Bus Tour of Gramado/Canela

Here is a description of the Bus Tour provided by brockerturismo.com.br

BUS TOUR

Time: 8:15-18:30

Cost: R$49,00

Phone: (54) 3282-5400, (54) 3286-5405, (51) 3358-2254

Address: Av. das Hortênsias, 1845, Centro, 95680-000, Gramado/RS

Website: http://www.gramado.com.br/diversao-passeios/bustour    www.bustour.com.br

áudio em português, inglês e espanhol com as principais informações histórico-culturais das cidades de Canela e Gramado, espaço para cadeirantes, bicicletas e além de monitores treinados e capacitados para informar e acolher nossos clientes com dois roteiros regulares.

Descontos

Brocker Turismo Canela e Gramado

Para passageiros BusTour 5% de desconto nos passeios opcionais e ingressos para os espetáculos

Alpen Park

Para passageiros BusTour 10% de desconto nas atividades

Terra Mágica Florybal

Para passageiros BusTour 10% de desconto no ingresso do parque

Parque Vale dos Dinossauros - Grupo Dreams

Passaporte 'Grupo Dreams" com 5 museus por R$ 60,00 para passageiros Bustour comprando na bilheteria. Valor normal do passaporte:R$ 150,00

Bondinhos Aéreos

Apresente o ticket BusTour e ganhe 10% de desconto no ingresso do parque

Castelinho Caracol

Para passageiros Bustour 30% de desconto no ingresso

Play House Florybal

Para passageiros BusTour 10% de desconto em compras na loja

Café Colonial Gramado

Apresente o ticket BusTour e ganhe 10% de desconto no Café Colonial, o único do roteiro!

Museu de Cera e Harley Motor Show - Grupo Dreams

Passaporte 'Grupo Dreams" com 5 museus por R$ 60,00 para passageiros Bustour comprando na bilheteria. Valor normal do passaporte: R$ 150,00

Super Carros - Grupo Dreams

Passaporte 'Grupo Dreams" com 5 museus por R$ 60,00 para passageiros Bustour comprando na bilheteria. Valor normal do passaporte: R$ 150,00

Museu do Automóvel - Grupo Dreams

Passaporte 'Grupo Dreams" com 5 museus por R$ 60,00 para passageiros Bustour comprando na bilheteria. Valor normal do passaporte: R$ 150,00

Mini Mundo

Para passageiros BusTour um presente especial

Snowland

Para passageiros BusTour 5% de desconto no valor do ingresso

Cristais de Gramado

Para passageiros BusTour um presente especial

Le Jardin Parque da Lavanda

Para passageiros BusTour 5% de desconto em compras

Mundo Encantado

Pasa passageiros BusTour 10% desconto no ingresso

Artesanato Noel

Para passageiros Bustour 10% de desconto em compras

Reino do Chocolate Caracol

Para passageiros BusTour ingresso GRATUITO

Mundo a Vapor

Para passageiros BusTour um presente especial

Aproveite para almoçar nos melhores restaurantes da região, apresente o ticket BusTour e peça seu desconto!!!

Passaporte Gastronômico

Solicite em uma das lojas Caracol Chocolates em Gramado ou Canela seu passaporte gastronômico com até 50% de desconto nos restabelecimentos abaixo:

Caracol Gourmet; Galeto Mamma Mia; El Fuego Restaurante; Mamma Pasta

Olimpia Restaurante - Canela e Gramado

Ganhe 5% de desconto no almoço apresentando o ticket BusTour

La Famille de Gazon - Gramado

Ganhe 10% na sequencia do fondue apresentando o ticket BusTour

Restaurante Carazal - Gramado

Ganhe 10% de desconto no almoço colonial apresentando o ticket BusTour

Ratatoulle - Gramado

Buffet livre no almoço e Sequencia de fondue no jantar, ganhe 5% de desconto apresentando o ticket BusTour

Subway - Gramado

Apresente o ticket BusTour e ganhe um cookie!

Duração

Os ônibus circulam o dia todo, desta forma, cada ônibus, nos pontos centrais (centro de Gramado e Canela e Avenida das Hortênsias) passará várias vezes ao dia a cada hora aproximadamente. 

Bike in Gramado

So, it turns out you can also rent a bike to go around. They say the rental is R$37,00/day and that you can reserve it online. The only problem is, at least in my computer, you can not pick the dates from their calendar. So I guess you're better off calling, or just going there.
http://viajargramado.com.br/estabelecimento/eko- bike-center

transportation in Gramado

Okay, so we might not rent the car that would cost us $117 for 5 days and instead get a few alternate transportation modes.

To get from the airport in Porto Alegre to Gramado we will take an inter-city bus from the company citral.
http://www.citral.tur.br/inicio.php

I've been watching www.booking.com to get a decent hotel downtown or within walking distance to minimize our need of long distance transportation

Then to get to the places that are further away, hop-on hop-off bus with brocker turismo:

https://www.gramadosite.com.br/atividades/idempresa:brockerturismo/idproduto:2011/alone:1/idadv:39399/from:afiliado

This page has a link to the map of all the stops. One day ticket costs R$49.00

And to go back to the airport, since it is an early flight, we will have to schedule a shuttle. There are a number of companies that do that:
brocker, vmc, liga, jusepe ...
here are some links:
http://www.brockerturismo.com.br/pacotes/transfer-in-out
http://www.integracaoturismo.com.br/passeios/hotsite/id:38
 http://www.gramadosite.com.br/coisaslegaisprafazer/filtros:transfers/nome:
http://www.suagramado.com.br/catalogos/transfers

websites I like from Gramado

I really liked some websites that give ideas of what to do in Gramado and Canela:
http://www.gramado.com.br/
http://www.gramadosite.com.br/noticias/autor:gramadosite/id:25776/xcoluna:1/xautor:1

http://www.pousadabelluno.com.br/site/gramado.php

http://viajargramado.com.br/estabelecimento/passaporte-dreams-2

http://www.canelaturismo.com.br/roteiros-e-atrativos/castelinho-caracol/

driving in Brazil

I was deciding whether or not to drive.
What did I have to consider:

• traffic volume
• parking
• documentation
• easiness of getting around in public transportation or chartered vans
• independence

For the traffic volume, I figured, since we will be arriving in one airport and getting on the highway to another city, how bad could traffic be? I did some reading, and there seems to be a consensus that if you are going to gramado and canela, driving is a good bet because of the distances.
You could take a bus from POA airport to Gramado for about R$30, but that could affect your independence once you get there. I am sure there is public transportation, which I have not investigated yet. Gramado major attrations are mostly within walking distance, but not Canela, or the places on the way to Canela.


Parking in a Gramado can be a problem. I found a website that says they are now using parking meters. http://www.gramadosite.com.br/noticias/autor:gramadosite/id:25776/xcoluna:1/xautor:1
and http://www.destinogramado.com.br/2010/07/estacionamento-rotativo.html
But if you just leave your car at the hotel lot, you can mostly walk to most of the major points in Gramado.

Anyway, I went ahead and booked a car. My next concern was the documentation. Well, thanks to this site http://gobrazil.about.com/od/practicaltips/qt/Driver-License-For-Brazil-Travelers.htm I found out that today all you need to drive in Brazil for up to 180 days is your driver's license and your passport.

We chose to rent a car in gramado mostly because of the distance to airport.

I am still investigating public transportation, and depending on what I find, I will look into canceling my car rental.

For Foz do Iguaçu, we chose to not rent a car. Our hotel will be really close to the airport and the falls, and it seems as public transportation is easily available, even to argentina.

http://www.viajenaviagem.com/2010/05/foz-do-iguacu-carro-alugado-taxi-ou-onibus/

best place to buy flights to Brazil

The best website to buy flights to Brazil is not Kayak, Expedia, or even the airlines themselves.
The best place to buy flights to Brazil is BACC travel. They have the best deals. You can also work with them to combine specific flights that are not coming together in the website search.
They also have decent costumer service in Portuguese and in English. As with most costumer service, it greatly depends on who you get on the other end of the line. I had much better experiences in previous years, but this time it was not bad.
They canceled my troubled flight free of charge because of that crazy connection in different airports.

Now if you are flying inside Brazil, try going straight to the airlines - voegol.com.br, voeazul.com.br and tam.com.br - or even kayak.
The reason for that is that bacc doesn't show all the airlines that do flights in Brazil.

careful - different connecting airports

My agency booked my return flight with a connection.
So far, nothing new.
Problem was - the connection was booked leaving from a different airport, located in a different city, 2 hours away from each other.
Between one flight and the other there are only 6 1/2. Since you have to be at the airport 3hours before an international flight, that leaves was only 3 hours to get to the airport, if there are no delays.

Worst thing - the agency didn't even bother alerting me that this flight had connection in different airports. I only found out because I was reading the itinerary to my mom to check if my brother could come see us.