7-night South America cruise from Rio de Janeiro on MSC Musica
The 7 nights Tropical Brazil from Rio de Janeiro is a 7-night South America cruise aboard MSC Musica, operated by MSC Cruises. Departing Rio de Janeiro on February 9, 2027, the voyage visits 6 ports including Buzios, Ilha Grande, Brazil, Paranagua. Fares start from $1,046 per person.
Fixed editorial images from the places on this itinerary. They stay stable each time you return to this sailing.
Rio de Janeiro
As you’ll be able to appreciate when you cruise the Atlantic Ocean with MSC Cruises, in its position on the southern shore of the magnificent Guanabara Bay, Rio de Janeiro has, without a shadow of a doubt, one of the most stunning settings in the world.
Extending for 20km along an alluvial strip, between an azure sea and forest-clad mountains, the city’s streets and buildings have been moulded around the foothills of the mountain range that provides its backdrop, while out in the bay there are many rocky islands fringed with white sand.
The aerial views over Rio are breathtaking, and even the concrete skyscrapers that dominate the city’s skyline add to the attraction. As the former capital of Brazil and now its second-largest city, Rio has a remarkable architectural heritage, some of the country’s best museums and galleries, superb restaurants and a vibrant nightlife – in addition to its legendary beaches. A shore excursion on your MSC South America cruise can be the opportunity to visit the Pão de Açúcar.
The Sugar Loaf Mountain rises where Guanabara Bay meets the Atlantic Ocean. Its name may simply reflect a resemblance to the moulded loaves in which sugar was once commonly sold. Alternatively, it may be a corruption of the indigenous Tamoya word Pau-nh-Açuquá, meaning “high, pointed or isolated hill”. On the top of Corcoavado Mountain instead the Art Deco statue of Cristo Redentor (Christ the Redeemer), arms outstretched in welcome, stands 30m high and weighs over 1000 tonnes. It was supposed to be completed for Brazil’s centenary independence celebrations in 1922, but wasn’t actually finished until 1931.
In clear weather, fear no anticlimax: climbing to the statue is a stunning experience, with the whole of Rio and Guanabara Bay laid out before you.
Buzios
On a peninsula north of Cabo Frio, Armação dos Búzios, or just Búzios, is an immensely scenic resort full of high-spending beautiful people, and a very popular port of call on holidays to Brazil with MSC Cruises.
Armação, the main settlement, is built in a vaguely colonial style, its streets lined with restaurants, bars and chic boutiques, and has been nicknamed “Brazil’s St Tropez”. It comes then as little surprise to find that it was “discovered” by none other than Brigitte Bardot, who stumbled upon it while touring the area in 1964.
Búzios consists of three main settlements, Manguinos, Armação and Ossos, each with its own distinct character. Manguinos, on the isthmus, is the main service centre, with a tourist office, a medical centre and banks. Midway along the peninsula, linked to Manguinos by a road lined with brash hotels, is Armação, an attractive village where cars are banned from some of the cobbled roads.
Most of Búzio’s best restaurants and boutiques are concentrated here, along with some of the resort’s nicest pousadas, or inns, and there’s also a helpful tourist office on the main square, Praça Santos Dumont. When you step ashore from your MSC cruise, a fifteen-minute walk along the Orla Bardot – which follows the coast from Armação, passing the lovely seventeenth-century Igreja de NossaSenhora de Sant’Ana on the way –, brings you to Ossos, the oldest settlement, comprising a pretty harbour, a quiet beach and a few bars, restaurants and pousadas.
Within walking distance of all Búzios’ settlements are beautiful white-sand beaches – 27 in total – cradled between rocky cliffs and promontories, and lapped by crystal-clear waters. The beaches are varied, with the north-facing ones having the calmest and warmest seas, while those facing the south and east have the most surf.
Paranagua
Capital of Panama, Curitiba is a small colonial town nestled at the foot of the Serra do Mar chain of mountains. Founded in the 17th century, the town thrived under the first European colonialists who became prosperous by running the many rubber plantations. The Serra Verde Express train is well worth taking, as it winds its away along the rugged slopes of a mountain overlooking vertiginous canyons and vast tropical plains, before reaching an equatorial forest that is as deep as it is mysterious.
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Follow the entire sailing from its first day to its last, with the route and schedule in one view.
Day 1·Feb 9, 2027
Rio de Janeiro
As you’ll be able to appreciate when you cruise the Atlantic Ocean with MSC Cruises, in its position on the southern shore of the magnificent Guanabara Bay, Rio de Janeiro has,…
As soon as you step on board MSC Musica you are met by the stunning central foyer’s three-tier waterfall and it’s transparent piano, suspended above the water on a crystal floor. The designer venues on board are equally as stunning, whether you’re dancing to a band in the dazzling Crystal Lounge, enjoying a cigar in the stylish Havana Club cigar lounge, treating yourself to a wine tasting, trying your luck in the Sanremo Casino or enjoying a superb live show in the stunning La Scala Theatre.
The cuisine on the ship is all freshly prepared allowing you to indulge in Italian specialities in Il Giardino, treat yourself at the Kaito Sushi Bar or work your way through a range of delicious, authentic Italian pizzas.
Children and young adults enjoy special treatment with indoor and outdoor play areas, a pool of their own and separate Kids and Teens Clubs for their own social life on board.
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