Paraty Free Walking Tour
MORE THAN 10,000 TOURISTS HAVE JOINED FREE PARATY CITY TOUR!
Get a totally totally different perspective of the Historic Center of Paraty and enjoy your trip much more! Discover in our tour the history and curiosities of the city, the funny facts most people don’t know and find out the best tips of what to do and where to eat with our Free Paraty City Tour!
The tour only takes place with a minimum of 3 people
Booking is required
English tour: every day at 10:30am, 5pm.
TOUR DURATION: About 2 hours
MEETING POINT: MATRIZ SQUARE (PRACA DA MATRIZ) – PARATY MAIN SQUARE
More informationWhy join our tour?
Price: Pay as much as you think the tour was worth! No minimum, no maximum!
Quality: as there is no minimum or maximum value for the Free Paraty city tour, we do everything to make you WALK around the city and have the BEST EXPERIENCE! No wonder we won the certificate of excellence from the world’s largest travel website: TripAdvisor!
99% approval: 94% of tourists consider our tour excellent and 5% consider it good!
Fun, interactive with a lot of information: we work to make the tour a relaxing experience, where tourists participate and learn interesting information about the history of Paraty and Brazil.
Tips to make the most of your stay: besides the best information of the city, we will give you tips so you can enjoy the city even more!
Where do we go?
HISTORIC CHURCHES OF PARATY
Despite the small area, the historic center of Paraty has four historic churches! That’s because at the time of the construction of the city they were divided by social classes and genres! That is, rich and poor, men and women went to different churches!
Our Lady of Remedies Church: also known as the Matriz Church, located in front of the main square of the Historical Center: Praça da Matriz, our meeting point. This is the largest and most imposing church in the city because it was made for the rich white men at the time! Because it is the main church, it has two bells and should have two towers that were never completed.
Our Lady of Sorrows Church: located in front of the sea, with a wonderful view of the bay, the church was made for the white women of the city. As women were considered less important, the church is not so large and has only one tower. Portuguese symbols and architecture for the defense of the city can be seen on its facade.
Rosário Church: this charming little chapel was attended only by the slaves, who despite having their own religions of African origin, were forced to become Catholics when they arrived in Brazil. Because it is a small church and of little economic importance to society, it has no tower!
Santa Rita Church: main postcard of the city, also located in front of the bay, the church was attended by freed slaves and mulattos. It is hard to imagine that mulattos, blacks and whites attended different churches in Paraty only 200 years ago.
SECRETS AND SYMBOLS OF THE CITY OF PARATY FREE CITY TOUR
Doors of the Passion’s Palace: it just looks like a big door, but in fact the doors belong to the church and only open once a year during Holy Week! There are 6 doors scattered around the historic center, representing 6 of the 7 steps of the passion of Christ. The seventh is inside the Matriz Church.
Houses with Masonic symbols: A lot of people believe Paraty was designed by Masons, as the symbols of that secret society are in every corner of the historic center. Let’s unravel some of them and learn a little more about this secret society and its influence on the city.
The high tide: Some call Paraty the Venice of the tropics! Haha ha! This is because when the tide is high the water invades the city and floods the entire Historic Center! It is certainly one of the most beautiful visuals in the historical center! Many people think the flood is accidental, but in reality it was planned for a reason! Paraty Free Walking Tour will give details of the entrance of the tide in the city.
Where do we go?
The Prince’s House: The descendant of our former emperors, Pedro I and Pedro II, owns a summer house in Paraty! The house has several royal symbols and sometimes we meet the prince during the tour! For those who do not remember, before becoming a republic Brazil was an empire and the royal family still exists!
Culture House: The cultural center of Paraty was built in a large house, which preserves almost everything with its original style, receives temporary exhibitions and organizes social projects for the development of the city with its residents.
Pineapple House: this is, in our opinion, the most beautiful house in the historic center and we believe you won’t disagree. All decked out of pineapples and with many Mason symbols we’ll explore during the tour!
What are tourists saying about the Free City Tour Paraty?
“Wonderful experience”
I was in Paraty for the Corpus Chisti holiday of 2018 … I made the tour with Juan on Friday morning. It was wonderful! Juan is very friendly, he gave us the knowledge of the history of Paraty in a fun and engaging way! It was my first time using this service and I really enjoyed it! I recommend everyone to visit Paraty! It is better to do the tour the first day because you’ll have a closer relationship with the city and start to look at everything with different eyes! Congratulations Juan José for the beautiful work!”
“Best Paraty city tour I’ve done”
“I have been going to Paraty for a long time and have already done some tours through the historic center and surely the walking tour led by Juan was the best I have ever done. Despite being Mexican, he knows a lot about the history not only of Paraty, but of Brazil. It’s a special tour! You can do it 10h30 (new timetable) or 5pm. We highly recommend it and if you can, do it the first day. The next few days will make much more sense as you walk through the historic center. In the historic center of paraty you are bound to live in the present. You can not move your cell phone and walk. Wonderful! Do not be scared of the two hours tour, it’s a delight to listen to the whole story and time flies! If you are going to do a walking tour, definitely do it with Juan !!!! Thank you for the tour and the passion for our country =)”
“The best of our trip to Paraty”
Very very good. Very interesting tour with a capoeira class in the end! I recommend it 100%. It was definitely the highlight of our time in Paraty. ”
“Start here!”
This was my wish, unfortunately I did the tour on my third day in the city, ideally I would have taken this tour the first morning in Paraty. The indications in the cities are really relevant, from the point of view of cultural, historical and gastronomic knowledge, the guide is perfect, total connection between the past and the present. Above all else, he proposes a silent exchange that gradually makes everyone participate. Other than that, it brings great energy and holds a beautiful surprise in the end. Paraty? Start here, you will not regret it. ” See also our Rio de Janeiro tours
Date and Times
Booking is required
The tour only takes place with a minimum of 3 people
English tour: every day at 10:30am and 5pm.
Even if it is rainning!
Tour Duration
About 2 hours
Meeting Point
MATRIZ SQUARE (PRACA DA MATRIZ) – PARATY MAIN SQUARE