to have the opportunity to dress us in Carnaval costumes? This was a fun part of the experience. My only negative would be to do different tours based on language needs. Was long and hot in warehouse to listen to the same thing in Spanish, Portuguese and English.

Absolutely wonderful experience. Lia is a very knowledgable guide, who is herself a performer in Carnaval. Learned the history of Samba and its cultural significance in Brazil. We chose this tour for our first day in Rio. A two-hour tour in the afternoon was a great way to get a Carnaval Experience while getting through jet lag. The tour was fun and colorful. Strongly recommend

I feel like this is more for taking pictures then getting an actual tour of Backstage Samba city, but that could just be because when I did the tour Carnaval started tomorrow and the Samba schools didn't want tourist messing with their stuff. We got to see some surprise dancers that taught us how to samba and dress up in some Carnaval outfits.

This was a fantastic experience. It was great to see behind the scenes and learn how the carnival is organised. As well as trying on some carnival costumes, we even got to meet some of this week's carnival performers and have a little samba lesson with them. Highly recommend.

Fun experience! We got to learn a bit about the Samba school, try on some carnival costumes, learn a few steps of Samba and get a quick peak at some of the decorations. Overall worth a visit!!

It was nice to learn about the carnival, some parts were a bit dragging because the guide had to say all her script in 3 languages, but some parts of dressing up and dancing samba was actually lots of fun, and the drinks at the end too. Im still happy I went and saw how such an enormous event is planned and achieved.

Our tour guide was a little snippy at first as if she did not want to be bothered! She finally had a better attitude. The tour was scheduled for 4:30 other participants came late and she had us wait while she reviewed what she shared with us. This she did 2 times while the rest of us just stool there and waited. The actual tour inside didn’t start until 5pm. We also had to walk up 4 flights of stairs in a hot warehouse with no air condition. Once there she went over more information about the preparation for carnival. I will say it was very informative. We were allowed to take pictures and try on one part of a custom. We then were taken to the gift shop, was given 1 drink and 3 beautiful dancers came in danced and took pictures with us. From the booking I thought we would have a dance lesson. The tour scheduled for 1-2 hours was over from start to finish in 45 mins. I will still recommend doing the tour because it gives the insight of Carnival

Cool experience, with dance learning, costumes trying, caipirinha and much more. Strict rules inside, you have to put your phone away

The tour provider or guide may have been there, but I could not find him or her. I waited hours and finally bought a ticket and went by myself. I am 80 years old and the heat was challenging. I will not use this service again and will remove the installed app. This is written, not out of anger but fear for my health and that of other Senior citizens.

We learnt a lot about the history of samba. In particular, we saw the construction of some floats to be used by one Samba School in 2025. At this section, we could not take any pictures. There were sections we were allowed to take pictures and even try old carnival costumes. They brought professional samba dancers to show us a few moves, which was fun. After that, we went to a small gift shop where some drinks (alcoholic and non-alcoholic) awaited us. It was a fun experience but I felt rushed through it all. Maybe, due to the time of year? Also, I would have loved to have seen the musicians practice the samba live!

Love it absolutely. Super duper good, everyone should come and see behind thy e scene of the great show on earth

A unique behind the scenes experience of the Carnival floats and costumes. Learned about Carnival and the competition among Samba schools. Getting to try on the costumes was so much fun.

Unforgettable experience! We Witnessed the creation of stunning Carnaval floats and costumes at Rio's Samba Factory, this is a one of a kind tour! Displaying Mind-blowing craftsmanship! The Carnaval Factory Tour showcased the vibrant spirit of Rio's Samba culture & preparations for the “carnival” with the float and costume making process.

We had a wonderful time learning about.the history of Carnaval and all that it represents. Our guide was engaging and very knowledgeable in giving us the backstory of the enormous amount of time, sweat, and labor that goes into the production.

Fun afternoon learning more about carnival. Enjoyed seeing floats being built and trying on costumes and trying out samba. A well organized entertaining outing.