Small-ship Amazon River Cruises in Brazil: sleep on the water, wake to flooded forest and pink dolphins
8 trips found
Navigate two national parks, Jaú and Anavilhanas, on a comfortable riverboat: dolphins, caves, piranha fishing and Indigenous community visits.
Price from $2,650
A 4-day Amazon jungle cruise from Manaus into Anavilhanas: canoe with pink dolphins, climb giant trees, fish for piranha and visit local communities.
Price from $2,400
Sail the Rio Negro from Manaus on a solar-powered small ship. This luxury Amazon cruise in Brazil is all-inclusive: nature tours, full board and transfers.
Price from $3,750
A small-ship Amazon expedition cruise: 3 to 5 guided excursions a day, en-suite cabins for 12 to 16 guests, and the Meeting of Waters.
Price from $2,600
A 5-day all-inclusive Amazon cruise from Alter do Chão aboard Kaiara riverboats, across the Tapajós, Amazon and Arapiuns rivers of Pará.
Price from $2,500
Spend a week on an Amazon cruise trip in Brazil from Manaus: Meeting of the Waters, Anavilhanas, Jaú National Park, pink dolphins and full board.
Price from $3,250
Cruise the Rio Negro on the La Jangada Amazon cruise: 5 days from Manaus through Anavilhanas and Jaú, with jungle treks and river dolphins.
Price from $2,550
A luxury Amazon river cruise from Manaus, Brazil. All-inclusive: nature tours, round-trip transfer and full board aboard a solar-powered small ship.
Price from $3,050
4.9 out of 5 · 28 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
Great organization and service! I really recommend them!
The experience was great because of the crew. Which had planned the cruise in the detail.
I did 2 excursions with PlanetaEXO; Lençóis Maranhenses, and Amazon River Cruising. Both excursions were beautifully organised from the beginning to the end, the follow up, the arrangement and everything. The partners they selected for both excursions were AMAZING. Extremely professional, high quality, and the guides speak PERFECT English. To add on top of everything, I booked the trips last year but due to health problem I had the cancel the trip. However, PlanetaEXO help me arrange for a year long postponement to help ensure that my money is not gone to waste. I had the most amazing experience with them at how professional, friendly, and helpful they are with everything. As a seasoned single traveller I always approach everything with lots of questions to which they helped sort everything and clear me of many questions I threw out.
We had a fabulous trip up the Rio Negro in a perfect small boat. Everything worked smoothly - including the communication - and our guide was superb. Food excellent. Magical days in Amazonia!
Better than we accepted! We had a fantastic four day boat trip on the Amazon with our two kids. We had a wonderfull experience in the nature and with the wildlife. Also with the native people from the Amazon, that we have visited. Our guide and the whole crew of the boat were fantastic. All were very friendly and lovely. The food was the best! Thank you PlanetaEXO for organising that Trip for uns!
PlanetEXO found and booked a fabulous trip for us, after giving us several options based only on location and things we might be interested in. Communication via WhatsApp was extremely quick and easy. A painless process with an excellent result.
I was very impressed with the staff. Wonderful, helpful people who made our trip very special. The guide especially is one of the people I most enjoyed meeting in my life. Many lessons that I will take with me forever. My daughter, Clara, loved him too. Thank you very much.
The guide was AWESOME!! Knowledge and care throughout the experience.
The Amazon River carries more water than any other on Earth—about 209,000 cubic meters per second—close to one-fifth of all the freshwater that reaches the world’s oceans. An Amazon River Cruise in Brazil is the most comfortable way to travel inside that system: you sleep on a small vessel, wake up deep in the rainforest, and cover distances on water that would take days on foot. Most of our boats carry 8 to 16 guests, making it an exclusive, more intimate experience.
Nearly every Amazon cruise itinerary starts in Manaus, the 2-million-person city at the heart of the rainforest and the gateway to the Meeting of the Waters, where the dark Rio Negro and the sandy Rio Solimões run side by side for about 6 km without mixing, kept apart by differences in temperature, speed, and density. From there, boats push into the Anavilhanas archipelago, a maze of around 400 river islands on the Rio Negro, and into flooded forests that larger ships cannot reach.
The forest has two faces, and the season decides what an Amazon river cruise can do. In the high-water season (December to May), the river rises by around 10 meters, floods the igapó forest, and lets canoes glide between the treetops. In the low-water season (June to November), white-sand beaches appear along the channels, and wildlife gathers around the shrinking water. From the deck and the excursion canoes, you can spot the animals of the Amazon, including pink river dolphins, giant river otters, caimans, sloths, monkeys, and countless bird species.
Vessels range from simple regional riverboats to air-conditioned cabins with private bathrooms and gourmet kitchens, so you can match a cruise to the comfort level you want.
