How to get to the Amazon rainforest comes down to two steps: a flight to a river city on the edge of the forest, then a boat, sometimes a road, to your lodge or ship. There is no single Amazon airport. Brazil holds about 60 percent of the Amazon forest and most trips there start in Manaus, but the Amazon River itself starts in the Peruvian Andes, and Peru, Ecuador and Colombia each have a gateway of their own.
Manaus is the main hub for rainforest trips in Brazil. It is about 4 hours by air from São Paulo, with several flights a day, or from Rio de Janeiro’s Galeão, with a daily GOL flight, and about 3 hours from BrasÃlia. Many travelers fly into Rio de Janeiro first and then take the domestic flight to Manaus, as our Rio de Janeiro & the Amazon Rainforest Tour does.
From the US there is no year-round non-stop: GOL flew Miami to Manaus in January and July 2026, but not in September or October. Connect instead in Panama City, where Copa flies almost daily (about 3 h 55 m), or in Bogotá, São Paulo or BrasÃlia. More on our Brazil getting-there page.
Peru has two gateways at opposite ends of its rainforest. Iquitos, in the north, is about 1 h 55 m from Lima, with several flights a day; Copa’s Panama City to Iquitos flights, launched in 2012, no longer appear on the schedules. Puerto Maldonado, in the south, is about an hour from Cusco and 1 h 45 m from Lima, the natural partner for Machu Picchu.
Manu works differently: our Cusco & the Peruvian Amazon to Manu National Park trip drives from Cusco over a pass above 13,000 feet and returns on a charter flight to Cusco; no airline flies to Manu on a schedule. More on our Peru getting-there page.
Quito to Coca, officially Puerto Francisco de Orellana, is about 40 minutes over the eastern Andes, with flights daily as of October 2026. Lago Agrio, further north, has had no regular airline service since 2019. Our Ecuador Amazon lodges and cruises all start in Coca, except Kapawi, reached via Shell and a small-plane connection. More on our Ecuador getting-there page.
Believe it or not, Colombia holds a slice of the Amazon too, reached through Leticia at the country’s far southern tip. Bogotá to Leticia is about 2 hours with Avianca or LATAM, and there is no road from the rest of Colombia. Leticia sits on the Amazon beside Tabatinga, Brazil, which has a daily flight from Manaus. From Leticia a riverboat takes you upriver to your eco-lodge or river bungalow, and after a day of planes and boats you will be ready for it.
A guide meets you at the airport, and the last stretch is by boat, road or both. These are the transfers on our suggested itineraries:
| Leg | Typical time | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Manaus to Juma Amazon Lodge | about 3 h | By speedboat, past the Meeting of the Waters |
| Manaus to Tefé, for Uakari Lodge | about 1 h 10 m by air | Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays only as of October 2026; then about an hour by speedboat |
| Alta Floresta to Cristalino Lodge | road and boat | A few flights a week from Campinas, and from Cuiabá in some months |
| Iquitos to Nauta, for the Delfin and Aria cruises | about 1 h 30 m | About 60 miles (95 km) by paved road |
| Iquitos to Tahuayo Lodge | about 4 h | By boat across the Amazon |
| Puerto Maldonado to Inkaterra Reserva Amazonica | about 45 m | By boat on the Madre de Dios |
| Coca to the Anakonda and Manatee cruises | about 1 h | By motorized canoe down the Napo |
| Coca to Napo Wildlife Center | about 4 h | 2 h by motorboat, then 2 h by paddle canoe |
Two gateways are cut off from their country’s roads: Iquitos holds the Guinness World Record as the largest city with no major road connection, and Leticia has no road to the rest of Colombia. You arrive by air or by river.
Manaus is where the river becomes the Amazon: according to NASA, it forms there from the meeting of the muddy Solimões, the upper Amazon, and the dark Rio Negro. That Meeting of the Waters is on several of our itineraries, and every Brazilian river cruise on our site boards in Manaus.
So the real choice is a lodge or a boat. Our co-founder Juergen Keller keeps it short: “Lodges are stationary. Boats show you different perspectives.” Compare our Amazon lodge tours and Amazon river cruises.
In Peru, Puerto Maldonado is the hinge. Our Machu Picchu & the Amazon Jungle Tour flies from Cusco to Puerto Maldonado after Machu Picchu, then straight to Lima, about 1 h 35 m. The South America Coast to Coast Tour runs it the other way, from Lima to Puerto Maldonado and on to Cusco. Iquitos does not pair as easily: with no non-stop from Cusco, it is a trip of its own from Lima.
Manaus does not have to be a round trip from Rio. The Brazil Amazon & Salvador Bahia Tour flies on to Salvador, and the South America Deluxe Tour does the reverse, ending in Manaus. Manaus to Cuiabá, for the Pantanal, takes a connection in BrasÃlia or Campinas, as on the Amazon, Pantanal & Iguazu Falls Tour, while our Cristalino itinerary flies from Alta Floresta to Cuiabá.
The Remote Amazon Tour goes furthest: a Rio Negro cruise, a flight to Tefé and a floating lodge in the Mamirauá reserve, with an option to carry on via Tabatinga to a lodge upriver from Leticia and home through Bogotá. That depends on the month: Azul flew Tefé to Tabatinga in July and September 2026, but the route is missing from late-October schedules.
Remote legs may fly only a few days a week: Manaus to Tefé runs Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays as of October 2026, and our Uakari Lodge stay runs Friday to Monday around it. If you land in Manaus after 1:30 pm, Juma Amazon Lodge picks you up early the next morning and your first night is in a city hotel. Juergen’s rule for first-timers: “Do not plan a very tight schedule! Some routes are flown only 3 times a week and easily canceled due to bad weather and bad airport infrastructure. Leave slack in your trip!”
Build in a buffer day: Posada Amazonas lists extra nights caused by flight cancellations as not included, so consider travel insurance that covers trip cancellation and delays.
Our suggested itineraries are priced without flights. International flights are not included, and your Destination Consultant quotes domestic legs such as Lima to Iquitos or Quito to Coca separately; the Manu trip is the exception, with its charter flight back to Cusco included. Every itinerary can be custom designed around the flight days: start with a custom Amazon trip or the Amazon Rainforest hub, check the best time to visit the Amazon, and see our Amazon visa requirements page for each country’s entry rules, with Brazil’s e-Visa on our Brazil visa page.
It depends on the country: Manaus (MAO) in Brazil, Iquitos (IQT) and Puerto Maldonado (PEM) in Peru, Coca (OCC) in Ecuador and Leticia (LET) in Colombia. The transfers in the table above run from 45 minutes to about 4 hours.
Match it to the rest of your trip: Manaus with Rio, Puerto Maldonado with Machu Picchu, Coca with Quito.
Only seasonally: GOL flew from Miami in January and July 2026. Otherwise, connect in Panama City, Bogotá, São Paulo or BrasÃlia.
No. The only road out of Iquitos ends at Nauta, where several Amazon cruises board. You fly in from Lima or arrive by river.
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