Jardim Botanico do Rio de Janeiro

The experience

Rio's Botanical Garden, founded in 1808 by Dom Joao VI, spreads across 54 cultivated hectares at the foot of Corcovado. Highlights include the towering avenue of royal palms, an orchid house, Amazonian giant water lilies, a Japanese garden and a sensory garden, plus resident toucans and marmosets. It holds thousands of plant species and adjoins the wider Atlantic forest.

A serene 200-year-old garden of royal-palm avenues, orchids and wildlife beneath Corcovado.

What a membership adds.

Everything above is free: the name, the photo, the rating, the exact spot. What members get is the part you can't Google: the sourced insider tip for this place (what to order, when to go, what to skip), every day of your trips unlocked in full with the insider tip on every researched stop, and the concierge at full strength, answering with your own insider tips, no daily meter.