Pantanal Travel Tips
Pantanal air lines, TAM, Vasp, Varig and Transbrasil offer flights from most major cities within Brazil to Cuiaba, capital of Mato Grosso on the northern edge of the Pantanal, or to Campo Grande, capital of Mato Grosso de Sul on the southern side. Campo Grande is 1041 km from São Paulo.
From Campo Grande, we can organize a vehicle to take you to Corumbá, the southern gateway to the Pantanal. Corumbá, also known as the 'capital of the Pantanal', is the biggest and most important city in the Pantanal, and is located on the banks of the Paraguay River.
From Cuiaba, you have a choice of routes, Caceres to the west, Barão de Melgaço to the southeast and Poconé to the southwest. The majority of lodgings cluster around the Transpantaneira highway, which begins at Poconé, about 100 km from Cuiaba, and runs south to Porto Jofre.
There are several options of tours in Pantanal. One can visit historical places like Fort Coimbra, Porto Esperança, Porto da Manga and other centennial forts. Bonito has numerous outstanding attractions: prehistoric caves, waterfalls with crystalline waters, natural aquariums, whitewater rivers for rafting and kayaking, archeological sites and many other points of interest.
There are few towns, people and roads in the Pantanal. It is an area of large fazendas, farms or ranches that may offer guest housing. The hotel-farms (houses adapted to tourism activities) offer horse-rides as well as tours by boat, picks-ups and four-wheel trucks.
Other accommodation choices are pousadas, pesqueiros and hotels. Pesqueiros are fishing camps, which usually have fishing equipment and boats for rent. Fishing in the Pantanal basin is a major attraction. There are also the botels, floating hotels which travelers like for the convenience of being right on the water. The few lodges owned by Pantaneiros provide a real feeling of the region’s lifestyle, while larger lodges try to attract urban and international tourists with more amenities. The majority of the tourists in the northern Pantanal are Brazilians.
