Amazon Rainforest Tour in Peru: A Complete Guide with Amazonia Expeditions
An Amazon rainforest tour is the adventure of a lifetime. Whether you want to make it a trip of its own or tag it onto a larger Peru adventure (like I did), you have a unique adventure that you’ll be talking about for years to come.
The jungle town of Iquitos is the gateway to the Peruvian Amazon. While many people linger in Iquitos, tour companies immediately begin your itinerary when you arrive.
There are several tour companies that operate Amazon rainforest tours but after some research, I felt that Amazonia Expeditions was the best option for cost and experience so that’s what my guide will focus on.
Also important to note that Wilhlem and I opted to go in the dry season (at the end of August). If you’re visiting during the wet season, you’ll likely have a somewhat different experience with the available hikes and tours. Figure out what to pack for your trip here!
How Long to Spend on an Amazon Rainforest Tour
This all depends on you. We felt that a 6-day Amazon rainforest tour was sufficient to see all we wanted. After 6 days, we were tired and kept itching our feet like crazy from the bug bites.
Amazonia Expeditions has tours that range from 4 days long to 10 days long. They can also work with you to create custom itineraries.
The Amazon features both wet and dry seasons. Neither is “better” than the other but your daily itinerary may change compared to my experience because we visited in the dry season.
- Dry season: May to October
- Wet season: November to April
Amazonia Expedition Lodges
Amazonia Expeditions manages two comfortable lodges. I was anticipating 6 days of no showers, but although the water didn’t get that warm it was so hot out that it felt refreshing!
Tahuayo Lodge
Tahuayo Lodge is about 2-3 hours away from Iquitos. If you only have a 4-day itinerary, you’ll just visit Tahuayo Lodge. This lodge is large and has separate room options with private bathrooms.
Amazon Research Center
With longer itineraries, you can also spend 2 nights at the Amazon Research Center. This is another 2-3 hours via boat from the Tahuayo Lodge. The Amazon Research Center is smaller than the Tahuayo Lodge and bathroom facilities are shared.
Insects
I was surprised at how few insects I encountered at the lodges. Sure, there were some large moths, and the mosquitos and flies were biting me a lot… but besides a stray grasshopper and an inevitable mosquito, we didn’t have any creepy crawlers in the room.
Although there are snakes in the jungle, they do not like living near humans and (we were told) haven’t been found in any guest rooms.
That said, you will need A LOT of insect repellent, preferably with DEET. Even though we applied at least 3 times a day, some of the biting flies did not care at all and stung us anyway, especially on the feet which really hurt.
Bars and Comforts
Both lodges have bars where you can order drinks and in the evening there is a 6pm popcorn hour (SO CUTE!). I usually got a cocktail ( a camu camu sour) with the popcorn.
There are also hammocks set up in screened-in rooms off of the dining halls.
Tahuayo Lodge has a soccer ball that some guests use to play around the lodge. This won’t be possible in the wet season as that land will probably be underwater… And there were some games to play in the dining hall.
Internet
Internet is generally stable but goes off randomly. It’s not strong enough to connect to a work server (I tried). But it works well for WhatsApp, Instagram, and email.
Food at the lodge
Breakfast, lunch, and dinner are buffet affairs. You can eat breakfast at 6:30 am or 8am depending on your activities for the day. We usually ate at 6:30am. Lunch is at 1pm and dinner is at 7pm.
There was always a variety of veg options and all diets can be accommodated.
I was stuffed each day for each meal!
Cocktails and all drinks are paid at the end of your stay. The exchange rate at the lodge is higher than the market rate if you pay in soles so its better to pay your bar bill in dollars.
Guides
You will get a private guide for your group for the duration of your stay. This is great to build a connection, and your guide can curate your trip based on your preferences. Overall, I suggest telling your guide what you’re interested in so that he knows what to fit in over the course of your trip. Each evening, we discussed the different options for the next day. You’ll typically do 2 different activities each day: one in the morning (that can extend into the afternoon) and an evening trip. Or a morning activity and an afternoon activity.
Our guide, Welister, was an excellent photographer as well. He used my phone and my camera to help me get better pictures for this blog.
Hi to our wonderful guide, Welister!
How to Book and What to Pay
I booked directly with paul@perujungle.com to make our reservation. I had to pay a $100 per person deposit to secure our spots and then later followed up with the remaining $1195 per person payment (2024 cost) via bank transfer.
From your airport drop off to your airport drop off, everything is included except drinks and tips.
We spent another $40 on drinks over the 6 days—mostly because I became obsessed with the camu camu sour.
Tipping your guides
Based on conversations with others at the lodge and what I read online, I suggest tipping $10/per person/per day of your trip.
6 Day Amazon Rainforest Tour Review
Basic Itinerary
No two groups will have the same experience in the Amazon. With animals moving around and groups leaving at different times, my experience is likely going to be very different from yours.
No matter what, it’s going to be amazing! We did everything we wanted to during our 6 days.
During your Amazon rainforest tour you can: fish, hike, camp in the wild overnight, visit a village, hike frog valley, do night walks, do a night canoe ride, take canoe rides, hike around a lake… The options are endless and will depend on the weather, animal sightings, and group trip opportunities.
Day 1: Arrive in Iquitos and Travel to Tahuayo Lodge
Morning
From wherever you’re traveling you’ll need to arrive at Iquitos airport by 2pm. As we were continuing our trip from Cusco (read my 10-day Peru itinerary), we took a morning flight and arrived at 1:55pm (and that still counted as before 2pm!).
Pro-tip: if you are transferring in Lima via plane (even domestically), you’ll need to get your luggage (if you have it) and do security all over again as if you just arrived at the airport. Additionally, the arrivals exit is on the totally opposite side of the airport compared to the security gates. This was crazy. We had a 45-minute layover in Lima when flying from Cusco to Iquitos and we barely had enough time. To manage, we ran and cut through the security line and used the crew entrance—that was the only reason we made the flight.
Afternoon
There will be a guide from Amazonia Expeditions waiting for you at the airport exit to take you (and others who landed) to the boat transfer at their offices.
At the Amazonia Expeditions offices, you’ll give two copies of your passport per person as part of the Amazon entrance and conservation fees. If you don’t have the copies that’s fine as they will do it for you but it’s part of the “required reading” you’ll receive in advance of your stay.
You’ll also be given a bagged lunch for the journey. We received an apple, banana, orange, and avocado sandwich.
Your journey into the Amazon (and Tahuayo Lodge) should start around 2:30pm! Our expedition was totally insane. It included two fish slapping me on my head and a 90% chance we were going to have to abandon ship. Oh… .and it was surprising that it was pitch dark for half of it! It’s too chaotic to include in this Amazon Rainforest Tour so read about it here.
Evening
All in all, our adventure lasted 5 hours and we arrived at the Tahuayo Lodge in the pitch dark. This likely won’t happen to you. If you’re visiting in the wet season, the boats will travel much faster.
When we arrived, we had dinner and chatted with our guide about what we wanted to do the next morning.
Day 2: Monkeys and Boat Rides
Morning
On day two we started with a 6:30am breakfast. Our first adventure of the day was a hike around the lodge to try to spot monkeys. Overall, we hiked from 7:30am to 11:30am.
Our guide, Welister, started the hike by asking if we like to eat worms! There is a type of fruit that this worm enters after monkeys have discarded the fruit…the worm kind of looks like a very large white Advil pill and you eat it alive!
And so… we ate it! The worm supposedly tastes like coconut and it kind of does… It’s a little chewy but I highly recommend trying it if you like weird things.
This is such a unique way to experience the Amazon jungle.
During our walk, we also saw a pygmy monkey and a capuchin monkey which was very difficult to photograph.
And we saw a squirrel monkey (of which we saw several throughout our tour).
And I loved seeing this cute forest guinea pig-like creature whose proper name I’ve forgotten…
Our guide also pointed out several cool insects like moths, stick insects, millipedes, and some giant wasps.
We also saw some cool birds like woodpeckers, macaws, and parrots. The macaws were very difficult to get a photo of as they were moving quite fast, but at one point I could see that they were yellow and blue which was cool. Our guide had a lot of information to share with us throughout the experience.
Welister shared a lot about the local customs and way of living during our 6 days together. For example, this spit-like thing is said to be a message from those who have passed. And this type of mushroom was used to leave notes for travelers in the jungle.
Afternoon
We had lunch at 1pm and then we went on a boat ride to try to see animals along the water. We intended to swim in the river and find some sloths but nature has its own way of doing business. It started raining so we didn’t feel like jumping in the river and unfortunately, we didn’t see any sloths.
Instead of sloths, we saw several cool bird species and even the titi monkey that was impossible to take a photo of.
We also saw some leaf-like bats hiding on a tree in the middle of the river.
We saw four different kinds of fish, and apparently stingray but I barely could have claimed that because I saw some gray movement in the water and that’s about it. Also, we saw some tiny fish with red tails.
Learning of my new obsession for camu camu, the guides stopped to find a patch of trees and brought me some (seriously unripe) berries to try.
Evening
We hung out for the 6pm popcorn hour and I got a camu camu sour before meeting our guide again at 6:30pm to discuss the next day’s plans and have dinner.
Day 3: Poisonous Frogs Hike
Morning-Afternoon
Today we were told there was a group excursion to see poisonous frogs and we wanted to join in. We started at 7am and the boat ride took around 3.5 hours to reach the frog forest. Along the way, our boat stopped several times for the guides to help push the boat over tree trunks. It was quite the journey!
We hiked in two different groups. The guides were excellent at finding several different varieties of the poisonous frogs. They are SO tiny, literally the size of my fingernail.
They are so hard to spot without guides. Just try to spot the frog here…
Frog spotting at my height level (impossible!!) and then up close!
The hike lasted just under 2 hours.
We also spotted the cutest mustache monkeys too. Totally unexpected!
And, our guide pointed out bats hiding in a hollow tree trunk.
Then we had a great lunch, heated for us over a fire.
On the boat ride back, I spotted a sloth!
Evening
After dinner, we opted to go on a night walk. You should definitely bring your own headlamp to be able to make your way through the forest.
Bring a headlamp!
First, our guide heard an owl on the lodge, so we spotted that.
lolol this owl
Then he quickly found a scorpion and a tarantula at the base of a tree.
We also saw a humongous toad and a caiman.
The walk lasted just about an hour and that was good enough for me. Finding the night creatures was very cool but I hated all the bugs coming straight at my face with the headlamp. At several points I took off the headlamp and used it like a flashlight instead to keep the bugs off my face.
Day 4: Transfer to Amazon Research Center
If you’re doing the 6-night Amazon rainforest tour like we did, then you’ll transfer to the Amazon Research Center today.
Morning
We had breakfast and then were off by 9am. Our guide stopped along the way to spot birds and reached the Amazon Research Center at 11:15am. We were greeted with fresh juice.
Afternoon
At 1pm we had lunch.
Then we went on a boat ride and reached a marsh area to look for the dinosaur-looking Hoatzin bird. This is the bird on the logo of Amazonia expeditions. It is crazy!!! This was one of the experiences that we had no idea what to expect—I didn’t know this bird actually existed in real life and wow.
On the way, we saw some squirrel monkeys.
We also spotted a pygmy owl on the way back. Finding the pygmy owl was so impressive. Our guide heard a low sound and after a couple of minutes of searching found the owl HIGH UP in the trees.
We saw another cute forest guinea pig too, as well as a caiman, and interesting birds!
Our hike lasted a little longer than expected so we hiked the last 20 minutes back to the boat in the dark. It gave us a chance to see a tarantula and spot a turtle.
Evening
We took it easy in the evening and just read (and scrolled Instagram) before popcorn hour.
Day 5: River Adventures
Morning
We went for a hike around the lodge but didn’t end up seeing that much. Our guide said he heard a red monkey and although we trekked fast in the jungle to try to catch up to it, the monkey seemed too shy to come out.
Afternoon
To cap off our final full day on our Amazon rainforest tour, we jumped off the boat into the river.
Then we went off to go piranha fishing! You need extreme patience for this activity. You can sit in the same spot for 2+ hours… We got some nibbles on our meat but no bites and eventually after 40 minutes we asked if we could go exploring for animals instead.
If you catch a large enough fish you can have it cooked for your next meal! We unfortunately didn’t catch anything large enough but some other people did! You can also fish from shore.
Our guide spotted the titi monkey and we saw some interesting birds.
Evening
Later, we went on an evening boat ride. There were so many bugs that I was happy wrapping myself up in my rain jacket. We saw lots of caiman (one with a fish in its mouth!).
And we saw a green snake in the branches of the trees along the river. Apparently, snakes are very rare to spot.
Day 6: Back to Iquitos
Morning
You’ll have breakfast in the morning and then take the boat to Tahuayo Lodge. Our guide said we didn’t have time to do a morning hike unfortunately but maybe yours will be able to. Then, we had about an hour at the lodge before taking the boat back to Iquitos.
As we were boating through, our guide showed us a picture of what the water level looks like in the rainy season. the difference is incredible!
Afternoon
We made it back to Iquitos at 2pm by the new bridge. A bus came to collect everyone and we were dropped at our next hotel.
We spent another 3 nights in Iquitos, but many people just do the Amazon trip. If you want to stay in Iquitos, the guide is incoming!
Amazon Rainforest Tour Final Thoughts
Our 6-Day Amazon rainforest tour was special and a once-in-a-lifetime experience. I loved our guide, Welister, and the entire staff at Amazonia Expeditions. Based on my experience, I’d highly recommend booking with them for your own adventure.