Brazil

We travelled through the Pantanal in Brazil. Our guide was fantastic. He met us at our hotel and accompanied us throughout. Transportation (4x4) with a driver was very comfortable, particularly as was mainly mud roads! The first few days we spent at Pousada Alegre, Bird sightings were great, but also fox, monkey and tapir to name but a few. Majority of our trip was spent looking for Jaguar o the river. And we definitely were lucky! We had some amazing sightings, including a number of mum and cubs. Allan's organisation of the trip was spot on. Everything worked like clockwork and the guide he chose spoke perfect English and went out of his way to ensure that we were always in the best places / positions to photograph the wildlife. We have used Allan on on several wildlife trips in the past and this one was up to his usual high standards. Allan takes the time to get to know you, your preferences and understand exactly what you wish to do / see and works with you to achieve the type of holiday you wish. Thanks again Allan - looking forward to Tanzania in February!

We re-visited the Pantanal having enjoyed a previous trip so much. This time, with Eduardo as our guide, it was truly an adventure. His enthusiasm and excitement about all of the wildlife is so ectious. We had some fabulous sightings of jaguar, some totally exclusive to us. Eduardo is equally keen on all that the Pantanal has to offer & energetically pursues experiences for his guests to share. He & I had the most amazing encounter with a giant anteater with a baby on her back. His excitement for this was palpable & it greatly enhanced my experience. We also had some very special daytime tapir viewings and this is entirely due to his observations of their behaviour and the likely directions they may take. So for this and the giant anteater sighting, the viewing was extended by his ability to predict what might happen next. Even staying at his lodge (JER) was a continuation of wildlife experiences as he actively seeks to find all the creatures that he can. Plus I found his lodge delightfully quirky & fun. Eduardo took great & very personal care of us & he was a joy to be with & very knowledgeable. Allan & Kirsty Blanchard make Wildlife Trails perfect for our needs. They have got to know us over time and the experience of working in partnership with them to plan our trips means that our holidays come to life through the planning process. So by the time we set off we can feel confident that our trip will be exactly what we want. Thanks for doing such a grand job.

We are so delighted that this interesting combination of the Pantanal, Chapada dos Guimarães and the southern Amazon worked out so well. It was a real pleasure organising this bespoke zilian wildlife tour for you and we hope you have a treasure chest of memories. Wildlife Trails arrangements worked very well.

Spent 2 weeks in October in the Southern and Northern Pantanal, and amongst numerous other encounters with a range of animals, got to spend time with Giant anteaters, Tapirs, Jaguars, Capuchin and ler monkeys, and of course the King of the Pantanal, the magnificent capybara! To spend time close to a wild animal, who knows you are there, but continues to act entirely naturally, remains one of the best experiences you can have. Magical. Thanks to Allan and Kirsty at Wildlife Trails for their patience while customising our trip, all connections and transfers were perfect, and our guides Stefan and Tito were great. The 4 days we enjoyed at Iguacu falls were the perfect end to the trip. We have been working with Wildlife Trails for nearly 12 years, since we first went to India and have never been disappointed. Everything is individually customised from the itinerary to choice of lodges/hotels, and all at very reasonable cost. Highly recommended.

Three of us had a three week holiday with included visits to Salvador, Rio, Iguasu Falls and Ilhe Grande, fitted in around 13 days in the Pantanal and Cristalino Lodge. We flew, via Lisbon, into vador for a three night stay after the trans-Atlantic flight. Three internal flights took us to Alta Floresta for Cristalino River Lodge. The "wildlife" section of the holiday really exceeded our expectations, the Cristalino river was a great place, not only for mammals, but especially for birds. From the lodge you had a selection of river trips, treks and a trip up a 50 metre tower above the forest cover. A flight back to Cuieba allowed us to be collected by our guide who took us all around our Pantanal visit. The Pantanal was shown to us from three different lodges, all of which have different animals and birds, the highlight of these visits were several sightings of Jaguar, plus giant and neotropical otters. We then had flights to get to Iguasu Falls for a two day visit, prior to flying to Rio and Ilha Grande for a few days before flying back to UK, once again via Lisbon. This is the fourth time we have used Wildlife Trails to arrange a holiday for us. Once again Allan has come up trumps - the preliminary discussions started almost twelve months in advance to get the best dates to visit the Pantanal for Jaguar sightings, once these had been agreed, provisional bookings were made for the lodges of choice, plus our excellent guide, Tito, was engaged. We then discussed the add-on visits we were considering, which Allan then arranged, including adjusting hotels to suit. Internal and international flights were arranged for our convenience - flying directly into Salvador from Manchester!! Everything was always available to check, and there was always someone to discuss or answer any questions or queries we had. On the actual holiday there were no problems in transfers, or any of the minor nitty gritty parts of the holiday.