Best of · rainforests
The 12 Best Rainforests & Jungles to Visit
12 places · every one real, mapped, and worth the trip
Rainforests are the planet's beating green heart — the oldest, richest, and most alive of all landscapes, where more species crowd a single hectare than live in whole countries elsewhere. This is our editors' pick of the finest to actually visit, loosely ordered by the strength of the experience.
Every one is a real, mapped place with an honest guide to reaching it and the season it's at its best — because a jungle in the wrong month can mean flooded trails or wildlife that has melted into the canopy.
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The Amazon Rainforest The greatest of all
Amazon Basin, Brazil (and neighbouring countries)
The largest rainforest on Earth, a continent-sized wilderness of river channels, flooded forest, and staggering wildlife — best explored by riverboat and canoe from lodges in Peru, Brazil, or Ecuador.
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Congo Basin Rainforest The second lung
Central Africa
The world's second-largest rainforest, a vast and little-visited Central African wilderness that is one of the last strongholds of forest elephants and lowland gorillas.
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Manú National Park Peak biodiversity
Madre de Dios & Cusco, southeastern Peru
A Peruvian park spanning Andes to Amazon and among the most biodiverse places on Earth — macaw clay licks, giant otters, and cloud forest all in one descent.
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Monteverde Cloud Forest Cloud forest
Puntarenas / Alajuela, Cordillera de Tilarán, Costa Rica
Costa Rica's misty mountain rainforest, explored on canopy walkways and hanging bridges among orchids, quetzals, and constant birdsong.
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Bwindi Impenetrable Forest
Southwestern Uganda
An ancient, tangled Ugandan forest that shelters almost half the world's mountain gorillas, tracked on foot through the dripping undergrowth.
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Taman Negara
Pahang, Terengganu and Kelantan, Peninsular Malaysia
One of the world's oldest tropical rainforests in peninsular Malaysia — over 130 million years old — with a canopy walkway strung high through the trees.
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Sinharaja Forest Reserve
Sabaragamuwa & Southern Provinces, Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka's last major tract of primary lowland rainforest, a UNESCO site alive with endemic birds, frogs, and butterflies found nowhere else.
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Nyungwe Forest
Southwestern Rwanda
A high montane rainforest in Rwanda with a thrilling canopy walkway suspended over the treetops and troops of chimpanzees and colobus monkeys below.
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Yakushima
Kagoshima, southern Japan
A rain-drenched Japanese island of ancient, moss-cloaked cedar forest — some trees thousands of years old — said to have inspired the world of Princess Mononoke.
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Chitwan National Park
Terai lowlands, southern Nepal
Nepal's lowland jungle at the foot of the Himalaya, where one-horned rhinos, gharials, and the occasional tiger move through tall grass and sal forest.
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Mount Hamiguitan Range
Davao Oriental, Mindanao
A UNESCO-listed Philippine mountain range of pygmy 'bonsai' forest and dozens of species found nowhere else, from orchids to the Philippine eagle.
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Laurisilva of Madeira
Madeira, Portugal (North Atlantic)
A relic laurel forest on Madeira, a living fragment of the subtropical woodland that once covered southern Europe — walked along its ancient levada water channels.
Rainforests reward the right timing: the drier months usually mean firmer trails and easier wildlife spotting, though the forest is greenest and loudest in the rains. Each guide notes the best window, the wildlife to look for, and how to visit responsibly.
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