Located in the middle of the Rio de Janeiro city, the park was created in 1861 by decree of the Emperor D. Pedro II to reforest an area once destroyed by sugarcane and coffee plantations.
Have a beautiful overlook of Rio de Janeiro's southern side from the Vista Chinesa.
Pass the Taunay waterfall, which tumbles over rugged rock and faces into a calm pool below.
Stop by the nearby Mayrink Chapel built in 1860 and known for its pink facade.
The Botanic Garden was founded in 1808 by D. Joao VI for introducing and acclimatizing economically beneficial plants brought from other tropical regions outside of Brazil.
Wagner is a 5 star excellent tour guide. My Mother and I enjoyed our time visiting the Botanic Garden and Tijuca National Park. I learned so much from Wagner and highly recommend this tour. The transportation from the hotel and back was excellent.
The worst experience!!!! Do not reserve with this tour operator!!! We did not visited the tijuca forest because “the driver is deaf and he didn’t understand”. One day lost with no reasons.
Kinda lame. Thiago is a friendly driver, but offers no insights into the forest. Basically this tour is pick you up, drive to an overlook, to a waterfall, and to an outdated goofy welcome center. Transit to botanical garden is just a drop-off, not a ticket to enter it. Basically this tour is ride around with a friendly guy, see a couple simple stops, not worth it in my opinion.
It was great to get out of the urban and busy part of the city to visit these two outdoor gems. Nobody else signed up for my tour so I got a solo guide! Wagner was very knowledgeable and clearly loves the outdoors, flora and fauna, and these two parks. He was able to guide me to some of the nicest scenes in the gardens and to a lovely waterfall and vista in the park.
The tour was great, with lots of useful information! The guide, Monica, is a wonderful person who speaks three languages! Thank you and greetings from Poland!
There are so many things to see in the national forest. Let your guide do his/her job. If you are lucky enough to get Marcos, you are in for a treat.
Our guide was so friendly and shared great details about the forest and history of the botanical gardens. We loved her. She even suggested the best restaurant we ate at on our while trip!
The tour was switched from Tijuca and Botanical Gardens to Parque Lage and Botanical Gardens and even the timing changed from afternoon to morning - both changes made after I made the reservation. The guide was completely useless, he just kept looking at his cellphone all the time with no intention to interact with us. His only interest was to sell us helicopter tour tickets. We eventually got a separate guide at the Botanical Gardens so we learnt something of interest. This also added to our cost of the tour.
We paid for two interest points but we only went one, botanical park almost close only 45 minutes for us to visit. Tour lady time manage is not good
Nice to see forest in its natural state and all the work that is being done to keep the eco alive and well. Our guide was extremely helpful and entertaining
If you think Rio de Janeiro is all about beaches, cable car rides, statues & the samba -- think again. The Botanical Garden & Tijuca Rainforest Tour is like stepping into a lush green wonderland where Mother Nature shows off some of her best work. Wear comfortable walking shoes or hop on a tram for extra $ to enjoy the huge Botanical Gardens. The Tijuca Rainforest has lush green vegetation throughout but we were not lucky spotting any wild life because it was a heavy fog/overcast day. Our guide Helio was very knowledgeable, friendly & entertaining which made the trip most enjoyable along with our excellent driver Daniel.
The whole tour was great! Our tour guide Monica made sure to make it to every location despite not having enough time( we mistakenly made another tour reservation immediately after). She is so knowledgeable and answered every question with great depth. You can tell she loves what she does and it made the tour 100 times better. Park Tijuca, the botanical gardens, and park lage are wonderful spots and we felt like our trip was complete with this tour!
I cannot say much on this tour as, even though this is the tour we booked and paid for, the company sent a great guide for the wrong tour. No Tijuca Park, just the Botanic Garden. Marcos, the gentleman, was our fantastic guide who tried to help everyone. An extremely knowledgeable, kind and witty guide. Nothing was a bother to him. What I can recommend is Marcos.
I did a 1/2 day tour of Tijuca park with Monica. I found her to be friendly and had great knowledge of the park. She also took the time to go to a lesser known Mansion/Museum that many guides would have skipped. I would highly recommend this English tour.
Great trip very friendly and knowledgeable guide. Polite driver would recommend. Helped sort out ticket issue we had.
This was a Jeep tour which was wonderful way to view the National Forest and Park, lots of walking and some of it on uneven ground so comfortable walking shoes a must. Absolutely dense forestation and amazing waterfalls flowing naturally through the mountains and forests. The history is very interesting although sadly they have lost all the panthers that used to reside in the Forest (not sure why but guessing hunted to extinction) our guide couldn’t help answer this question but stated last one seen in the seventies. Chinese temple is a link to the Chinese who came over from Macau when it was a Portuguese colony and they helped and worked in the National Forest. Lots of monkeys there but they were moving around fast so hard to capture them and I missed seeing any of the native birds on the trip but so much to see and walking through you appreciate the vastness of it all.
Monica (Francesca Bertazzolo) is the best guide we could possibly find. She knows Rio and Brazil (and their history) very well and her explanations are all very interesting. The best mix of culture and touristic information. If you come to Rio, don’t hesitate: ask for Monica to be your (multilingual) guide.
He was very kind of us, gave a lot of interesting information and even suggestions on how to spent our time. He spoke excellent english and gave total devotion to the program and us. Thank you very much!
Thank u for perfect guide Monica……she care with us so ……we loved her s mosquito sprey (thanks for that ………………………….. ……….
With a cool group we paid for all students and staff and then additional fees for transport. The transport held a maximum of 7 people, including other visitors and came sporadically every 15 minutes. It was not possible to use the facility at all and they refused a refund despite having had to pay cash as they don’t accept card payments ( although patently Brazil visa works) As a result we were unable to see much of the park as it really needs the transport to give you enough time. The attitude from the staff was very poor. All could have been easily avoided if the details were published prior to purchase.
The tour operator didn't give the program to the tour guide so we didn't have the walk in the forest which was the reason we booked the tour.Instead we spent 3 hours in the botanical garden and stopped by car in few view points.Fortunately the tour guide was lovely and did the best for us but the tour operator is not professional at all to sell a trip which doesn't match with what was advertised and should communicate with their tour guides
The tour was excellent and the tour guide spectacular! He showed us the breathtaking Tijuca forest / botanic garden and provided lots of historical information. Thanks for the amazing experience. Definitely recommend it!
Our guide was very knowledgeable about the forrest and the Botanical Gardens. The forest was closed to vehicles, but we were able walk part way and get an amazing view of a waterfall. He also took us on a tour of the area since the forest was closed to cars and we had a little extra time. I would recommend this tour. There is a lot of walking involved.
We got this tour through our travel reward points and just hoped to get a "feel for the rainforest" without leaving the city for my daughter. The tour was wonderful. Even with so much closed down for Covid, we feel like we had a really full experience. Manuela was amazing. She really knows her stuff and knows where to go for the best photos and possible sightings. She's really engaging too. We learned a lot about Rio in general as well as the areas we toured. We even ran into her the next day and even though we weren't on tour with her, she gave us info about the area and best options. She even helped us figure out some additional things to do on our trip. The forest and botanical gardens are worth seeing. So many beautiful plants, but we also got to have toucans fly rigt in front of us and got to see a whole lot of monkeys playing, which was the highlight of the whole trip for my son. He had to get a monkey shirt to remember it by.
If you known all the wellknown spots of Rio de Janeiro - do it! You will see any place, you didn´t expect.
The last tour was a very relaxing experience. Furthermore, Monica proved to be a source of very detailed information about the history of the place. The section dedicated to orchids is beautiful, and the toucan sighting was exciting😍
Excellent!!️a very nice experience, to connect you
In this excursion I met an Extraordinary Guide miticulous careful in explaining the smallest details with an indescribable fluency in Italian Portuguese French and English she and Monica Francesca Bertazzolo I do not know how she managed not to get confused or stumble in languages and was immense, Thank you Monica for the half day spent together certainly I will remember this day for what you showed me and how you explained it to me. Unfortunately in the Forest it was not possible to access due to heavy rain but Monica spared no effort in illustrating other places along the way. For those who really want a Top Tour Guide go to Monica you will not regret it. Tony from Turin Italy
Nice guided tour with Monica, we learned a lot, and not just about plants. Thanks, Monica!
After traffic is chaos for excursions to Christ and Sugarloaf this experience was a real relief. An immersion in fantastic nature that I suggest to everyone. Monica is very prepared, nice and speaks perfect Italian.
Incredible experience knowing a different part of Rio. Very close guide with a lot of knowledge and integration with tourists. Must-see places and a unique tour
Very nice walk, nature in the middle of the city. Special mention for the forest waterfall. To Milene very friendly and attentive.
Fue una experiencia muy chevere con la familia.... gracias Jaqueline por tus atenciones fue muy divertido
Thank you Monica for making my visit to the park and gardens an unforgettable experience, her kindness and knowledge in flora, fauna and culture made me move to past eras and see the future with optimism , highly recommended both activities, thank you very much!!
Beautiful walk in the botanical garden! Absolutely worth it, through thousands of different plants, traces the nature, but also the history of Brazil. The guide Monica, well prepared, can give you lots of information about trees, flowers and birds. See the monkeys in the trees! Beautiful
I had the pleasure of spending a morning with Monica, a trained and very nice guide. She managed to make me understand what Brazil has evolved over the years. Thanks to her I was able to learn more about the thousand shades of this fantastic population that lives in this infinite variety of flowers, plants and animals!
My family and I loved the tour with the guide Monica, she explained the important information to us very well. We also liked the walk, the landscapes, the nature. Everything is very nice!
Guide Marcelo super attentive and helpful, I recommend the agency, in addition to excellent service and punctuality.
Am Tag zuvor hatte der Anbieter gefragt, ob die Tour auch vormittags stattfinden kann, da ein deutsprachiger Guide nur schwer zu finden ist. War ok für uns (und am Ende sogar besser, da es nachmittags regnete), der Guide besaß dann allerdings nur Grundkenntnisse in der deutschen Sprache, sodass es am Ende auf das Englische hinauslief. Zweite Hiobsbotschaft: Wegen Regen am Tag zuvor war der Tijuca Park geschlossen, als Alternative wurde der Park Lage vorgeschlagen und dann auch besichtigt, mit tollen Bildern. Der Guide wusste ausgesprochen viel, es wurde nett geplaudert (wir waren nur 2 Pärchen), viele Fotos gemacht. Ein schöner Ausflug, den ich empfehlen kann, auch wenn ich ja nun nicht weiß, was uns im Nationalpark erwartet hätte.
Beautiful tour inside the TIJUCA forest with a very prepared guide in Italian. You can drive and walk along the wonderful roads of the national park, with the various lakes and waterfalls
Monica was really kind, helpful to our curiosity and great expertise. It was a beautiful excursus on the history of the forest, Rio and the botanical garden. I absolutely recommend the tour during which we also had the chance to see macaques directly on the road!!
What an amazing experience!!! I liked it very much and recommend it! Beautiful beautiful!!! Every place to breathe!
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