This itinerary is a result of our unique way of constructing trips around local people, communities and small enterprises.

If you want an experience of Brazil that goes far beyond the usual, this is it: not just seeing a samba show in Rio, but stepping behind the scenes to watch Carnival floats take shape; not just observing football on Ipanema, but joining a barefoot kick-about on a far-flung beach; not just sipping cachaça in a fruity cocktail by the pool, but savouring the good stuff surrounded by sugarcane in the countryside.

It’s seeing one guide moved to tears by one guide's passion for Rio’s African heritage, and giggling with another as you splash them mid-paddle in the bay. It's a slice of Brazil in all its colour, flavour, humour and glorious spontaneity.

Our ability to share the 'hidden' places and people of Brazil derives from our love of exploring locally, and the independence we have to create trips exactly as we want them. So rather than the usual way of funnelling your trip through one agency covering the whole of Brazil, we create direct relationships with the guides, drivers, hotels and hosts that we think best represent this special corner of the country. It also means you can feel really good about who you are travelling with, and the impact your travels have on the places you visit.

The majority of your days are with our local hosts and guides, but there's still plenty of space for you to relax and explore independently. After all, sometimes all you need is a hammock, a good book and the sounds of the countryside or lapping sea.

In Rio, you have time to freshen up and settle in after your flight before heading out with your guide on a relaxed walking tour. The next day is full on culture, samba and carnival fun. No two tours will be the same, so you'll have your own unique tales to tell from the day. Then, you have a completely free day to visit the famous sights with our tips. Or do whatever you fancy.

In the countryside, you have guided days which are very relaxed and flexible enough to allow you to have your own unique, serendipitous experiences. Spontaneity is the spice of life in Brazil. That might mean being introduced to your guide's Jiu-Jitsu master, who also happens to be an eight-time world champion. Or taking a detour to meet a typical Caiçara family on the way to the beach, seeing what they are growing at their smallholding, hearing stories from the past and playing hide and seek with the kids. In that way, your guide is a conduit to meet interesting people and have conversations you'd simply never be able to have without them.

In the mountains, you have chilled afternoons to put your feet up or mooch around town after your guided walks.

In Paraty, you have lots of free time to enjoy the historic centre, swim in your hotel's pool and see which birds you can spot in the fringes of the mangroves.

Yes, of course. The most common thing is to add time in other parts of Brazil or South America to your time in Rio de Janeiro state. Because you end at either Rio or Sao Paulo airport, you can get to the Amazon, the Pantanal or Iguazú Falls. From the latter, you can continue to Buenos Aires or Santiago.

We do need to play by the rules of the game though - flying from A to B sometimes means you have to do it on a Thursday or Sunday. Or you have to via C. Or spend a night at a rather charmless airport hotel. But if we have a bit of flexibility from you, then you can just leave all the boring bits to us and our flight elves. It's all part of the fun.

We can tinker with the actual itinerary here and there, but really it works best as a single journey in the order we have presented it here.

We recommend this trip between April and November, which is to say the Brazilian autumn, winter and spring. This is when Rio is cooler, drier, calmer and much, much more enjoyable.

April is a transition month, and so things can still get hot and downpours are increasingly common, though much less so than in the summer. May and June are beautifully green and might just be our favourite months to visit, with the coffee harvest in full swing too. July is the time of school holidays and so things get a little busier around Paraty in particular, but it's rarely a problem. August is the time for international summer holidays, but again you won't notice this away from the coast and it's really not a big issue, so don't sweat it too much. September is the driest month. October is another transition month and can be showery, but not enough to impact your travels. November is getting hotter and summer is around the corner.

Temperatures between May and September are usually 17-25 degrees celsius and it rarely rains much. Sunrise is between 06:00 and 06:30 and sunset between 17:30 and 18:00. Although you might be tempted to want to swap the northern hemisphere winters for the Brazilian summers, it's actually more enjoyable to escape the increasing heat of our summers for the cooler and more stable winter down here.

There are lots of reasons why you don't want to be here in the Brazilian summer months between December and March. For one, it gets incredibly hot. It can be 40 degrees at breakfast, the water in the taps comes out hot, the pool is warm and you can’t take a cold shower because that water is warm too. The famous beaches become packed to the point you can’t see the sea. And Rio can have four cruise ships in at a time, each bringing a thousand people. The best guides and accommodation are harder to book. It rains a lot, torrentially so sometimes and therefore, roads can be blocked. It’s also a time of more mosquitoes and snakes in the countryside. Carnival is carnival. You have to want the full-fat experience, or you must avoid it because no one sleeps for days!

Brazil is a wonderfully welcoming country. At each stage of this journey, you will experience this warm and generous hospitality in a variety of settings, each with its own story to tell, but all beautifully small, quiet and comfortable.

On this trip, you can look forward to...

• A five-room guesthouse in bohemian Santa Teresa, set among street art, cafés and bars, with quiet gardens, a small pool and wonderfully warm hosting.

• A restored fazenda in the Atlantic rainforest near Lumiar, blending conservation with comfort, where river, birdsong and relaxed hospitality create a feeling of staying with friends.

• A cluster of Alpine-style chalets in Teresópolis, surrounded by greenery and streams, offering cosy interiors, Jacuzzis and kitchens, with town just a short stroll or taxi ride away.

• A 19th-century coffee manor in the Vale do Café, relaxed and colourful in style, with a pool, birdlife and excellent home-cooked food, including standout caipirinhas.

• A stylish pousada in the heart of Paraty, with a leafy courtyard and pool, spacious rooms, a library and bar, and the historic streets right on the doorstep.

This itinerary is ideal for people who like to travel with active minds and bodies, but who appreciate having creature comforts and downtime to balance things out.

The vast majority of these activities can be comfortably enjoyed by all. We might try to gently challenge you with a more strenuous hike or a morning of kayaking here or there, but it's nothing you can't handle and will usually be counted among the real highlights of the trip. Of course, as a tailor-made holiday we can tailor things to suit you, dialling the activity levels up or down as needed.

Please get in touch for full details of the activity level.

Brazil's cuisine is wonderfully diverse, as befits the fifth-largest country in the world. The Amazon is a larder of exotic fruits. Bahian cuisine is a colourful fusion of traditionally African and indigenous ingredients. Minas Gerais is the powerhouse of Brazil's rural staples such as rice, beans, beef, cheese and bread.

On this trip, food is an absolute highlight. You will eat a lot of variations of Brazil's most famous dish - black bean stew with beef, rice and toasted cassava flour (farofa). It makes for a very sociable, filling and tasty lunch. If you get the chance to try coffee risotto in the coffee valley, then you'll remember that one forever. One evening might be spent dining tapas style in the 'botequim' bars of Santa Teresa. Grilled fish with your toes in the sand is the thing to do on the beach. You will eat more exotic fruits than you can remember the names of. And then there's the artisan cheese and brigadero sweets.

Is it nearly lunchtime? We're suddenly very hungry...

Typically, these take between two to three hours, though the longest transfers are into and out of Paraty at around four hours. You will rarely be travelling on motorways or big highways, but rather single-carriage roads which cut through the countryside between villages and small towns.

Cars are very comfortable, speeds are quite low and whilst drivers rarely speak English, they do a good job of looking after you and making sure you are happy. If you need to stop for a toilet break, they'll get the drift.

There's often something interesting to see out of the window - a glimpse of mountaintops rolling into the distance, a kingfisher perched above a roadside lake, a small religious parade... Your journeys are a chance to peek at everyday Brazilian life, unvarnished, unedited and always interesting.

It's also important to consider these journeys as a chance to slow down and rest for a while. Because you are moving between place A and place B, you can ease from one destination into another, building a sense of anticipation as you arrive. Finally, we love that days are never 'lost' to driving. A morning's drive might be followed by a mountain hike, a visit to a farm or a lingering al fresco meal in the hills.

English is not widely spoken in Brazil, even in Rio de Janeiro. Of course, your hosts and guides will always speak good English. But there are times where you simply have to get by when you are on your own. It's never a problem though. If you know Spanish, then that gets you halfway there. Otherwise, if pointing, smiling and miming don't do the trick, then you simply use Google Translate. You can speak into your phone in your native tongue, then it will give you a written and audio translation for the other person. So as long as you have a signal, it breaks down any language barriers.

Remember that being somewhere where English is not commonly spoken is a sign you are somewhere interesting!

Brazil is a very warm and welcoming country. The people go out of their way to be friendly and this is one of the real joys of travelling here. But it's only natural that you may want to understand more about your personal safety in the city of Rio.

Our experience of Rio has always been that it is a very safe and enjoyable place to visit. Indeed, the overwhelming majority of all tourist visits pass without incident. But like any big city, there are things you should and should not do whilst visiting. Remember that your enjoyment of it will primarily be dictated by how you behave and the choices you make.

One of our guides refers to the two faces of their country in this way: the Brazil with a ‘Z’ and Brasil with an ‘S’. We like that description and are shamelessly stealing it. Brazil (with the Z) is the international, upmarket, modern, developed, musical, colourful, clean and safe version of the country, the image the government most wants to project onto the world. Brasil, as in the way it’s spelt here, is the local, real, unvarnished, imperfect, multicultural, contradictory, complex but often much more fun, welcoming and joyous version of the country that Cariocas, the people of Rio, are much more familiar with. The idea is to give you the best of Brasil, with the comforts and peace of mind of Brazil.

The number one rule in Rio is simply don’t wander into a favela. That would be hard to do. It’s quite obvious when you are entering one because they are much scruffier, dirtier and chaotic than the ‘usual’ streets, with haphazard exposed-brick buildings the norm, and you’d very quickly rethink your route upon seeing the entrance. Google Maps is very helpful as it shows the busy areas in cream and this usually equates to where you want to go. If in doubt, always check with hosts and guides. But our restaurant notes will help guide you.

The centre of Santa Teresa is generally very safe, but you should have a plan of exactly where you are going and consider calling a taxi when going out at night. As always, the key is not so much being safe, but feeling safe. It’s important to feel relaxed and secure in your surroundings because you are here to enjoy your holiday, not survive it. Stick to well-lit areas around the cafes and bars, keep an eye on your possessions, dress casually and don’t go flashing your valuables or cash around.

The historic centre (around the cathedral and Selaron Steps) and Lapa are generally busy and feel safe to be in. Lapa gets very crowded at night, in a nice way, and so if there are 500 people packed into one street, then yes 1 in 500 could happily have it away with your valuables if given half the chance. It’s unlikely, but exercise usual caution, know where you are going and travel back by taxi.

The South zone – by which we mainly mean Leblon, Ipanema and Copacabana – is Brazil with a capital Z. It is the version of Brazil which has been exported worldwide, the sun-kissed beach life, an active, energetic, sociable people enjoying the great outdoors, tourists mingling with Cariocas then retreating to the plush comforts of upmarket chain hotels to sip caipirinhas by their rooftop pools. It is therefore very safe and you’ll see police patrolling the streets here. Of course, where there are tourists in great numbers, you have to make extra sure to keep an eye on your possessions. During the night, avoid the beaches entirely. Simply walk on the other side of the road. There is little to no nightlife on any of the main beaches. If you are watching sunset at Arpoador, make sure you head off before it gets dark. Other than that, it’s lovely to be able to stroll, swim, surf and cycle in what feels like a very relaxed environment, especially in the morning.

In summary, the name of the game is a) know where you are heading, especially at night, b) make a plan for how you will get there and back, whether that’s walking or taxi, c) double check with your hosts or guide if in any doubt, d) never carry any valuables like cameras and cash that you don’t need, always know where your possessions are and keep an eye on them.

As part of our holiday service to you, we provide a travel app which is packed with an extensive planning document to help you prepare and pack for Brazil, as well as our favourite places to eat. This helps take the stress out of planning your time, knowing that we've been there, done that and eaten the feijoadas.

You will have contact details for our local hosts who will provide support on the ground as needed. This is not intended as a concierge service, but rather a helping hand if you get stuck or have a burning question.

If you get into any major bother, then our team is always on hand to help. In the first instance, that is your hosts and guides, or your local contact in Brazil. But you have a 24/7 emergency contact for our team here should you ever need it.

The wildlife! Whilst this trip is designed to truly immerse you in Brazilian culture, food, music, history and lifestyles, it unfolds to a backdrop of rich tropical nature. From the moment you arrive to your little guesthouse in Rio, you will start to see parakeets, hummingbirds, song birds and perhaps even toucans and marmosets. Monkeys are common, even in Rio and especially on the edge of Tijuca forest.

Throughout this trip you will walk in the great Mata Atlantica - the Atlantic rainforests of south-east Brazil. This ecosystem is actually more diverse than the Amazon, per square metre.