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

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
Highlights
  • Carnaval Experience - • Bilingual guide
    •
    Guided tour to the Grande Rio samba factory – one of the main Samba Schools of the city of Rio de Janeiro 
    •
    Presentation of the explanatory panel: some of the history of samba and the carnival parades
    •
    Getting in the mood: costume layout to dress and photograph
    •
    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 BinĂ¡rio 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
(248 Ratings)
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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
55jujub
Mar 6, 2025
Samba cidade experience - Yeah. Visit the hangars where the tanks are. Explanation of preparations for the carnival and the construction of tanks. Costume fitting. Short film about carnival. Samba demonstration by 3 professionals. Tasting of caipirinha. The only flaw was we were promised a visit in French and it was in Spanish and English. Charming and clear guide who is part of a samba school.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Kaje725
Mar 1, 2025
A fantastic carnival experience - This was a fantastic experience. It was great to see behind the scenes and learn how the carnival is organised. As well as trying on some carnival costumes, we even got to meet some of this week's carnival performers and have a little samba lesson with them. Highly recommend.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Ttfayet
Feb 28, 2025
Recommended experience - Great experience, very organized, very prepared and friendly staff, was given everything they had promised!. Except that the price charged by Tripadvisor was much more expensive than they charge, almost double to offer the same!
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
Kimbi6179wp
Feb 23, 2025
Fun experience learning about Carnival - Fun experience! We got to learn a bit about the Samba school, try on some carnival costumes, learn a few steps of Samba and get a quick peak at some of the decorations. Overall worth a visit!!
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Réka
Feb 12, 2025
Cool visit, some forced joy but very recommended all in all - Cool experience, with dance learning, costumes trying, caipirinha and much more. Strict rules inside, you have to put your phone away
Review provided by Tripadvisor
517liloul
Feb 19, 2025
Activity very well but... - Activity very well but big downside: I booked a French guide but this one spoke only Portuguese or English... Hard to understand!
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Felicia_g
Feb 22, 2025
Not All that is Advertised - Our tour guide was a little snippy at first as if she did not want to be bothered! She finally had a better attitude. The tour was scheduled for 4:30 other participants came late and she had us wait while she reviewed what she shared with us. This she did 2 times while the rest of us just stool there and waited. The actual tour inside didn’t start until 5pm. We also had to walk up 4 flights of stairs in a hot warehouse with no air condition. Once there she went over more information about the preparation for carnival. I will say it was very informative. We were allowed to take pictures and try on one part of a custom. We then were taken to the gift shop, was given 1 drink and 3 beautiful dancers came in danced and took pictures with us. From the booking I thought we would have a dance lesson. The tour scheduled for 1-2 hours was over from start to finish in 45 mins. I will still recommend doing the tour because it gives the insight of Carnival
Review provided by Viator
Vanessamz2142aa
Feb 20, 2025
Too bad. - Mixed welcome! No smile on our arrival, proposal for a change of schedule. The person redirects us to another group whose facilitation has already started without further explanation, so we missed half the explanations. Very commercial. Too bad, it could have been extra
Review provided by Tripadvisor
From $26
up to 15 guests
1 - Adult
Cancellation: Free cancellation up to 24 hours before the start of your experience (local time).