Places · Brazil

Natural Wonders of Brazil: The 5 Most Beautiful Places to Visit

5 places in the atlas

Brazil holds an outsized share of the natural world. Most of the Amazon — the largest tropical rainforest on Earth, and perhaps a tenth of all known species — lies within its borders, drained by the Amazon River, the mightiest on the planet by volume. In the south, the Iguazú River tips off a basalt escarpment in a 2.7-kilometre wall of waterfalls. Add the wildlife-rich Pantanal wetlands and a long Atlantic coast, and Brazil is one of Earth's great arks of biodiversity. Below are the 5 natural wonders of Brazil in the atlas — the most beautiful places to build a trip around, each with what makes it remarkable, when to go, and how to reach it. Best overall time: Regional: the Amazon has a flooded season (roughly December–May, best for boat travel) and a drier season (June–November, better for hiking and beaches); Iguazú runs year-round, easiest in the drier winter months.

Iguazú Falls

Paraná, Brazil / Misiones, Argentina border

A thundering wall of water on the Brazil–Argentina border — hundreds of individual falls spread across nearly three kilometres of jungle, culminating in the vast horseshoe chasm of the Devil's Throat.

Waterfall Latin America

Lençóis Maranhenses

Maranhão, Brazil

A vast field of white dunes that fills each rainy season with thousands of crystal-clear turquoise lagoons — a desert that becomes, improbably, dotted with lakes.

Desert & dunes Latin America

The Amazon Rainforest

Amazon Basin, Brazil (and neighbouring countries)

The largest tropical rainforest on Earth — a continent-spanning sea of green threaded by the mighty Amazon River, holding a staggering share of the planet's species and helping regulate the world's climate.

Forest Latin America

The Pantanal

Mato Grosso & Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil

The world's largest tropical wetland — a vast seasonal floodplain that is the best place on Earth to see jaguars in the wild, teeming with caimans, capybaras, and millions of birds.

Wetland Latin America

Chapada Diamantina

Bahia, northeastern Brazil

A highland wilderness of table mountains, deep canyons, and waterfalls in the Brazilian interior — with caves holding pools so clear the light turns them electric blue.

Canyon Latin America