Canarsie

I was there for a half-day the first day, a full day the next day, and a half-day the last day. I stayed at the Sheraton both nights.

It was on the full day that I traveled over to the Brazil side of the falls and visited the bird sanctuary.

I must say that even though the park on the Brazil side first opened at 1:00 in the afternoon, there was still plenty of time to see the falls.

In answer to your question, the bird sanctuary visit should not take away from the viewing of the falls. Additionally, you get to have some of the birds perch on your arm towards the end of your visit. Be aware that the talking birds only speak Spanish or Portuguese. You will see brightly-colored birds, including some beautiful toucans. Many of the birds are native to South America.

If you like birds, I would recommend a visit.

I hope this information helps. If you do go, please post your report and your opinion.

Tomayto

Canarsie, thanks mucho.

ihdihd

I also visited the Iguaze Sheraton for 2 days. The plan was to come in from Buenos aires, spend 2 days in iguazu and leave to brazil on the 3rd day early in the morning.

The first day we arrived in Iguazu (AR) airport around 9am. Our driver from the airport offered us a tour of the brazil side. We told him we'd get back to him. We checked in early, and a suite upgrade wasn't ready yet, so they offered for us to go around and come back for a suite, which we did. We asked about the prices for a brazil side excursion, and it was the same as the taxi guy had wanted, and he was ready to go in a private car vs busload of people whenever. Anyway we liked him so we took him up on it (around 200 pesos for 5-6 hours).

Getting out of Argentina took a little longer than it should have because they needed to check my passport for some reason. Within 30 minutes we were out of Argentina and heading to the Brazil border. It had the potential to be a lot worse there, as there was some sort of soccer camp and 5 large busses worth of high-school soccer players from all over south america were clearing through ONE border agent. It was around 200 kids, each taking around 3-4 minutes. After getting permission from the team captain we skipped the line and were gone.

Note that you need a visa to get to the brazilian side, so take care of that ASAP in US before leaving.

Visited the brazil side of the falls, which were gorgeous. I recommend you get off at the 3rd or 4th stops on the park tour bus (whichever one is for the falls first), and walk the whole trail. We did this and with snapping some 1,500 pictures it took us around 3.5 hours.

Were back at the hotel by 5 pm to relax that evening. Dinner in the hotel is OK (Don't go for the buffet, it sucks). The regular food is pretty good, but nothing compared to B.A.

The room itself is a pretty nice suite (Suite D). Its a 2 room, with a very very very large balcony overlooking the falls, its on a low floor so that you can have a large balcony so expect that people will be looking down on you from their rooms if you're out there.

The second day we did the standard ticket for the falls tour, which pays for the jeep tour in the jungle (interesting) and a ride on the water boat through the falls (highly recommended). Just be careful with your cameras, as I nearly lost a $3000 SLR after it got completely soaked inside and out. If I didn't have another lens the rest of the days photos would've been ruined by internal lens condensation.

The argentina side takes around 5-7 hours if you really want to do all circuits (upper and lower), but is well worth it. Afterwards you can relax at a great pool overlooking the falls before dinner.

The third day we left around 9am for our noon flight on TAM. The trick is that once you gain entry into Brazil once, and you're stamped at the border in Iguazu, you don't need to go through border control again (you literally keep driving). The reason why is because you never stamp an exit when you leave brazil in Iguazu, so they can't really tell if you left and came back or if you were still there. This works for mild turnaround (1-4 days) according to the driver.

So we kept going to the airport to find that our flight was cancelled. Judging by the fact that there were only 10 other people, I can guess the reason. They put a couple of the people on connections thorugh Sao Paolo for later in the afternoon, but us and another couple from Switzerland decided to stay and wait until the 6pm flight. We were given a hotel room in Foz de Iguazu, BR for the day, along with transportation and meals coupons. it turned out to be great. The hotel was completely empty but had a great pool and lunch was decent. Shortly before 6pm we headed back to the airport for our flight and caught a packed flight to Rio.

Was it possible to do this in 1 day, arriving early one day and leaving early the next? I think it is, but since we were on vacation, we wanted to relax, and the 2 nights in Iguazu combined with the unreal view from the suite and pretty good food was a great addition to our already awesome south american itenirary.

A good itenirary for a 10 day vacation (we did 13 days) would be something like this:

US-EZE(buenos)-Iguazu(AR)
Iguassu(BR)-GIG(Rio)-US

You can buy a US-Buenos; Rio-US ticket on your favorite carrier, then buy 2 cheap one-ways (half roundtrip prices) from Buenos-Iguazu (Aerolieas Argentina) and Iguassu-Rio (TAM).

Have fun in Iguazu falls.

P.S. If anyone is wondering based on earlier posts, yes, you'll never visit Niagra falls after being in Iguazu (I'm from New York and saying this).

hauteboy

We are doing this in November; open jaw AAward ticket AUS-DFW-EZE/IGU-GRU-DFW-AUS and a buying a one-way AEP-IGR.

Any good rates on the Sheraton? They're showing $340-$389 for a basic room. I have some SPG50's if these are any use.

ihdihd

I assume by the 'AAward' that you're using AA miles for this? If so I'd be interested in how (what flights). We used AA but it only got us a round trip to EZE.

As for Iguazu, the lowest rates when we were there were in the low $200s. Check for cash and points availability, or just forgo an SPG booking to get a much much much lower rate by checking the net for local agents.

hauteboy

This was booked as an open-jaw award for 40k: (You have to call to book this and pay the $15)
AUS-DFW AA
DFW-EZE AA
IGU-GRU JJ (TAM, must book before November but award is good until 2008, no changes though after November )
GRU-DFW AA
DFW-AUS AA

It might have been possible to do AEP-IGR on LAN, but that may have been a double open-jaw (there were no LAN Awards available that day anyway).


No cash+points showing (only 10k point rate), but the new SPG site is crap, so it may just be me.

hauteboy

Eek.. just went to book for 11/23 and hotel is showing full! Is this true? I guess that's thanksgiving week though, and a Friday to boot. Hard to see it selling out for $300+ a night. In fact, most hotels in Iguazu are showing sold out for that night. What is going on? Is it really going to be that busy?

skye1

Not necessarily so, at least as of earlier this year. See previous posts.

If one absolutely can't get a falls room upgrade, then I think the wisdom is to at least ask for a higher floor, as I suspect the lower floors would be right above the hotel circle-drive.

The public areas of the hotel (lobby, bar, restaurant, etc.) all have views of the falls, and the hotel is literally "right there" in terms of location, so sure, whilst it would be nice to have the view, the only time you wouldn't would be when you're in your room.

If you're not an early riser, I'd definitely suggest "becoming one" just for your stay there. The precious couple of hours you can spend within the park in the morning before the hordes of tourists arrive is COMPLETELY worth foregoing a few extra pings on the snooze alarm. On my last visit there, I went thru the entire lower circuit, at a leisurely stroll, without intersecting another visitor. I also enjoyed several solitary moments on the view platforms of the upper circuit. Can't reccomend it highly enough!

sushibear

[QUOTE=skye1;8606055]If you're not an early riser, I'd definitely suggest "becoming one" just for your stay there. The precious couple of hours you can spend within the park in the morning before the hordes of tourists arrive is COMPLETELY worth foregoing a few extra pings on the snooze alarm. On my last visit there, I went thru the entire lower circuit, at a leisurely stroll, without intersecting another visitor.[/QUOTE

This is absolutely true and one of the main reasons for staying at the Sheraton. I'm not an early morning kind of guy, but I made myself get started early. I had the whole Argentina side almost to myself until about 10:00 when the tour buses started to arrive. Even at the Devil's Throat, there were only a handful of people. It's one of the most profound experiences of my life.

I'm curious if anyone else was a little freaked out by the coatis. They kept surrounding me when I was alone on the paths. I felt like I was in an Alfred Hitchcock movie. I found that if I just hissed at them and waved my arms they ran away, at least for a while. There was only one alpha male that I found myself having a stand-off with. I wondered if rabies is an issue at all.

haveric

I was there this time last year (a few days before Thanksgiving) and it was very crowded.

Canarsie

They are merely hungry.

I have seen them snatch snacks right out of the hands of unsuspecting victims. They will jump, grab a bag of chips in mid-air, and land on the ground with the bag already ripped to shreds. Then they swarm around the prized stolen goods, fighting each other for a morsel.

They seem to be similar to raccoons. They are a novelty when one first sees one, but they quickly become pests.

hauteboy

Called the hotel directly and they did have availability, for Falls view-only. They're totally gouging on the rate though, but I guess they get suckers like me to pay it.

However when I went to put in my SPG number in the reservation it says this hotel doesn't participate in SPG?!

skye1

What?! I was just there this past summer and it was participating in SPG, and I can't recall reading anything in this forum that indicates otherwise.

Try calling the "Gold" line & seeing what they can do, not only on the SPG issue, but with the rate.

Starwood Lurker

This hotel participates. There is a transient, and elusive, error that sometimes manifests itself for which tickets have been opened.

The best source for non-participating properties at the moment are the T&C's of the SPG program. My apologies for any inconvenience.

Best regards,

William R. Sanders
Online Guest Feedback Coordinator
Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide

[email protected]

hauteboy

I had already called the reservations line; both the website and SPG said the hotel was sold out. But called the hotel directly and they had availability.