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Buenos Aires |
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Cristo (Corcovado)
The statue of Christ has overlooked Rio since 1931. All 1145 tons of the statue are visible day and night from many locations throughout Rio. |
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Carnaval
Carnaval in Rio de Janeiro is the world’s largest street party. It started as a celebration to mark the beginning of Lent.
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Sugar Loaf Mountain
Sugar Loaf Mountain guards the entrance to Guanabara Bay. The cable-car to the top was only the third in the world when it was built in 1912.
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Maracana Stadium
The Maracana Stadium was built to hold the 1950 World Cup Final where almost 200,000 people were shocked to see Brazil lose to Uruguay. It is being refurbished in the hope of hosting the final again in 2014. |
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Copacabana Beach
Copacabana is a 4.5km long curve of sand, with hotels, restaurants and clubs lining the seafront, and mountains providing a spectacular backdrop. |
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Ipanema Beach
Ipanema is not only a beautiful city beach, but also a district of tree-lined boulevards filled with restaurants, bars and boutiques.
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Rodrigo de Freitas Lagoon
The lagoon is circled by a 7km path and lies just a few blocks from Ipanema beach and also the Botanical Gardens.
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Centro
The historic centre of Rio has colonial buildings, museums and churches dating from the city’s early days as the capital of Brazil. |
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Petrópolis
Petrópolis is a small colonial mountain town 80km from Rio, with fine palaces, museums and churches dating back to when the Emperor of Brazil used it as a summer retreat. |
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The Islands of Angra dos Reis
Hundreds of tiny tropical islands dot the bay of Angra dos Reis, many with beautiful, secluded beaches of soft white sand and turquoise waters. |
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Schooner Tour
Take a schooner trip along the beaches to Itaipú, where the tour stops for lunch and a swim. |
| US & Canada Toll Free: |
| 1 877 240 4770 |
| UK Line: |
| +44 207 096 1259 |
| International Line: |
| +1 512 535 2536 |
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Búzios
Nobody seems to agree on just how many beaches there are on the peninsula. There may be 17 or 27, but they are all beautiful. |
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Ossos
Ossos is the Portuguese word for bones. The town may be named this due to the pirates and slave traders who first settled the area.
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Manguinhos
Manguinhos is the closest town to the edge of the peninsula. It has all the amenities expected of a top-class resort town. |
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Armação de Búzios
Armação de Búzios, particularly the paved street of Rua das Pedras, is the place to go for the best restaurants and nightlife in Búzios |
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Cabo Frio
The town of Cabo Frio was founded in 1615 with the building of St Matthew’s Fort to protect the shipments of Brazilwood heading for Europe. |
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Upon your arrival at the International airport in Buenos Aires you well be welcomed and escorted to your hotel. Here you will be briefed on all your travels during your stay in Argentina. You will then have the rest of the day free to spend at your leisure after a long flight. Buenos Aires is a cosmopolitan and energetic city with an intense cultural life. Should you wish you can explore the one of the areas around your hotel in the afternoon such as La Recoleta. It is within this famous Cemetery that Evita Peron – along with other notable characters of local political and social life in Buenos Aires – is to be found. The cemetery in Recoleta is stunning and it seems to coexist peacefully with the surrounding string of Parisian-style cafés, pubs, restaurants and the art and craft market that takes place during weekends. In the evening it is very recommendable that you dine at one of the many celebrated steak-houses that have made Buenos Aires famous. |
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Buenos Aires City Tour and Tigre Delta boat ride |
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After enjoying a delicious breakfast at your hotel you will be collected for a fascinating tour of the elegant turn-of-the-century districts that earned Buenos Aires the label of the Paris of South America. The tour will lead you through the Italian district of La Boca to the charming cobbled alleys and colonial architecture of San Telmo through towards the Plaza de Mayo with its many outstanding buildings: the neo-classical Cathedral, the colonial Cabildo, the old town-hall, and the Government Palace. The tour then leads to the elegant residential Barrio Norte quarter with its French architecture ending with a tour around a residential neighborhood in Palermo. You will have lunch at one of the fashionable restaurants in Palermo Soho. In the afternoon you will proceed north of Buenos Aires for a one hour boat ride along the Parana River Delta. In the evening we will be more than glad to make dinner reservations.
(Meals – B, L) |
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Free day in Buenos Aires |
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This day is left free for you to enjoy the city of Buenos Aires at your leisure. Many of our optional extra tours are highly recommendable to fill this time and experience the city better. One of the more interesting options includes a colorful day spent at an estancia on the outskirts of Buenos Aires. Lunch is included within this excursion and consists of a traditional Argentinean asado – or barbeque. Huge slabs of prime beef are slowly grilled to the meat lover’s perfection during which you may enjoy some fine Argentinean wine. Following lunch you will be invited to partake in a number of traditional Gaucho activities. If this day is free on a Sunday you may wish to take a tour of the San Telmo Flea Market. Another very worthwhile optional extra is the day trip to Uruguay and Colonia del Sacramento. With lunch included this tour visits Uruguay’s most charming town and leads you though its most spectacular sites including the old quarter of Oporto or Lisbon and the Puerta de la Ciudadela.
(Meals – B) |
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Buenos Aires to Peninsula Valdes |
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Following breakfast at in the morning, you will be collected from your hotel and transferred to the airport where you will take a flight to Trelew. Upon arrival in the southerly city you will be escorted to your hotel in Puerto Madryn where you will have time to rest and be briefed on your travels in the area. Puerto Madryn is situated on the clear waters of Golfo Nuevo and is the doorway to Peninsula Valdes. In the afternoon it is recommendable to visit the El Doradillo area from July to October or Punta Loma for your first encounter with the region’s magnificent sea wildlife. Every season from July to October the El Doradillo area is visited by a group of mother whales and their offspring. Owing to the tranquility of the area and the unusual depth of its water, the whales get very near the coast and it is possible to watch them at 20 or 30 meters from the shore. If visiting outside of whale season the region still has much to offer with a visit Punta Loma sea lion preserve, 15 km southeast of Puerto Madryn.
(Meals – B) |
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Marine life at its best |
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After breakfast you will be led on a full day's visit to the Peninsula Valdez. To enter the national park and nature reserve named by UNESCO as a World Heritage site, you will cross a narrow isthmus where you can look out over the immense waters of the Golfo San José to one side and the vast bay of the Golfo Nuevo to the right. Approximately 25km further down the road you come across Caleta Valdes - a 35km-long natural creek eschewed by a long narrow promontory that is home to a colony of sea elephants. After admiring Caleta Valdes, you continue along the road as it suddenly drops down into a crescent of golden cliffs overlooking a bright blue fan of water which is home to the bay of the small village of Puerto Pirámides. Here the herds of southern right whales tend to arrive in late August, although some are often sighted as early as June. There are boat trips organized into the bay from which you can watch these immensely dignified and pacific creatures gliding past, a calloused rugged head often surfacing right under your nose with large inquisitive eyes, a huge tail slapping spray over the bow of the boat. While the whales may be seen from late August to November, the sea elephants and sea lions are permanent residents. Following your tour you will return to your hotel in Puerto Madryn.
(Meals - B, L) |
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Penguins and Welsh Tea |
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After a leisurely breakfast you will leave Puerto Madryn and drive 120 km south in order to visit the largest colony of Magellan penguins in South America. The colony’s population reaches over half a million birds during the peak season when the baby penguins start to hatch – this usually happens in November. One of the greatest features of this reserve is the fact that you can literally walk among the penguins, follow them and learn their habits, see how they feed their babies, observe their courtship rituals, their fights to defend their territory, how they build their nests, and their comically characteristic waddle to and from the sea. The penguin’s natural predators are the killer whale and the seal, both of which make brief forays close to shore from time to time. The best season to visit is between October and April. Following the tour you will be led up and through Trelew city once more in order to visit the Paleontology Museum Egidio Feruglio before continuing to the charming Welsh town of Gaiman for tea and Welsh delicacies. You will be transferred back to your hotel in Puerto madryn just in time to enjoy the sunset.
(Meals – B, L) |
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Arrival at the End of the World |
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After enjoying a little something to eat you will be transferred to Trelew for your domestic flight to Ushuaia. The city at the end of the world, Ushuaia, lies on the shores of the Beagle Channel and is the capital of the desolate, sparsely-populated, mountainous and windswept triangular island of Tierra del Fuego. Ushuaia was one of later regions to be settled by immigrants and was originally home to the kayak-paddling Ona and Patagon Indians who hunted seal and fish and daubed themselves in seal-fat during winter to ward off the sub-zero temperatures. The first settlers were missionaries who built simple wooden dwellings on the water’s edge to house their families, not so different from the wooden Scandinavian-style houses which line the main street of Ushuaia today. In the afternoon you will commence a guided tour of the city with visit to the End of the World Museum and the Presidio or old prison that houses the Maritime Museum. The rest of the evening will be free for you to spend at your leisure – warming up by a cozy fire place in your hotel, or enjoying some delicious Patagonian food.
(Meals – B) |
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Lapataia National Park and the Beagle Channel |
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In the morning you will be collected from your hotel for a short drive west of Ushuaia to the Lapataia National Park - this borders the Beagle Channel across the valley of the Pipo River. It is here that you will be able to take a one way train ride at one of the two narrow-gauge tracks left in Argentina. The train continues into the National Park with its stunning views of Mount Susana, the Martial Glacier and the large swamp where relics of the prisoners' logging tasks can still be seen. Age-old forest fires, often set unwittingly by fur-trappers and hunters have scarred the hillsides while the rivers which flow through the valley floors have become marshy swamps criss-crossed by dams and rotting logs - a legacy of the once incessant beaver population imported to the island in the early 1900's. You will return to Ushuaia for lunch and in the afternoon board a comfortable and speedy catamaran which moves off along the Beagle Channel. The catamaran passes many estancias as well as the historic lighthouse Les Eclaireurs which inspired Jules Verne's novel The Lighthouse at the End of the World. On the way back to Ushuaia, the catamaran passes small islands of rock rising from the wind-tossed waters, home to noisy communities of seals, sea lions, cormorants, giant petrels and many other species of sea-birds.
(Meals - B) |
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Fly to the Glaciers |
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After breakfast you will be collected from your hotel and transferred to the airport for your domestic flight to El Calafate. Upon arrival you will be met and transferred to your hotel for a little relaxation. El Calafate is a picturesque village by Lago Argentino, one of Patagonia’s largest and most stunning lakes. The region is also home to the famous myriad of mountains and the immense ice-caps of ‘Los Glaciares’ National Park –which was added to the World Heritage List in 1981. ‘Perito Moreno’ is the best-known among the park’s many glaciers. This imposing mass of ice, surrounded by snowed peaks and forests of lengas and ñires, is considered by many as the eighth wonder of the world. When temperatures rise, huge blocks of ice become detached from the moving glacier and fall into “Canal de los Témpanos” (Iceberg Channel) of Lago Argentino, creating a roaring and thrilling spectacle. The pleasant village of Calafate is the starting point of every circuit that, after passing through the steppe’s oases of poplars, willows and pines, enters the glaciers and traverses them from end to end.
(Meals – B) |
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Trekking over Perito Moreno Glacier |
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Following a morning meal you will commence with a full-day tour of the Perito Moreno Glacier. After a beautiful two and half hour drive through the National Park – with stops to enjoy the view – you arrive at the amazing Perito Moreno Glacier. While here it is possible to see the Perito Moreno glacier from motor boats which move in as close as possible to the grey rugged wall, giving one an even greater sense of perspective as well as the chance to stride out on the ice itself. With crampons fixed firmly to your boots and a team of experienced professional guides, you can climb up on the glacier from the banks on the other side of the Brazo Rico and enjoy the extraordinary experience of walking up and down steep icy rises which are millions of years old, peering into the deep cracks and holes whose depths glow blue and green. The two hour trekking is moderate and the ice surface over which you walk is irregular but firm and safe. After the walk, a stroll to the forest brings you back to the shelter. From here you will be transferred back to El Calafate with an hour visit to the glaciers catwalks on the route. For this day it is recommended that you bring sport shoes or trekking boats, sunglasses, sun protection, gloves, hat, and a windproof jacket.
(Meals – B, L)
**CAT TIP – Make the most of your Trip: There is a more strenuous version of this days trail for the more active and fit adventurers – ask your Sales representative for more information. |
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Visit to an Estancia in Los Glaciares National Park |
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Today you will be picked up very early from your hotel to be driven to Puerto Banderas. From the lake pier you will board the boat "Uppsala Explorer" specially designed to navigate comfortably through the difficult conditions of Lake Argentino. From the port you will head towards the impressive stretch of the Uppsala Glacier before continuing along the Brazo Cristina channel to Estancia Cristina, the estancia which offers the best land access to Uppsala glacier and the Continental Ice Cap. You will be served a typical tender and tasty Patagonian roasted on a stake for lunch at the Estancia. Depending on the weather and your preferences, you can walk or ride through the estancia's land and the National Glacier Park, through forests and along the lake shores to appreciate the views of unspoiled nature in all its glory. You will remain in the Estancia for approximately 6 hours before returning by boat to El Calafate in the evening.
(Meals - B, L) |
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Return to Buenos Aires and flight home |
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In the morning you will be able to enjoy a filling breakfast before being transferred to the airport in Calafate for your flight back to Buenos Aires. Upon arrival in Buenos Aires you will either be transferred to the international airport (approximately an hour's drive away) or to your hotel should you wish to spend more time in Argentina.
(Meals - B) |
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