Skip to content
Étaperia

Brazil in 17 days: Minas Gerais, Paraty and Rio de Janeiro, day by day

Seventeen days from Belo Horizonte to Rio de Janeiro: the Pampulha modern ensemble, Inhotim, Ouro Preto, Congonhas and Tiradentes, the Imperial Museum in Petrópolis, Paraty and the Saco do Mamanguá, then six nights in Rio, from Corcovado to Sugarloaf Mountain.

Compiled by Kylian Surget, updated on 02/10/2026

The Sugarloaf cable car above Rio, Botafogo Bay and Corcovado in the distance
  • 17 days
  • 68 places
  • 17 nights
  • sustained pace
Start
Cavalcante, then the Brasília to Belo Horizonte flight on day 72
End
Rio de Janeiro (Galeão International Airport)
Main transport
Flight from Brasília to Belo Horizonte on day 72, a one-way hire car from Belo Horizonte to Rio, returned on day 82, then metro, VLT tram and ride-hailing for the week in Rio
Recommended season
June to September, the southern winter: dry and cool in Minas Gerais and Petrópolis, 8 to 24 °C, with clear light and thinner crowds in the colonial towns; in Rio, 19 to 27 °C and often open skies for the viewpoints

What you get

  • The complete itinerary: 17 days sequenced Morning / Afternoon / Evening / Hotel
  • The card of every hotel, with the address and a direct booking link
  • Quota tickets, fixed-date tickets and surcharges flagged in advance
  • The country quick guide: weather, transport, formalities, budget
  • A PDF file of 34 pages

What the price does not include

  • Flights
  • Hotel nights
  • Tickets and admission fees
  • Travel insurance
  • On-the-ground assistance during your trip

The travel book preview

The free day in full, with its hotel card. This is the sample.

Day 16

Maracanã, Copacabana and Sugarloaf Mountain

Morning

Maracanã Stadium

Built for the 1950 World Cup, it held nearly two hundred thousand people for the final lost to Uruguay, the founding trauma of Brazilian football. The tour takes in the changing rooms, the tunnel and the pitch, along with the museum and the walk of footprints of the great players.

Museu de Arte Moderna and Aterro do Flamengo

Affonso Eduardo Reidy's MAM, a concrete structure on portal frames, stands in Flamengo Park, designed by Burle Marx on land reclaimed from the sea: it is one of the largest modernist landscape ensembles in the world, with the bay on one side and the city on the other.

Afternoon

Copacabana beach

Four kilometres of sand and the black-and-white wave pavement designed by Burle Marx in 1970, which has become Rio's most recognisable motif. The beach is as much a social institution as a place to swim: mate sellers, futevôlei courts, postos and kiosks open until late.

Forte de Copacabana

The 1914 fort, at the southern tip, with its Krupp guns and military museum, is also the best viewpoint over the whole curve of the beach as far as Sugarloaf Mountain. The Confeitaria Colombo has a terrace there facing the sea.

Evening

Sugarloaf Mountain

Three hundred and ninety-six metres of granite at the entrance to the bay, reached by two cable cars from Urca: the first climbs to the Morro da Urca, the second to the summit. The system, opened in 1912, was the third in the world and is still in service, with renewed glass cabins. Go up in the late afternoon to watch the light turn over the bay, the Corcovado light up and the city switch on. The Praia Vermelha, below, and its Cláudio Coutinho trail fill the wait before the ascent.

Good to know

Sugarloaf tickets : The Parque Bondinho Pão de Açúcar (Avenida Pasteur, 520, Urca) is open every day from 8:30 AM to 8:00 PM, last boarding at 7:30 PM. Full ticket R$ 205, R$ 160 for Brazilians. The ticket sets a time slot, with a tolerance of 20 minutes before or after; once you are up, you can stay as long as you like. No parking at the park. For sunset, book a late-afternoon slot in advance.

Hotel · Night 16

Novotel Rio de Janeiro Porto Atlântico

A chain hotel in the redeveloped port area, close to the Museu do Amanhã, the Boulevard Olímpico and the VLT, the tram that serves the centre. Six nights in the same place: it is the base for the whole week, with no change of hotel.

Address
· Avenida Professor Pereira Reis, 49, Santo Cristo, Rio de Janeiro - RJ, 20220-800
Website
· all.accor.com (new tab)
Book this hotel (new tab)

Buy this itinerary

€39 incl. tax

that is €2.29 per day of travel

The buy button becomes active once the box is ticked.

  • Secure payment through Stripe, bank card, Apple Pay and Google Pay
  • Available immediately in your customer account: online reading with clickable booking links, downloadable PDF for offline use
  • Method: what is checked, and when

A hotel in the itinerary closed or impossible to find, a place to visit permanently closed?

Within 12 months of purchase, email contact@etaperia.com

Itinerary corrected within 7 days, or refunded in full. Terms in article 12 of the T&Cs, on top of the legal warranty (new tab)

€39 incl. tax · 17 days

Buy

A question before buying? Email Kylian, reply within 48 working hours.

The day-by-day rundown

17 stops, 840 km as the crow flies

  1. Day 1 From Cavalcante to Belo Horizonte Mercado Central Day reserved for buyers, unlocked in the PDF
  2. Day 2 Liberdade and Pampulha Circuito Cultural Praça da Liberdade Day reserved for buyers, unlocked in the PDF
  3. Day 3 Instituto Inhotim The largest open-air museum in the world Day reserved for buyers, unlocked in the PDF
  4. Day 4 Ouro Preto, gold and Aleijadinho Igreja de São Francisco de Assis Day reserved for buyers, unlocked in the PDF
  5. Day 5 The mine, Mariana, Congonhas, Tiradentes Mina da Passagem Day reserved for buyers, unlocked in the PDF
  6. Day 6 Petrópolis, the summer court Imperial Museum Day reserved for buyers, unlocked in the PDF
  7. Day 7 Quitandinha and the Serra dos Órgãos Quitandinha Palace Day reserved for buyers, unlocked in the PDF
  8. Day 8 Aparecida, the national shrine Basilica of Our Lady of Aparecida Day reserved for buyers, unlocked in the PDF
  9. Day 9 The Cunha serra, then Paraty Cachoeira do Tobogã and a cachaça distillery Day reserved for buyers, unlocked in the PDF
  10. Day 10 The Saco do Mamanguá, a tropical fjord Saco do Mamanguá Day reserved for buyers, unlocked in the PDF
  11. Day 11 Arrival in Rio, Santa Teresa and Lapa Santa Teresa Day reserved for buyers, unlocked in the PDF
  12. Day 12 The historic and imperial centre Theatro Municipal Day reserved for buyers, unlocked in the PDF
  13. Day 13 The reinvented port and Niterói Museu do Amanhã Day reserved for buyers, unlocked in the PDF
  14. Day 14 The Tijuca forest and the Corcovado Tijuca National Park Day reserved for buyers, unlocked in the PDF
  15. Day 15 The botanical garden, the Lagoa and Ipanema Rio Botanical Garden Day reserved for buyers, unlocked in the PDF
  16. Day 16 Maracanã, Copacabana and Sugarloaf Mountain Maracanã Stadium Free
  17. Day 17 Buffer day and return flight Buffer day, your choice Day reserved for buyers, unlocked in the PDF

Found an error in this itinerary? Report an error

Country quick guide and logistics

The essentials of the country, scannable in ten seconds.

Weather and when to go

  • June to September is the southern winter: dry and cool in Minas Gerais and Petrópolis, 8 to 24 °C, with cold mornings at altitude. Pack a fleece and a jacket.
  • On the Paraty coast, 18 to 27 °C and a sea still fine for swimming. In Rio the Carioca winter brings 19 to 27 °C, drier air, often clear skies and a sea at 22 °C, with the odd cold front.
  • Corcovado and Sugarloaf are for clear weather: the statue vanishes into cloud without warning. Keep enough slack to swap two days of the Rio week.

Transport and permits

  • Flight from Brasília to Belo Horizonte on day 72, one hour twenty, then a hire car to Rio: about 1,600 km through the gold towns, Petrópolis, Aparecida, Cunha and the Costa Verde. It is a one-way hire, with a taxa de retorno to price before booking.
  • The mountain road between Cunha and Paraty is an estrada-parque limited to 20 km/h and closed from 5.30pm to 7am: leave before 8am, or go round by Taubaté and the Rio-Santos. Tiradentes to Petrópolis, at 5 hr 30, is the longest drive.
  • The car is returned on arrival in Rio, on day 82: the week runs on the metro, the VLT tram and ride-hailing, with no parking to deal with. The Niterói ferry and the Santa Teresa bondinho are rides worth taking for their own sake.

Formalities and safety

  • The Corcovado train is booked online by time slot and is often full several days ahead; so is Sugarloaf for the sunset slot on day 87. The Maracanã tour depends on the match calendar.
  • Inhotim is closed on certain days of the week, and in Ouro Preto most monuments close on Mondays: two days that cannot fall on just any day.
  • The colonial towns of Minas are steep and paved with slippery cobbles: shoes with grip rather than sandals. In Rio, keep your phone out of sight in the street, use ride-hailing at night and see the centre on a weekday, as it empties at the weekend.

Budget and meals

  • The Brazilian real (R$). Cards are accepted almost everywhere; cash is essential at the Mina da Passagem and the Imperial Museum in Petrópolis, and useful for the small church museums and the distilleries.
  • Benchmark tickets: the Imperial Museum in Petrópolis at R$ 10, cash only, and the full Sugarloaf ticket at R$ 205, by time slot.
  • Extras to allow for: the taxa de retorno on the hire, fuel and tolls, the electric cart at Inhotim, distillery tastings, ride-hailing and nights out in Lapa in Rio.

Frequently asked questions

What exactly do I receive?

Your Étaperia itinerary, available immediately in your customer account after payment: readable online with clickable booking links, and downloadable as a PDF for the trip. Every day is sequenced Morning / Afternoon / Evening, with the hotel for each night, its address and its booking link, and timed-entry tickets flagged in advance.

How is this better than what an AI gives me?

A generative AI composes a plausible list in seconds, without saying what was checked or when. At Étaperia, every itinerary is compiled day by day, with the booking constraints spotted before it is too late to get them. The Method page says what is checked, against which source and on what date.

Can I adapt it to my dates and my pace?

Yes. The days are self-contained blocks: you can shift the departure, stretch a stage or skip a day without breaking what follows. Only timed-entry tickets require adjusting the dates accordingly, and they are all flagged.

What if a hotel or a place in the itinerary has closed?

Email contact@etaperia.com within 12 months of your purchase. If a hotel in the itinerary is closed or can no longer be found, or a place to visit has closed permanently, the itinerary is corrected in your customer account within 7 days, or you are refunded in full. A hotel fully booked on your dates, a seasonal closure or a change in opening hours or prices is not covered. This guarantee comes on top of the legal warranty of conformity; details in article 12 of the terms and conditions of sale.

Who is selling you this itinerary

  • Kylian Surget, sole trader, SIRET 927 587 709 00035
  • Consumer mediator: ANM Consommation
  • Payment handled by Stripe: Étaperia never sees your card number
  • Publisher, not a travel agency: you book flights, hotels and tickets yourself

In the same country

This module is one leg of the full itinerary: Complete Brazil itinerary: 88 days, hotels and bookings

The complete itinerary

Or take it one module at a time