Tijuca Islands Snorkeling Or Whale Watching Boat Tour From Rio

We had a fantastic experience with the Tijuca Islands tour. Seeing Rio from the perspective of the ocean is worth the trip itself. Swimming and exploring the islands is a blast, and jumping off the rocks tops off the experience. Friendly and helpful guides make the trip even more enjoyable. Highly recommended !!

It was a SUPER enjoyable experience. My girlfriend and I did the snorkeling and had the best time. Got to see a sea turtle and a small group of fishes. The day was great, the water was calm and the sun came out just when we got to the reef.

We had a really lovely boat trip to the Tijuca Islands. The boat ride itself was beautiful, and the islands with their different birds and stunning nature were definitely worth seeing. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to snorkel because the sea was a little rough that day. Of course, this was completely out of the tour operator’s control. When booking a boat tour, it’s important to keep in mind that sea conditions can vary from day to day. The captains were incredibly kind and friendly. Even though all the other guests spoke Portuguese, they always made an effort to translate the important information for us, which we really appreciated. There was also the option to rent a jet ski for an additional fee during the trip and explore the coastline from the water. We decided to do it, and it ended up being one of the absolute highlights of the experience! We would definitely recommend this tour. One tip: if possible, book directly with the tour operator, as it can be cheaper than booking through a third-party platform.

It was amazing. We spend a beautiful morning with my family, we got to visit the islands, take a walk, jump from a rock, swam with fishes, see caimanes and capibaras, etc. The guide Carlos was perfect for our tour, he explained the types of birds in the islands and show us the turtles in the sea. He was really nice and tried to make the best out of the 3 hours of tour. We were alone in the boat and almost alone in the island, (it’s August - winter). It was perfect price-quality related. Thank you so much for the experience!

It was great, well priced. Our guide was so respectful, he was engaging and caring. Loved the personalized experience. Would say this was one of the better experiences to do in rio

Amazing experience! The captain did a wonderful job navigating waters, protecting the whales and showing us all how majestic these animals are in the wild! Would definitely do again.

The weather was perfect, the guides were very knowledgeable and friendly and attentive, and the wildlife and coastline of Brazil was a sight to behold! Worth every penny. Would highly recommend this to anyone who loves nature and the sea!

A wonderful tour at sea. We spotted many whales on our tour. And it was a beautiful experience. I highly recommend this tour.

Amazing whale watching experience! Great tourguide that really knows the area well and protects the oceans. We saw many whales!

Great experience, weather did work for snorkeling but the whale hunt/watch awesome.

Aloha! We visited Brazil from Hawaii and were blown away by the beauty. We decided to take a boat tour to see the beauty from the water! We loved our experience with eco tours. The boat was comfortable, the crew was super nice and laid back. They took us to two spots, one for snorkeling and swimming and another for exploring and cliff jumping! It was definitely a highlight of our trip to Rio and would recommend to anyone visiting!

Excellent snorkelling an turtles. Also saw alligators. Great recommendation for food & ride to restaurant!

In Rio you will probably get 2 opportunities to snorkeling. One here on the fast boat and on in Illa Grande. This is the better if much shorter trip. The other you will spend at least 8 hours on a bus. This one is a quick taxi down to Tijuca and then 3 hours on a fast boat trip including a good amount of time in the water with the fishes and. If they choose the turtles. We saw maybe a dozen turtles in the immediate vicinity of the boat. Luck had it none came close this time though. Then the other fun bits. Walking on one of the islands near a bird colony. A safe but scary enough rock dive and then a rock channel swim. Afterwards a visit to the Mangrove for an alligator nursery. So much fun and with unusual things as well. So much better time spent that 14-15 hours day trip to Illa Grande which i suggest you go and stay overnight if you have time. Cost around £60 per person plus taxi transfer from Rio

We had a GREAT time on the Tijuca Islands boat tours! Such an experience seeing all the turtles and lived the rock jump! We’ll definitely be back next time we’re in Rio.

A great morning out at the nearby islands , friendly and accommodating crew. We thoroughly enjoyed it. There were lots of birds, fish and turtles.

He was so nice and helpful best experience in Rio The information he gave us was great and also he provided equipment which was really nice as well

Very easy going and fun tour! Our guide was attentive and caring for our priorities. The islands were beautiful and unique.

Super fun and chill! It was only about 12 USD uber ride from Ipanema to the take out. We came in Feb, booked it the day before, they were super communicative on WhatsApp about what to bring, exact departure time, etc so def download WhatsApp if you don’t have it. It’s a medium length speedboat, captain is incredibly knowledgeable and safe driver. GORGEOUS views of the bay and you stop a couple of times to swim for awhile, snorkeling, see some birds up close and turtles! bring your own water and snacks. It has a shade canopy but on the way out it wasn’t up so if you are light skinned bring sunscreen. No bugs were out.

So much fun! Saw two distinct parts of nature in rio, snorkled near island then went inland to swamp and saw alligators! I would recommend 100%, tour guide was very kind as well.

Such a fun day out! We were a small group, which was nice. Our guide was comfortable and confident with the boat and ocean waters. He also spoke Portuguese, Spanish and English well, which was really nice as our little group was very diverse.

Amazing experience, our guide was really friendly and informative. Ahead of the trip we were given our guides contact details just in case we needed it which added a personal touch. We got very lucky with the weather with calm waters we saw lots of turtles and had a good amount of timing for swimming and photos. After the island we were shown the canals and where the capybara and caimans live managing to see a good amount. Would highly recommend this trip and the company!

We did the 3 hour snorkeling tour. The guide spoke no english, and was using google translator, that is not very helpful. The island we went for snorkeling we had around 20 - 30 mins and we saw absolutely nothing, I swam almost 70-80 mtrs in all direction and saw nothing in the water, not one fish or anything else. Also the water was not very clear. This tour felt like a scam. The captain showed us a near by Carragas island, which was better than not being able to see anything. We did not went on any hike or see any other animals as advertised.

We arrived a bit early to someone’s house that is also an Air B & B ( that should be another horrific review). Pretty sure we woke up the boat captain/ tour guide. The boat in my humble opinion, and I am from a fishing village in Maine with most of my family experienced boaters and fisherman was not even close to being safe for the waters we went in. The boat was not even gassed up. Nothing ready. So small and dirty. All my instincts were saying this is not good. I ignored them thinking I was being paranoid. The trip through the channel was some of the roughest seas I have ever been in. Each time we made it over a wave I felt lucky. There were four of us total, my family of three and another young adult. We made it to the area we were to go snorkeling in, the caption put down the ladder, after giving us lifejackets so old and disgusting and ripped they would not have saved anyone, and said ‘ in the water’. I made a sign for mask as the captain did not speak hardly any English. He looked horrified and began frantically looking for the bag of snorkel equipment he left on the dock. Yup. A snorkeling with turtles trip with no snorkeling equipment. If we had been told we needed to bring our own we would have…. And own life jacket! He then said again, ‘ in water’. He wanted us to go in anyway!! It was incredibly rough and rocky with quite a bit of wind, waves and current. Maybe someone was watching out for all of us?? He said he would take us back to get snorkel equipment … which was ridiculous as it was a long trip and crazy rough. We went for a boat ride in the rain instead in more calm waters . He put down the canopy to get under some low bridges in some canals, and never put it back up! We were all soaked and miserable. Then he wanted to take us swimming in a lagoon that is obviously where raw sewage is pumped in. Yup. Swimming in raw sewage was the consultation prize. The other trips by this company were great. I will review those as well. Do NOT do this one!

What I sight to see! Beautiful creatures just being themselves. Definitely a sight to see! Do it! Would recommend doing for sure

Really fun surf lesson! We were both first timers, and they were patient and encouraging, and we had a great time. We'd absolutely do this again!

The view was great and we had loads of fun. The boat captain is very trustworthy, he took care of us and gave us a great tour of the area. There are plenty of life jackets and tools for people who can’t swim. The only gripe I have is that I wish the posting said that we would have to swim 20 meters to get to the beach because the boat can’t dock closer to the island.

We did the whale watching in June 2025. It was an amazing experiance. We saw 3 whales and had beautiful views of Rio from the sea. The tour was very well organized. Thank you Rio Nature.

We had a fabulous morning seeing Rio from the sea! The views were spectacular and we saw turtles! A couple of them appeared when we stopped for snorkelling. The sea was wonderful for swimming and we had as long as we needed. Eric was our boat captain and he was a brilliant guide- we felt safe and well informed.

Had a great morning with Guilherme who took us out to view sea turtles, we also then got to travel around the lagoons and see crocodiles and capybaras

We actually had so much fun. I was dragging my husband and son to go with me but they ended up enjoying it just as much. Our guide was really nice and knowledgeable

The day was beautiful. The captain let us drive the boat and it was really fun! The snorkeling part was amazing and scary as I had never done it before. He also took us to see crocodiles which was really cool. Highly recommend!

This was an amazing experience. Initially I had a Friday day booked but after looking at the sea our captain messaged me recommending we switch to the Sunday after when the sea would be calmer. I was able to see a sea turtle (which was the most important thing to me) and tons of other fish. Our captain was also able to give us fun facts about multiple landmarks we passed on the way to the island.

Nothing short of a amazing experience and definitely recommend everyone that visits Rio de Janeiro make time for this tour!!

It was an absolutely stunning tour, and great experience. What an amazing way to see Rio. Great for any ages. The guide was very nice and knew a lot. He spoke English and Portuguese

It was cute seeing the turtles from the boat but the visibility in the water was poor. This experience may be better on a very hot day. The tour guide was very nice and explained where we were and about Rio.

Do not buy this if you want to go snorkeling! After some hassle we got one (1) set of snorkeling gear for five people. The water was murky and polluted with floating trash and there was no marine life at all. Calling this a snorkeling trip is really a scam. It was a nice boat trip but not the experience the promise when they sell it.

This was such a great trip, our guide Thalles was amazing, super knowledgable and friendly. We saw some great views over the city. If you want something a little more off the beaten track too, this is a great trip to choose. We did some exploring through the rainforest, and saw some caves and waterfalls. We had a shower in one of the waterfalls towards the end of the trip, which was a fantastic way to cool off after the light hiking we did. We even saw some monkeys! So exciting. A great trip all around ☺️

The guide adjusted the trip to the conditions which were windy which made it a good trip. Remember to bring your own snack and water.

After a little issue with getting to the meeting place, the rest of the tour was great. We were able to see several little islands in the Rio area and swim with turtles. The boat captain and guide was great and helped make sure that we had a great time. they were short on snorkel gear which meant we had to trade out but overall good tour.

Was canceled and wasted a day of my vacation. I was given a refund option or a sun sail option which was less expense.

Snorkeling: My critique is mostly with the contrast between snorkeling in Belize (best in this hemisphere - clear, shallow waters, huge reef, teeming with life) versus the murkiness of the water in Brazil, less density of life to see, etc. Provider: The tour provider had mediocre/limited/somewhat broken equipment. Style: FYI, this was not a guided tour, meaning, one is on their own to swim and explore and guess at what you're looking at and what to look for. In general, for the price, I was disappointed. HOWEVER, huge bonus points when, after snorkeling, our guide took us out of the way to a place he suspected we would humpback whales! It was wild, 2 or 3 or them playing and twirling! We decided to reframe this as a "surprise humpback whale excursion with a side of so-so snorkeling". :-) FYI, the whales aren't a guarantee/built-in part of this excursion. However, some other guests said they took the explicit "whale watching" excursion from the same provider the prior day and said it was wonderful. These same guests also snorkeled a bit further than we did and saw several sea turtles. We were limited in range by our snorkeling-novice 9-year-old and the kind-of broken face mask we were given. If you have limited time and resources in Rio, I'd advise doing something else with your time and money.

Really good trip, all perfect , conformed to the description. Great guide, perfect communication, efficient team. Suggest you should try

perfect communication ,all as described in the document.Nice guide. strongly recommend this tour. We where 12 friends / business related. top quality. Just think about adding drinking water next time.

This tour was so fun! We didn't schedule a lot of activities for our weeklong vacation in Rio, but this was great. We couldn't go out on the day we reserved the tour because the conditions of the sea weren't ideal, but the company quickly worked with us to reschedule for the next day. April is pretty cold for snorkeling so we spent more time out of the water than in, but it was 100% worthwhile just to have the boat tour of the islands with our fantastic guide, who was knowledgeable and friendly. We saw all kinds of wildlife and really enjoyed the experience.

Excellent experience. We got to swim alongside sea turtles and see recent bird hatchlings. Very easy to plan and coordinate and we were able to be flexible with what we did when

The team were so friendly and helpful, we went to different areas to snorkel, saw lots of fish and turtles and the others saw a stingray! The weather allowed us to walk on the island and see some birds. Amazing trip over all.

The tour was excellent! The host was very warm and knowledgeable about the area. My friend and I had an amazing time and can't recommend the tour more.

Had a blast! Got to visit islands, cliff jump and see some fishies. Also got a boat tour around a cute little river town. 3 hours was perfect. Thank you!

We had the best time!! the islands and turtles were beautiful. Highly recommend our tour guide Nick — he was wonderful & educational