Rio Pride Tour - Tour Schedule 2004

Our range of Tours for 2008 feature locations, hotels, restaurants and clubs that guarantee a friendly reception and special attention for the discerning visitor. All the Tours are designed with your requirements in mind and enable you to visit many interesting spots and places favored by the gay community. A comprehensive information pack for Rio de Janeiro is provided for all tours and professional English speaking guides are available to assist you with your plans. We are now able to arrange tours to suit your vacation schedule, only New Year and Carnaval celebration dates are fixed.

Tours include: Round trip airfares within Brazil as per itinerary; round trip transfers airport-hotel-airport; baggage handling at airports and hotels; hotel of your choice (prices vary); breakfast daily including assortment of fresh fruit, juices, cold cuts, rolls, tea, coffee; half or full day tours, services of tour guides and hospitality desk; hotel service charge and taxes. Itinerary guaranteed with a minimum of six persons traveling. International airfare is not included.

For information about hotels, prices and a detailed itinerary, e-mail us at rio@riopridetour.com.

Historical Paraty in the state of Rio de Janeiro 155 miles (250 km) south of Rio de Janeiro along the beautiful Costa Verde (Green Coast) you come across the historical town of Paraty. The word 'Paraty' comes from the name of a fish, which was abundant in the area.

Inhabited since 1650, and officially recognized as a town ten years later, the town of Paraty has changed little since its heyday as a major staging post for Brazilian gold passing from Minas Gerais to Portugal in the 18th century. With the construction of the inland Rio-Sao Paulo road, in the 19th century, Paraty lost its strategic importance and was virtually ignored over the next one hundred years until it was rediscovered as an authentic colonial town that had remained unchanged right into the 21st century. Today, Paraty's historical center is a national monument, considered by UNESCO to be one of the most important surviving examples of colonial architecture anywhere in the world.

The historic streets are paved with irregular stones forming a canal that drains off storm water and allows for the sea to enter and wash the streets at full moon and high tides. The sheltered waters of the bay offer safe sailing. Tourists enjoy not only to walk around the beautiful streets of the historical center, but also to explore the 65 islands and over 300 beaches of the region as well.

With its whitewashed houses, narrow cobblestone streets, small and large churches and its picturesque setting on the bay, Paraty is a delight. The historic center provides excellent restaurants, interesting shops and many sidewalk bars. There are over 100 small inns called pousadas offering good accommodations.

For many visitors, the city and state of Rio de Janeiro are only the beginning of the Brazilian escapade, an adventure which will open out across 3.3 million square miles, a coast line of 4,500 miles (7,250 km) of warm, white beaches and a population of 170 million. Rio de Janeiro, South America's most important and popular tourist destination, is the gateway to Brazil through its airports which connect the traveler with flights to the furthest points of Brazil, on to the hidden treasures of a great nation, to the North and the natural wonders of the Amazon and its capital, the man-made oasis of Manaus; to the Northeast, and the beaches and history of Porto Seguro, Salvador, Fortaleza, Natal and Macei�; to the Central West, and the Mato Grosso savanna, the Pantanal; and Southward to Sao Paulo, the engine that pulls the rest of the Brazilian train, and to one of the wonders of the planet, the falls at Foz do Igua�u.

Northern Brazil - The Amazon is a word that stirs the emotions of man. A natural wonder that supplies over half the planet's oxygen and pours enough water into the Atlantic each day to supply a city of 10 million inhabitants for a period of nine years. 4,200 miles (6,700 km) of river that support 1,500 types of fish, is over flown by 1,800 species of birds, and shadowed from its bank by 250 different mammals and a similar diversity of animals and insects. Manaus underwent a period of great affluence due to the rubber boom in the turn of the century, as can be witnessed by the impressive buildings of European style throughout, including the Teatro Amazonas and the river port. From Manaus, visitors can strike out to stay at a comfortable selection of lodges in the very heart of the jungle, an experience nobody will ever forget.

Northeastern Brazil - Brazil's Northeast has perfect weather and even more perfect beaches. From Sao Luis, in the North, to the Bahia Basin, in the South, the Northeast has over 2,000 miles (3,200 km) of virtually uninterrupted soft white beaches, while for the historically minded there is Salvador, the former Capital of Brazil with its 154 churches, most of which are treasured architectural masterpieces. Along the coast sit the towns of Fortaleza, Natal, Recife, Maceio, Salvador, and Porto Seguro, where Brazil was discovered by the Portuguese in 1500. The Northeast is Brazil's most folkloric region, folklore that is waiting to be discovered.

Southeastern Brazil - The Southeast is home to nearly half the Brazilian population which is mainly housed in the cities of Sao Paulo, Belo Horizante and, of course, Rio de Janeiro. Sao Paulo is the business capital of Brazil, the train that pulls the rest of the Brazilian economy, Latin America's largest industrial and commercial center, a city that covers an area five times greater than Paris, a city which offers international cuisine and a nightlife of the variety and quality of New York and Paris, but at a fraction of the price. Sao Paulo, as a city, is the perfect counter balance to the frivolity of Rio de Janeiro.

Central Brazil - Brazil's Central-West is an area of striking contrasts that vary from the futuristic designs of the nation's capital, Brasilia, through to the untouched and unexplored backwaters of the Pantanal Mato-grossense, the savanna of Mato Grosso. Brasilia is the "dream city" of the future, a city born to be a nation's capital, a city designed to open up the untouched interior of Brazil to the 20th century. The Pantanal Mato-grossense, on the other hand, is an area only relatively recently discovered and explored by man. Once a vast inland sea, it is today one of the largest and richest reserves of wildlife known to man and the Araguaia River is considered to hold the planet's most abundant source of fish and also contains the Bananal Island, the largest river-island in the world.