Carnaval Backstage Tour: Explore Samba City's Preparations with Cocktail

251 Ratings

Gamboa

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Experience the backstage of the world-famous Carioca Carnival in Rio de Janeiro. Explore Samba City’s preparations, witness the construction of floats and costumes, and enjoy a Caipirinha welcome drink!

Duration: 1 hour, 30 minutes

Cancellation: 24 hours

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Highlights

Carnaval Experience - • Bilingual guide
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Guided tour to the Grande Rio samba factory – one of the main Samba Schools of the city of Rio de Janeiro
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Presentation of the explanatory panel: some of the history of samba and the carnival parades
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Getting in the mood: costume layout to dress and photograph
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Samba Flavor: welcoming…

What's Included

Rare glimpse at Rio’s Carnival backstage
Bilingual guide
Professional guide
Bottled water
Alcoholic beverages

Additional Information

The only backstage tour of the Carioca Carnival, the most famous carnival in the world!
When in Rio, you need to experience Samba! This tour introduces you to the artistry and imagination of Carnival and allows you to discover the backstage of The greatest show on Earth!
Have an unique and authentic experience exploring the backstage, the secrets, the…

Location

Cidade do Samba

Samba City is a big complex of warehouses with brown color located 100 meters from AquaRio. Please enter from the main entrance on Binário do Porto avenue. We will meet inside the Samba City under the smaller tent in the middle of it - look for guid with Carnaval Experience colorful T-shiert.

Cancellation Policy

For a full refund, cancel at least 24 hours before the scheduled departure time.

Customer Ratings

4.6

(251 Ratings)

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Donald_n

Apr 20, 2025

Must do in Rio - Truly remarkable experience that lets you have a taster of Rio Carnival You explore the workshops and costumes behind the scenes

Review provided by Viator

Graciano_l

Apr 19, 2025

Carnival magic - This tour show you the splendor and magic of the carnival of Río de Janeiro. You see how the carnival is plantel, you see the vestuary, samba class. Very nice tour

Review provided by Viator

Colleen_l

Apr 10, 2025

Fun day pretending to be a Carnaval dancer! - Learned a lot about Carnaval and Lucas could not have been a better guide. Loved trying on the outfits.

Review provided by Viator

Solocationer

Apr 1, 2025

Interesting - The tour is in a warehouse and only one room (and the gift shop) have air conditioning, just as a FYI. There's a lot of standing around as the guide does the tour in multiple languages. My guide was Vitoria and she was pretty impressive. It was very interesting to learn about the Carnaval competition and the theme, rules etc around it. All of the staff were friendly. I would recommend if you're interested in Carnaval!

Review provided by Tripadvisor

Necol_b

Mar 29, 2025

A Great Event. - I enjoyed learning about Carnaval. The money, work, and time it takes to put one show together for one house….I was blown away. Learning to Samba and play dress up was fantastic. No matter how big or small, they have an outfit for you. It was definitely a memorable afternoon.

Review provided by Viator

Mary_d

Mar 12, 2025

Carnaval Experience a wonderful tour — fun, colorful, and not expensive for all that is included - Absolutely wonderful experience. Lia is a very knowledgable guide, who is herself a performer in Carnaval. Learned the history of Samba and its cultural significance in Brazil. We chose this tour for our first day in Rio. A two-hour tour in the afternoon was a great way to get a Carnaval Experience while getting through jet lag. The tour was fun and colorful. Strongly recommend

Review provided by Viator

Jrpjk

Mar 25, 2025

Fun way to learn about Carnaval - We caught an uber from Copacabana beach and were happy to do this tour last minute. This was such a fun way to learn about Carnaval in Rio. To see all the work and preparation that goes into each years design.We arrived into Rio two weeks after Carnaval so this was a great way to still get to experience a bit of it. We had no restrictions on photo taking because of this timing. When will you ever be able to have the opportunity to dress us in Carnaval costumes? This was a fun part of the experience. My only negative would be to do different tours based on language needs. Was long and hot in warehouse to listen to the same thing in Spanish, Portuguese and English.

Review provided by Tripadvisor

297bridgettee

Mar 7, 2025

Mostly for taking pictures. - I feel like this is more for taking pictures then getting an actual tour of Backstage Samba city, but that could just be because when I did the tour Carnaval started tomorrow and the Samba schools didn't want tourist messing with their stuff. We got to see some surprise dancers that taught us how to samba and dress up in some Carnaval outfits.

Review provided by Tripadvisor

Doddovely

Apr 24, 2025

Tour cancelled with no warning - We turned up for our tour at the allotted time and was approached by a person who did not have any uniform or id to identify her as a member of staff but who told us that the tour was cancelled. She didn’t speak any English and so we had to communicate via a translation service on the internet. She then proceeded to do this for the 5 other people hanging around waiting for the tour to start. We hung around for a bit just to make sure she was telling the truth. After 30 mins we decided to leave. We were told we could rebook or get our money back. We were leaving the country the next day so couldn’t rebook. I tried to email the company and used their contact form on their website but got no response. I’m now having to dispute the transaction with my credit card company in an attempt to get my money back. We also wasted uber fares there and back which I can’t recover when they could have messaged me using the contact details I gave when I booked.

Review provided by Tripadvisor

P4119yjsaraj

Apr 11, 2025

DO NOT recommend - My friend and I arrived to the location across town from hotel, only to find out that the tour wouldnt happen due to electricity. They made no effort to reach out and tell us or take action on how we get a refund. DONT RECOMMEND THIS COMPANY

Review provided by Tripadvisor

Check Availability

From $24

up to 15 guests

1 - Adult