Rio de Janeiro Botanical Garden & Tijuca Forest Tour
Description
Nature lovers can explore Rio’s diversity through a guided visit to the Botanical Garden and Tijuca Forest. Highlights at the garden include towering imperial palms, the Sensory Garden, the Rainforest Greenhouse, and the celebrated Orchidarium. Visitors encounter tranquil lakes, the Japanese Garden, and wildlife such as monkeys and toucans. The tour then ventures into Tijuca Forest to see Taunay Waterfall, walk easy trails, and learn about the Atlantic Forest ecosystem. Stops include Vista Chinesa (except on weekends) for city views and a scenic drive past São Conrado beach, where hang-gliders can be seen soaring overhead.
Tour Options
Itinerary
Discover the diversity of Brazilian and foreign flora with a tour at the Botanical Garden in Rio de Janeiro.
Visit the Vista Chinesa gazebo and enjoy a panoramic view of Rio de Janeiro - (the visit is temporarily suspended while it is not accessible by vehicles).
Contemplate the incredible beauty of the Tijuca National Park, one of the largest urban forests in the world.
Observe the Taunay Waterfall at the Tijuca Natinal Forest.
Observe Capela Mayrink with ist simple beauty that stands out at the Tijuca National Forest
Highlights
What's included
Pickup Locations & Times
Hotel pickup and drop-off from the main hotels in Rio's South Zone area (Copacabana, Ipanema, Leblon, Leme). Passengers not staying at one of the hotels in the pickup list will be informed of the nearest pickup point and time. Pick up from the hotel takes place before the start time of the activity. If you do not receive confirmation of your departure time, please contact us.
Traveller Ratings
Important Information
- Infants are required to sit on an adult’s lap
- Suitable for all physical fitness levels
- On Saturdays and Sundays Vista Chinesa will be off the itinerary because vehicles are not allowed on the highway.
Reviews(178)
Pedro was an amazing guide! The trip started with Pedro picking us up from our hotel, then going to the Botanical Garden, which was fantastic. We went through this quite quickly, as we told Pedro we wanted to spend more time in the national park rainforest. He took us two several waterfalls and, upon our request, took us through a number of hiking trails, including to an amazing cave in the forest. All throughout he was telling us about the history of Rio, which was super interesting. Excellent!
Dear Customer, Thank you very much for your feedback. We are delighted to hear that you had an amazing experience with Pedro and that the tour was personalized according to your interests. It is also wonderful to know that the historical insights about Rio made the experience even more engaging. We truly appreciate your recommendation and hope to welcome you back soon for more incredible adventures! Customer Experience Team
Public was our guide for second time in a tour in this trip. He made it great and pleasant. We”re a small group and he went far and beyond to Mae a memorable experience. He even took pictures for us. Great tour.
Dear Customer, Thank you very much for your wonderful review! We’re thrilled to hear that Publio guided you again and made the experience even more special this time, and we’re glad he helped create such a memorable tour, photos included! Thank you for choosing us once more, and we hope to welcome you back soon for another great experience. -Customer Experience Team
Appalling experience. Guide and van turned up 20 minutes late to our hotel in Copacabana, collected three more guests on the same avenue and headed for the botanical gardens. Just before parking, they u-turned as apparently they received a last minute booking from another group - so we headed back to where we came from, accruing one hour of delay through Rio peak hour. On the van our guide tried to convince us to pay extra to have a guide from the botanical gardens chaperoning us, despite we all paid for the guided tour already...We soon learnt why. The botanical gardens were amazing but the tour was a waste of time: our guide lost his way several time inside and could barely describe what we were looking at. We genuinely felt ripped off. The delay accrued from the start and with the poorly planned visit in the gardens prevented us from accessing the Tijuca forest at all, which is a national park and as such has a daily quota of vehicles which can enter it. Obviously, this quota was reached early in the afternoon, and one would expect from a serious touring agency that this possibility is forecasted, especially during peak season. With the same expectations, one would think a serious touring agency would consider switching the two attractions around to avoid disappointment or at least warn the customer about this eventuality. Clearly at this point one might have figured out that "C2Rio" is not as such. Our tour ended with our driver and guide further wasting our time shuttling us around parts of Rio we weren't planning on visiting, without offering us the option of being brought back to our hotel.
Hello, Thank you for sharing your experience. We sincerely regret that the tour did not meet your expectations and that it caused frustration, this is certainly not the type of experience we aim to provide our guests. We would very much like to look into what happened. However, we were unable to locate the reservation in our system using the username associated with this review. So that we can investigate the details more carefully and provide proper follow‑up, we kindly ask, if you wish, that you send your reservation information to reservations@c2rio.travel. We remain at your disposal to listen attentively, clarify the points raised, and seek an appropriate solution. Kind regards, C2Rio Customer Experience Team
Don’t waste your time on this tour. Our guide knew nothing about the botanical gardens at all. He just kept saying “follow me”. We left the tour, along with several others, who were equally disappointed with the tour and the tour guide. The worst experience we had in Rio. Tour van was packed with more people than what it would hold.
Dear Ellen, Thank you for sharing your feedback, and we are truly sorry to hear that your experience did not meet your expectations. We understand your frustration, and we would like to clarify that this is not the standard of service we aim to provide. Regarding the vehicle capacity, we follow all authorized limits to ensure safety and comfort for our passengers; however, we will reassess this matter internally to avoid any perception of overcrowding in the future. As for the tour content, our guides receive continuous training, and your comments have been forwarded to the responsible department for review and immediate reinforcement of guidelines with the guide involved. We appreciate you bringing these points to our attention—your feedback is essential to our continuous improvement process. We remain available for any further clarification and hope to have the opportunity to offer you a more positive experience in the future.
First of all ,we arrived at our pickup point- Hilton Copacabana at 12noon.It took a little over an hour after all the pickups to begin the tour. Morever,it was not clear from the confirmation receipt that the tour didn't include admission fees to the gardens.I was not aware until my name was called at the gardens ,and we had to pay the admission fees . Lastly, we did get an opportunity to visit the gift shop at the gardens.When we inquired about the gift shop,we were told that it was the at the entrance, and we will not be returning or existing in that direction .Also inquired about getting some water, the tour guide told me that there were water fountains throughout the gardens which I did not want.I would have like to have the opportunity to purchase water .We left at the end of the Garden tours and return to cruise line.I would NOT recommend this tour.I could have done it on my own.
Dear customer, thank you for sharing your experience with us. We are sorry that the tour did not meet your expectations. We understand that in shared tours, the pickup period involves many variables such as traffic and the punctuality of all participants, which is essential for us to maintain the designated schedule. After checking internally, we confirmed that the tour you purchased did not include the entrance tickets to the Botanical Garden. Our customer service team attempted to contact you to verify whether you had any other type of voucher so we could better assist you. We understand your frustration in finding out only after entering that you would not have access to the gift shop again at the end of the tour. Unfortunately, the Botanical Garden prohibits the entry of plastic bottles in order to preserve nature, but there are water fountains throughout the site to support visitors during the tour. We regret that you decided to leave the tour before its conclusion, though we understand that a combination of factors can cause discomfort and frustration. For this reason, we truly appreciate that you took the time to share your feedback with us, allowing us to review all details and work on improving our services. Should you prefer a more personalized assistance, please feel free to contact us at reservations@c2rio.travel.
Our guide was Vicente who is highly professional, extremely knowledgeable and speaks excellent English. This was a highly worthwhile and interesting trip. The gardens are beautiful..and the forest is also wonderful to see.
Dear Sandra, Thank you very much for sharing your experience. We are very happy to hear that you enjoyed the tour and that Vicente contributed with professionalism, knowledge, and excellent communication, we will certainly pass your compliments on to him! It’s wonderful to know that you appreciated both the gardens and the forest… they are truly special places. Thank you for your review, and we hope to welcome you again on a future visit to Rio!
It was great to see the botanical gardens and tijuca forest waterfall but first of all lunch was not provided, which was promised when I first booked. Second of all you could tell the guide wasn’t proficient in the tour and was reading a script the whole time. Overall I don’t think this experience was worth the price. Book at your own risk
Dear Isabelle, thank you for sharing your experience with us. After checking internally, we confirmed that, according to the voucher, the tour you purchased did not include meals. If you have any different information, please feel free to send it to us at reservations@c2rio.travel so we can review it and assist you in the best possible way regarding this point. We are sorry that you felt a lack of experience in the guidance despite the guide’s specializations during the tour, and we understand your frustration. We will review the guide’s training to ensure we are always aligned with the expected quality. We appreciate the time you took to share this feedback. We hope to have the opportunity to welcome you again soon.
Excellent service from both the guide and the driver who were professional in their work. They explained everything perfectly and I could speak English and Spanish. It allowed us to see each point of the guide in good time and told us where to buy. As an Argentine I recommend it if it is your first time in Rio! They came looking for us from me accommodation in Barra da Tijuca
Estimada Malena, Agradecemos que haya compartido su experiencia tan positiva con nosotros. Nos alegra mucho saber que el guía y el conductor ofrecieron un servicio profesional y que las explicaciones en inglés y español hicieron el recorrido aún mejor. Es excelente saber que pudo disfrutar cada punto del tour con tranquilidad y que las orientaciones fueron útiles durante la visita. Muchas gracias por la recomendación; será un placer recibirla nuevamente en un próximo viaje a Río.
Very good tour and very good guide, very entertaining and nice everything.
Estimado, gracias por compartir su experiencia con nosotros. Nos alegra saber que tuvieron un día hermoso y que les haya gustado el guía. Esperamos atenderlo nuevamente para una nueva experiencia pronto. — Equipo C2Rio
The tourguidw was very friendly, he even showed us more than it was planed because we still had enough time. He even dropped me of on the metro station. I can totally recommand
