Petropolis The Imperial City Private Tour

We had a great time on this tour! Our driver and guide, Marcelo, is the BEST - very personable, friendly, and professional ...seriously, we can not say enough nice things about him! We had limited time for sightseeing and it was well worth it to take a private tour with someone so knowledgeable about the area. Rio is great, but getting outside the city allowed us to see some areas we wouldn't want to have missed while in Brazil. We fell in love with Palácio Quitandinha - an amazing place from a much more glamorous era - and had an excellent time visiting all that the city had to offer, including the Imperial Museum, the Crystal Palace, cathedral, the Santos Dumas House, and Bohemia Brewery. Oh, and did I mention the chocolate shop? It was a very memorable trip - if you get the chance to go with Marcelo, definitely GO!

I wish I could give 10 stars. Way to go Marcelo! We were a family of 2 adults and a 12 years old. When I booked this tour in Viator, We expected just a tour guide who could show us around Petropolis. But we got a lot more. Marcelo, our private tour guide, with fluent English, made us feel at home throughout the tour. It was more like two families going on a picnic. Marcelo had neatly packed water, drinks and snacks for us in couple of backpacks. His car was super clean. He arrived on time and was quite flexible with the timings. We felt safe with his driving. Marcelo's reommendation for lunch was great. While Marcelo was good at sharing interesting facts like a professional tour guide, he also handled my DSLR camera well and got us some good pictures. Marcelo was kind enough to also bring his wife as we had space in the car. Thanks Marcelo, that made us feel we are on a family picnic. When Marcelo had to drop us at a convenient spot and go for parking, his wife assumed the role of a tour guide proactively and kept us engaged with some interesting facts. Athough it was a bit challenging for her to speak fluent English, she tried her best and succeeded as well. She was very eager to share facts and her views. Our heartfelt thanks goes to her. I wanted to share my feedback on TripAdvisor. It is unfortunate Marcelo has some issues in setting up TripAdvisor account. On the positive side, his absence on TripAdvisor helped me to avail his services sorry for being selfish, Marcelo. If Marcelo had been on TripAdvisor, I am sure his itinerary for the next 3 months would have been packed full.

Despite the low clouds and drizzle we greatly enjoyed our day trip to Petropolis. It was very interesting to see additional history of Brazil in the museum. The town itself was very pleasant to walk around and a great contrast to Rio de Janeiro. Not all of Brazil is on the beach! Our guide, Marcelo, was flexible, attentive to our needs and presented options so that we could choose what we were most interested in.

Despite the low clouds and drizzle we greatly enjoyed our day trip to Petropolis. It was very interesting to see additional history of Brazil in the museum. The town itself was very pleasant to walk around and a great contrast to Rio de Janeiro. Not all of Brazil is on the beach! Our guide, Marcelo, was flexible, attentive to our needs and presented options so that we could choose what we were most interested in.