Pantanal Self Drive Holiday, Brazil

Seven nights from Campo Grande into the southern Pantanal, self-guided and tailor-made, with three nights at an eco-lodge.

The Pantanal is the largest tropical wetland in the world, ten times the size of the Everglades, and it is a better place to see wildlife than the Amazon for the simple reason that the vegetation is open rather than closed.

Bonito comes first, a town built round its own ecotourism rules, where the Rio da Prata runs clear enough to snorkel and the fish are visible the length of it. The road then runs four hours into the South Pantanal and the Refugio da Ilha, where the car is parked and local guides take over for canoeing, boat trips, horse riding, walking and off-road wildlife drives. Wildlife tours there are capped at six people, which is a deliberate limit to reduce disturbance and improves the experience as much as it protects it.

The car hire is included; flights are not, and the rest of the inclusions are not itemised in detail on the operator’s page, so they are worth settling at booking. The price shown is per person excluding flights. The dry season from May to October is the window, when the water recedes and the animals concentrate round what is left. No wildlife sighting can be promised. Three nights in one lodge rather than a night here and a night there is the right way to do the Pantanal, since the good sightings come early and late in the day.