Cuiaba Pantanal Trips & Tours

On the brink of the world's largest tropical wetland, Cuiabá is where your Pantanal adventure truly begins – though this former gold-rush boomtown deserves more than just a cursory glance on your way to jaguar territory. The historic centre around Praça de República preserves a pocket of 18th-century Brazil in sunshine-yellow baroque. At the same time, the wonderfully eccentric Palácio de Instrução displays everything from tatty taxidermied animals to magnificent indigenous headdresses. Urban capybaras lounge by workout stations in city parks, international DJs somehow find their way to this jungle metropolis's electronic music scene, and the dining options range from Swiss alpine cuisine to what locals swear is Brazil's finest Arab food. Just 65km away, the sandstone cliffs and plunging waterfalls of Chapada dos Guimarães offer dramatic relief from the wetlands below. But really, you're here for that legendary dirt road – the Transpantaneira Highway starts just outside town, where you’ll trundle across 147 rickety wooden bridges and encounter more wildlife than you'll know what to do with.