Community-based tourism in Brazil, where the families and villages who host you also run the trip and keep most of what you spend.
19 trips found
Short on time? The 3-day Vale do Pati hike through caves, waterfalls, and trails, with nights in the homes of local families inside the valley.
Price from $350
Cross Lençóis Maranhenses National Park on foot. Two nights in oasis families, daily lagoon swims, sunrise hikes, end at Santo Amaro.
Price from $450
Navigate two national parks, Jaú and Anavilhanas, on a comfortable riverboat: dolphins, caves, piranha fishing and Indigenous community visits.
Price from $2,650
Hike 12 km across dunes from Atins to Baixa Grande Oasis, swim in freshwater lagoons, and overnight in a hammock at a local family's home.
Price from $400
A 4-day Jalapão trip from Palmas: crystal fervedouros, waterfalls, rafting on the Soninho, and quilombola culture, with cozy pousada stays.
Price from $600
4-day Pati Valley trek in Chapada Diamantina: waterfalls, Morro do Castelo cave, the Cachoeirão lookout and nights in local family homestays.
Price from $400
Join a 5-day Lençóis Maranhenses hike to discover stunning oases, cross endless white dunes, and stay with locals to fully experience this unique region!
Price from $650
The Vale do Pati crossing in 5 days: 59 km point-to-point, four nights in family homestays. The most complete trek in Chapada Diamantina.
Price from $500
A 5-day Amazon jungle lodge tour from Manaus: sleep in treetop bungalows at Juma Amazon Lodge, hike the forest, canoe creeks and fish for piranha.
Price from $2,350
Combine natural and cultural beauty, three oases, and breathtaking white dunes with 4 days of trekking in Lençóis Maranhenses.
Price from $550
A 3-day horseback crossing of Lençóis Maranhenses: ride the dunes and lagoons between welcoming local communities, from Lagoa Bonita to Santo Amaro.
Price from $1,100
30 km trek across Lençóis Maranhenses National Park from Barreirinhas to Baixa Grande Oasis, with hammock overnight, lagoon swims, and Day 2 sunrise.
Price from $350
A 5-day Jalapão adventure through fervedouros, waterfalls, canyons and dunes, on foot and by 4x4, with expert local guides and cozy guesthouse stays.
Price from $750
A 4-day Jalapão tour from Palmas: fervedouros, Formiga Waterfall, golden dunes, Pedra Furada, and quilombola culture, with cozy pousada stays.
Price from $450
A 6-day Jalapão trekking crossing on foot: golden dunes, fervedouros, waterfalls, Class IV rafting, and nights with quilombola communities.
Price from $1,100
4.9 out of 5 · 289 reviews
We had an excellent 7-day cruise. The excursions, whether in small boats or on trails, were really interesting. Our guide Josue was very competent, and so was the crew. The food was very good too. A beautiful adventure.
We did a seven days expedition cruise on the Rio Negro. It was great. The booked boat was in repair and they use an equivalent boat. With 8 guests only, this allowed personalized experience. The crew provided excellent service. The food was amazing and diversified. Our guide was excellent and provided a lot of information about the life of indigenous people, on what the company is doing to help them and how the government is protecting the land. Activities were interesting : swimming with dolphins (they are free and were attracted with fishes), jungle walking, birds and animal watching, communities visits, explanation on survival in the jungle, swimming under a waterfall, piranhas fishing, swimming in the Rio Negro and relaxing on sand banks … It is not a luxury boat but confortable beds and air conditioning in each room. We loved this adventure and made new friends
Awesome experience ! Everything is well-planned for an amazing adventure that I will remember my whole life :-). Thank you again for everything.
We were a group of four friends and booked a 3-day trekking through Lençóis Maranhenses at the beginning of September, and it was truly an amazing experience. The communication and organisation through PlanetaEXO were very good. We always received quick answers and had the feeling that they cared about making the experience work well for us. We travelled in the low season, so the tour was just the four of us, and we had both camps completely to ourselves. Of course, having the camps entirely to ourselves may be something some people enjoy more than others, but for us it made the experience feel particularly peaceful and special. The lagoons were still filled with water.. We imagine that during the high season the park can get quite busy, so travelling in the low season was a great choice for us. The trekking itself was one of the highlights of our entire trip. Our hosts at both camps were incredibly friendly and welcoming, and our guide Leozihno was fantastic — very competent, knowledgeable and also a really nice person to spend the three days with. The sunrises and sunsets over the dunes and lagoons were just so beautiful, and walking through this unique landscape with hardly anyone else around made it feel truly magical. We can highly recommend the 3-day trek with PlanetaEXO. It was an unforgettable experience and definitely one of the best things we did in Brazil!
We did a 5-day tour through Jalapão, and it was an absolutely amazing experience! We got to see so many different and beautiful landscapes, incredible nature, waterfalls and wildlife, and learn more about the local culture and way of life. One of the highlights was meeting local people along the way, who welcomed us warmly, served us delicious homemade food, and shared their stories with us. It made the whole experience feel much more personal and authentic. And we honestly couldn’t have wished for a better guide than José! He was fantastic throughout the entire trip and played a huge part in making these five days so special. Thanks to him, the whole experience was not only beautiful and interesting, but truly unforgettable. We would absolutely recommend this tour to anyone wanting to discover the beauty, culture, and people of Jalapão!
I had a great time on the 3 day hiking trip in Lençóis Maranhenses. There were three of us on the trek, myself and a lovely French couple. Our guide Patricio spoke English, provided us with all the necessary information and was kind and helpful. He gave us a lot of snacks! We had breakfast/lunch/dinner in the small villages and they were able to cater for dietary requirements. The treks themselves are not overly strenuous but there are some very early morning starts. Would definitely recommend the trek as a way of seeing the beautiful national park and swimming in the lagoons in a small group without the crowds.
Lençois Maranhenses is extremely beautiful and unique. But it can also be a real adventure. With the help of PlanetaEXO, it was a very pleasant one. Everything worked as planned.
My story began in 2018, when I did the Volta ao Parque itinerary. It was such a special experience that I fell in love with the agency's approach: a way of traveling that goes far beyond conventional tourist destinations, favoring adventure, nature, authentic experiences and, above all, close and respectful contact with local communities. And it was an excellent decision! The agency put together a personalized itinerary tailored to my expectations, taking care of all the logistics with competence and attention to detail. The result was a great success! There were days of absolutely incredible experiences: impressive caves, crystal-clear lagoons, waterfalls, lakes, trails, fervedouros and breathtaking landscapes. Each place gave us a different and, often, surprising experience. Our guide Vanderley knows the region deeply and knows how to combine adventure and nature with genuine experiences with the local communities, allowing us to get to know the Cerrado beyond its landscapes — also getting to know a bit of its culture, its stories and the people who are part of that territory. Another point that deserves highlighting is the logistics. We covered long distances and naturally faced some more tiring stretches, but everything was organized carefully and efficiently. And when our needs called for adjustments to the Jalapão itinerary, Vanderley was able to adapt the schedule with great sensitivity and mastery. I came back from this trip still intoxicated by the diversity and grandeur of the landscapes we saw. No photograph can fully convey what we experienced, but I will certainly keep in my memory the magic of every cave, waterfall, lagoon, trail and fervedouro — and, above all, the feeling of having lived experiences that would hardly be offered by a conventional trip. It is an agency for those who truly want to experience the destination, and not just visit it. My special thanks to the team for their dedication, their knowledge of the region, their organization and their care in turning a personalized itinerary into such a rich and memorable experience. Terra Ronca, Serras Gerais and Jalapão were dazzling. The trip was unforgettable. I'm already wondering what our next adventure will be! 💚🌿✨
Incredible experience. Both the guide who accompanied us from the start and the locals were excellent, taking us to places of indescribable beauty with safety, patience, dedication and care. We visited special places, which contributed a lot to a unique and exclusive experience.
Great organization and service! I really recommend them!
Community-based tourism turns the usual tour on its head. Instead of a company flying you in and out, the local families, riverside settlements, and quilombola communities who host you also guide the days and keep most of what you spend.
In Vale do Pati, inside Chapada Diamantina National Park, that is literal: you spend the nights in family homes, eat wood-fired meals cooked by your hosts, and pay for drinks and tips directly to them. This is some of Brazil’s finest trekking, and for many travelers, the homestays are the part they remember most.
Brazil makes this easy across three very different landscapes. In the Amazon, trips visit caboclo and riverside communities such as São Marcos—which earns its living from cassava flour—and Coroca—where families run an Amazon turtle breeding center in partnership with IBAMA, the federal environment agency, so the community makes a living while taking turtles off the endangered list. You travel with local guides who read the forest the way most people read a street map.
In Jalapão, in the Cerrado savanna, the route runs through quilombola communities like Mumbuca, the cradle of Brazil’s capim-dourado (golden grass) craft, and stops for home cooking in family kitchens. At the Boa Esperança community near Mateiros, your visit is part of what keeps the settlement going. This is responsible travel you can watch working, meal by meal and bed by bed.
How does it feel on the ground? You travel in small groups, you are a guest rather than a spectator, and nothing is staged for a camera. PlanetaEXO is the first Brazilian travel company to join The Long Run, a global network of nature-based businesses held to strict sustainability standards, so this approach runs through every trip, not only the ones labeled community-based travel. Accommodation is honest and rustic (simple beds, often shared bathrooms, frequently no Wi-Fi), and that is rather the point.
