The Amazon Rainforest is more than a destination – it’s a life force. It’s the planet’s largest tropical rainforest, its most biodiverse region, and a powerful climate stabiliser – often called the lungs of the Earth. This vast, verdant region covers more than 6.3 million square kilometres across the top of South America; it’s flanked by the Andes and the Atlantic Ocean, and reaches into Brazil, Ecuador, Peru, Colombia, Venezuela, Bolivia, Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana – as you can see on this map.
Many parts of the Amazon are UNESCO World Heritage-listed for their extraordinary ecological value, home to tens of thousands of plant and animal species. And people have lived here for millennia too, with some 350 Indigenous groups maintaining their traditional lifestyles and deep connections to the forest for generations.
So, why should you visit the Amazon Rainforest? Because nowhere else reveals such an intricately interwoven story of nature, culture and wildlife – and every adventure here is an opportunity to MAKE TRAVEL MATTER®. Read on to discover a few of the Amazon’s unmissable highlights to inspire your next holiday…
Experience the Mighty Amazon River
If the rainforest is the planet’s lungs, the Amazon River is its beating heart – feeding the forest’s rich biodiversity, sustaining its communities, and sculpting its landscapes. Its eastward journey from the Peruvian Andes to the Atlantic Ocean stretches some 6,400km, where more than 1,100 tributaries – including Brazil’s Madeira, Tapajós and Rio Negro, Peru’s Ucayali and Marañón, and Ecuador’s Napo and Pastaza rivers – mingle and flow to create the world’s largest river system. Life thrives along its banks, deltas and floodplains, but the river itself supports an ark’s worth of aquatic animals, too – from the elusive pink river dolphin, Amazonian manatee, tucuxi and giant otter to more than 2,000 species of fish, including piranhas and giant arapaimas. Whether you’re cruising its wide channels, paddling a canoe around its gentler bends, discovering its thousands of islands or hiking jungle trails beside it, you’ll see that the Amazon River is more than a watery path through the forest – it’s the region’s very pulse.
Journey through the wildest heart of the Upper Peruvian Amazon aboard The Delfin – the first Relais & Châteaux cruise in the world.
Witness Unmatched Biodiversity and Wildlife
The Amazon Rainforest is more than a wilderness garden – it’s one of the world’s most complex natural habitats, supporting layer upon layer of life from the canopy to the forest floor. The ceiba tree, among the tallest in the rainforest, plays a significant ecological role, anchoring an abundance of life around its base. It’s just one of 16,000 tree species and 40,000 plant species that flourish here, collectively storing billions of tonnes of carbon and helping to regulate the global climate. Among the most ecologically significant areas are Brazil’s Central Amazon Conservation Complex and Peru’s Manu National Park, both UNESCO World Heritage sites, while Ecuador’s Yasuní National Park is another biodiversity hotspot. Wherever you go, you’ll find these towering forests are home to a staggering menagerie of creatures – many of them endemic – with ongoing research identifying more than 430 types of mammals, 1,300 birds, 400 reptiles and thousands of amphibians and insects. The unofficial Amazon Big Five includes the jaguar, giant river otter, Amazonian manatee, tapir, and harpy eagle, although squirrel monkeys, sloths, caimans, capybaras, toucans, and macaws are just as beloved by fauna fans. Yet spotting animals here isn’t about ticking off a list; it’s about exploring one of the planet’s most dynamic ecosystems, where expert-led excursions – by canoe, riverboat, on foot, or from canopy towers and wildlife hides – offer a front-row seat to the rainforest’s wildest action.
Our 24-day epic Authentic South America journey takes in the Peruvian Amazon, along with highlights from Buenos Aires to Bolivia, Brazil and beyond.
Connect with Indigenous Cultures and Traditions
The Amazon isn’t only one of the planet’s richest ecosystems – around 30 million people also live here, mostly in riverside cities like Manaus (Brazil), Iquitos (Peru) and Puyo (Ecuador). Meanwhile the rainforest itself is home to 350 Indigenous groups, with many more communities spread across the wider basin.
From the Ticuna and Yanomami of Brazil to the Achuar, Kichwa and Shuar peoples of Ecuador, and the Shipibo-Conibo of Peru, these communities live in tune with the rhythms of the land and water – using traditional fish traps and blowpipes for subsistence hunting, and maintaining medicinal gardens and ancient healing techniques. Villages typically range from a handful of families to several hundred people, governed by elected leaders or hereditary chiefs, and consist of thatched individual homes around communal spaces.
And while the region also has around 100 voluntarily isolated tribes, there are many areas – such as Ecuador’s Napo Province, Peru’s Ucayali region, and parts of Brazil’s Rio Negro – where you can Make Travel Matter with community-led cultural experiences, including guided walks, cooking demonstrations, storytelling, and craft workshops. These encounters not only support the rainforest’s traditional custodians, they’re also an opportunity to see the Amazon through their eyes – and deepen your own connection to it.
Discover the rich cultural heritage of Ecuador’s Indigenous Kichwa Añangu people on our action-packed 5-day Napo Wildlife Centre holiday.
Discover Traditional Plant Medicine and Herbal Practices
The people of the Amazon have long used its botanicals as a source of healing, turning to plant power to treat everything from infections to digestive issues. Usually harvested using low-impact methods – like collecting leaves, scraping bark or small-scale tapping – medicinal plants are applied topically, ingested, or soaked into tinctures under the direction of experienced traditional healers, or curanderos. Among the most prized is uña de gato (cat’s claw), a woody vine found in Peru and Brazil that’s thought to ease arthritis symptoms and support the immune system. Chanca piedra (stone breaker) is used to aid kidney and liver function, while the bark of the quina tree – the original source of quinine – has long been used to treat fevers and malaria. Sangre de grado (dragon’s blood), tapped from the Croton lechleri tree, is applied to wounds to prevent infection. And guayusa, a caffeinated leaf from Ecuador’s upper Amazon, is brewed as a tea to aid digestion and boost energy. Of course, the safest and most meaningful way to explore these traditions is under the guidance of a local expert, and you can do exactly that on our Cruising The Amazon with Delfin itinerary. Among its many highlights, this 5-day adventure includes a guided botanical walk through Peru’s Pacaya-Samiria National Reserve, home to more than 950 medicinal plants still used to treat common ailments.
Explore Stunning Landscapes and Pristine Jungle
While deforestation and climate change continue to pose significant threats, much of the Amazon Rainforest remains untouched and continues to support some of Earth’s oldest trees – including Peru’s shihuahuaco, still going strong 1,000 years on. For a sense of the region’s vastness, head to Manaus, Brazil, where the Meeting of Waters marks the dramatic confluence of the dark Rio Negro and sandy Solimões River – the upper stretch of the Amazon. In Peru, the cities of Iquitos and Puerto Maldonado offer easy access to the flooded forests of Pacaya-Samiria and the biodiverse trails of Tambopata National Reserve. And near Coca in Ecuador, the Yasuní Biosphere Reserve is UNESCO-recognised as one of the most biodiverse areas per square kilometre on Earth. The massive expanses of the Amazon River itself amp up the natural drama, too – especially during the rainy season, when it can reach up to 40km wide in places, and at Guyana’s Kaieteur Falls, where it tumbles some 226m in a single cascade. But whichever part of the Amazon Rainforest you visit, just be sure to pack spare memory cards for your camera – with so much to see and photograph, you’ll be extra snap-happy!
Try Exotic Flavours and Amazonian Cuisine
The Amazon’s flavours are as vital as its landscapes, and meal prep is both simple and resourceful – the main methods include grilling, boiling, fermenting, and wrapping in leaves for slow-cooking over coals. Bananas, native grains like corn, and manioc (cassava) are daily staples, with manioc flour particularly common and appearing in everything from flatbreads to stews. For protein, you’ll encounter large, meaty river fish like tambaqui and pirarucu – usually grilled over open flames or salted and dried – along with game meats like paca (a rainforest rodent) and caiman. Feeling a little adventurous? Keep an eye out for special delicacies like tacacá: a hot-and-sour broth of wild shrimp, jambu (a numbing herb) and tucupi, a tangy sauce that must be carefully prepared to remove its natural toxins. If you’re keen for a taste test, Brazil’s Manaus markets are known for their authentic Amazonian fare, while in Iquitos (Peru) and Tena (Ecuador), riverside restaurants and community-run lodges serve a spread of traditional dishes for an experience that’s both authentic and sustainable.
Enjoy Unique Activities: Hikes, Canoeing, and Wildlife Spotting
Outdoor adventures in the Amazon Rainforest are diverse and plentiful. Exploring on foot is a direct way to engage with its vitality, but it isn’t something you do solo: the forest is dense, disorienting and ecologically sensitive, so expert guides are essential. In Brazil, the Juma Amazon Lodge near Manaus offers guided walks that introduce edible plants, survival skills and animal tracking. In Peru, the Tambopata Research Centre has a range of trails, including a multi-day circuit to the Chuncho macaw clay lick. And Ecuador’s Napo Wildlife Centre features shorter tracks around Yasuní National Park, with walks led by members of the Kichwa Añangu community.
Canoeing brings an entirely different perspective, offering access to shallow igarapés, blackwater lagoons, oxbow lakes and narrow channels that larger vessels can’t reach. And because it’s a quieter way to travel, your chances of close wildlife encounters are significantly higher. The creeks near Juma, the Pacaya-Samiria Reserve and around the Napo River headline the region’s most awe-inspiring places to oar through.
For land-based wildlife watching, canopy platforms, clay licks and interpretive forest walks offer some of the Amazon’s most rewarding encounters. Many lodges – including those in Tambopata and Napo, both active research zones – also support long-term conservation and monitoring programs, so you can Make Travel Matter while you make memories.
Our 5-day Tambopata Research Centre journey is an immersion in one of the Peruvian Amazon’s most remote biodiversity hotspots – and a chance to contribute to its conservation.
Marvel at Epic Sunrises, Sunsets, and Starry Skies
Conditions are ideal for sky-watching across the Amazon Rainforest, with little to no light pollution, high humidity that scatters light and boosts colour saturation, and balmy year-round temperatures of 25°C to 28°C. Cruising near Manaus, drifting down the Río Marañón in Pacaya Samiria, or exploring Yasuní National Park, you’ll often find the best views are from the water, where vivid colours and forest silhouettes reflect off the glassy rivers, especially during the dry season (June to November). While the region doesn’t yet have any officially designated Dark Sky Reserves, most river lodges and jungle camps offer excellent stargazing opportunities, with many providing guided night walks and telescopes. Keep an eye out for constellations like the Southern Cross, Scorpio, Orion and, on especially clear nights, expansive views of the Milky Way.
Spend four unforgettable days exploring the very best of the Brazilian rainforest with our fully customisable Juma Amazon Lodge holiday.
Visit Waterfalls, Hidden Lagoons, and Jungle Trails
The Amazon’s natural water features offer a break from the humidity and plenty of photographic opportunities. In Brazil, the Presidente Figueiredo region has more than 100 waterfalls nestled between its dense forests, all within a two-hour drive of Manaus – including Santuário, Asframa and Iracema falls, which are easily accessed via guided hikes and 4WD excursions.
There are fewer waterfalls in the Peruvian Amazon, but Pacaya-Samiria’s blackwater lagoons are a highlight, with the El Dorado Lagoon especially prized for its pink river dolphins, hoatzins and side-neck turtles. And in Tambopata, Lake Sandoval is one of the best places to spot giant otters. Meanwhile in Ecuador, Pañacocha Lagoon near Yasuní is known for its tannin-rich waters and rich biodiversity.
Most jungle lodges maintain their own trail networks, ranging from short interpretive circuits to multi-hour hikes through varzea forest and palm swamps. In some spots, you can also take your jungle jaunts sky-high, as canopy walkways weave through the treetops for a broader perspective of the rainforest’s layered ecosystems.
Choose Between Jungle Lodges or River Cruises for Your Stay
Whether you settle into jungle digs, go with the flow aboard a river cruise, or craft a bespoke itinerary that combines the two, exploring the Amazon is both comfortable and immersive. Most jungle lodges are all-inclusive, with your tariff covering accommodation, meals, excursions and transfers – all while treading lightly upon their remote settings. In Ecuador, La Selva Amazon EcoLodge is a standout, as much for its secluded lakeside setting near Yasuní National Park as for its charming thatched-roof buildings, Indigenous-led experiences, kayaking and hiking excursions, and its MAKE TRAVEL MATTER ethos. The lodge has pledged to achieve carbon neutrality through its use of renewables, waste-reduction programs and community partnerships. It’s one of many properties across the Amazon handpicked by Adventure World; Napo Wildlife Centre, Juma Amazon Lodge, Reserva Amazonica, Hacienda Concepcion and Tambopata Research Centre also offer outstanding excursions, warm hospitality and a shared commitment to sustainability.
If you’re keen to get on the water, many cruises traverse the Amazon’s tributaries to reach remote areas, offering all-inclusive journeys of three to seven nights. The Delfin and Manatee Amazon Explorer cruises explore Peru and Ecuador respectively, passing through protected reserves where you can experience canopy walks, skiff excursions and Indigenous community visits along the way. And in Brazil, Amazon Clipper Premium’s shallow-draft vessels navigate the narrower waterways of the majestic Rio Negro – ideal for birding, wildlife viewing and photography.
Search for the elusive pink river dolphin and experience the best of the Ecuadorian Amazon on our five-day Napo River cruise.
Final Thoughts: Why the Amazon Should Be on Your Bucket List
Remote cruising, endangered animal encounters, wild walks with the rainforest’s traditional custodians… the list of experiences here is almost as long as the Amazon River itself. Hyperbole aside, this is one of Earth’s rawest natural playgrounds – and it’s under serious threat from deforestation. But your passport can be powerful when you Travel with Purpose. Tourism creates incentives for long-term protection, and by choosing to explore the Amazon with Adventure World, you can MAKE TRAVEL MATTER. Ecotourism plays a vital role in affirming the value of the world’s most irreplaceable places, supporting the communities who call them home, and helping to keep them intact for future generations.
So, while you may come for the wildlife, landscapes and once-in-a-lifetime adventures, you can leave the Amazon Rainforest knowing your visit contributed to its survival.