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For a full refund, cancel at least 24 hours before the scheduled departure time.
Avenida Candido de Abreu 468, , Curitiba, State of Parana, 80530-000, Brazil
View on Google MapsI went with the company MOTION transport and tourism. I chose the last minute tour and the company was of a wonderful service, very quickly. The Guide Gabriel fantastic with extensive knowledge of the place and all its nuances. It was spectacular.
Every stop is beautiful. Vila Velha is almost surreal and the walk through the park is great for taking photos. The craters are really neat but harder to photograph if it’s sunny. And the German restaurant was fantastic.
For unknown reasons the travel agency didn’t pick me up. The agency help desk was completely incapable and unable to offer a solution
R$999.90
per personPricing
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Public transportation options are available nearby, Infants are required to sit on an adult’s lap, Suitable for all physical fitness levels, Please reconfirm departure time upon booking, as times may vary depending upon departure location
Truly worth knowing. The place is beautiful, with good structure, clean place, very well maintained, with the wonders of nature. It's tiring, especially if it's in the middle of the day, be prepared, with backpacks, carrying water and cereal bars or other food. I don't recommend the second trail after the cup at this time. I suggest late afternoon, during necklace time. After the sandstones, there are two other walks, Lago Dorado and Furnas, all with driving from the park to the sites.
The guide was excellent and spoke English well. And the views were superb. We did a lot of walking and were tired at the end, a good tired.
Booked and received email confirmation. On the day no one arrived at the agreed time to pick me up. Tried calling however no one spoke English so tried emailing and had no response. After getting someone who spoke some Portuguese to ring I was finally picked up 2.5 hours after the agreed time by a local guide Vivienne in her car. It was just me on the tour, Vivienne was great at explaining local history etc., I can’t fault Vivienne in the service she provided. Being a Monday, the Park was very quiet and had it to myself which was lovely. Spent about 3 hours in the park. The Golden Lake wasn’t really worth seeing. Being a Monday, the German restaurant was closed so we went to a Brazilian restaurant which was a buffet lunch at a highway stop restaurant. It was average compared to some of the restaurants I’ve eaten at in Brazil. Didn’t get to see some things offered in the tour because they were closed. Overall I don’t think it was worth $220 (Aus) - you could find a cheaper way to do the Park.
It is a very picturesque place, with a spectacular geography, you can connect one with nature, the Golden Lagoon and the sandstone formations are very beautiful. The only flaw is that the day we went, the zip lines were not in Service.
Being unaware how to navigate tour offerings in a country where few people speak any English, I booked to visit Vila Velha through the Tripadvisor link. From the description I was expecting to spend a few hours on a less-than-appealing bus tour with 30-40 others, but was in the end delighted to find that I was the only person who had booked for that day, so got a private guided tour from an excellent local host (Vivian), who drove me to the site in her own car, spoke good English, was highly knowledgeable about all relevant topics, and great fun to spend the day with. The day was cold and the rain was relentless, but this hardly mattered, apart from the fact that the second half of the visitor trail at the great sandstones was unadvised, due to being dangerously slippery. We started with coffee at the visitor centre. I then walked the first half of the trail in the rain, experiencing the magnificence and other-worldliness of the rock formations, whilst Vivian took the road below, collecting me at the end of the trail to ferry me on to the furnas (sinkholes) and the golden pond, where we saw biscutate swifts ducking and diving over the water, presumably seeking out water-borne insect prey. In the teeming rain the pond was green and silver-grey rather than golden, but still beautiful. After lunch back at the visitor centre cafe (vegetarian options provided) we drove back via Witmarsum Menonite German colony, visiting the local deli selling cheeses, beers and jams. The only negative for this excellent tour was the fact that the contact details to confirm pickup venue and time given by Tripadvisor were unhelpful – just a phone number offering an automated menu announcement in crackly Portuguese, for which I selected a random number to press and eventually got connected in stages to a rep who spoke enough English. I had earlier attempted to send an SMS, which was not replied to. Tripadvisor should provide a proper suite of contact options in English language: email, SMS, WhatsApp as well as voice. I wonder how many visitors fail to make the necessary contact and miss out.
The tour is very beautiful and the guide very attentive. The only problem was that they were too late in pickup at our hotel. Delay of over an hour.
I had the guide to myself so I was able to dictate the pace and take time to soak it all in whenever I wanted to. Not sure if it would be as good in a larger group with others to consider. The guide was allowed to take his car in too, which apparently is not always the case and meant that we didn't have to follow a timetable. The drive from Curitiba is quite long but it's through beautiful farming country and is a lovely trip. At the park we wandered around the sandstone "sculptures" on a well-defined pathway, then went along the trail which was great jungle-lite fun and good practice if you're heading north for the real thing. The first cave was closed. The second one was in a pretty spot but basically looked like a hole (this is not a tour where you're exploring the caves at all). The golden lake was nice but not golden at the time of day we were there. There was a zip line that looked like great fun but the staff at the park wouldn't let me shoot with my GoPro (they want you to overpay wildly for the photos they take) so I didn't bother. They didn't get my money for a ticket, they're not getting tagged if I put my experience on social media, and this no-filming policy - which is apparently new - seems to me a self-defeating exercise in mercenary tourist-bilking which needs to be rethought. The ticket includes lunch at a mini German village, and the food was excellent and the portions were large. My guide Lothar (spelling?) was knowledgable and fun to talk with throughout the trip. I'm not sure how many guides they have - I'm sure they're all fine - but I felt lucky to have landed with someone so warm, friendly and enthusiastic.
