South America cruise

[pipster37]

The South American cruise in December said one of the ports is Itajai. Does anyone know if this is near the Itajai Falls? If the ship docks in Itajai could you get to the falls from the ship? Does anyone know of Azamaras excursions? Thank you.

[nanacoolcruiser]

If you go over to the roll call for your sailing date, you will probably see lots of discussion of Itajai and the falls trip, which on our sailing is an overnight from Itajai for $1200 pp. If there is not a lot of discussion on your roll call, check out our sailing of November 29. There are some folks there who have done a lot of research on Itajai and the other ports. Also, port excursions are now listed on the Celebrity web site.

[owl61]

It would be much better to bvisit Iguazu either pre or post cruise. GOL or TAM from Sao Paulo would cost about $200 RT pp. The Sheraton will run about $250 per night and is a wonderful choice as it is in the national park a few steps from the falls themselves.

The ship excursion will be a bit frenetic as it is a 1 night trip, not to mention exhorbitant.

[arzz]

We visited Iguazu Falls independently after we left the HAL Prinsendam in Buenos Aires in February. The falls are a must see -- especially if you are not sure that you will ever travel to this region again.

 

From Buenos Aires we flew LAN to Iguazu, Argentina and we stayed two nights at the Iguazu Sheraton in a falls view room -- we could have used a third night but that was not possible for us. From the Sheraton all of the trails around the Argentinian side of the falls are in walking distance and free -- they are well marked and there are so many visitors you are never alone. Most of the trails are metal cat walks that go over the jungle and falls and are even handicap accessible. There is even a boat ride that goes under the falls (for an additional charge). There is one trail that includes many stairs. You do not need a guide here.

 

We ate all of our meals at the hotel -- it was most convenient and food is not at all expensive in Argentina and the hotel food was very good. We were not able to get to the Brazilian side of the falls in two nights (we could have but it would have been a real rush) -- I am sure that you can arrange a guide to take you over to Brazil for one day at a reasonable rate. For us the cost of the air, taxis, food, hotel, meals and incidentals ran less than what Holland America was charging for their one day excursion. This is one that you can do yourselves if you plan in advance and have the time. I would enthusiastically recommend it as these falls are truly something to see if you have the time and the money.

[cujosmom]

GOL or TAM from Sao Paulo would cost about $200 RT pp. /QUOTE]

 

Prices I got for end of November using TAM roundtrip Sao Paulo GRU/IGU were running $356 pp for the times I needed.