The facilities and infra-structure in Manaus can not be considered excellent, mainly for the inhabitants day-by-day life, but in my opinion they are quite enough in a touristic point of view. What I mean is that there are a large number of good Hotels, a good Airport, many proffesional agencies avaiable and accostumed to deal with foreign visitants, several attractions and points of interests offered in English and Spanish and a welcoming atmosphere to the visitants.
If time is not a problem, there is an interesting Jungle Cruise offered by some international Cruise Companies that bring the visitants inside the Jungle in a confortable boat, offering daily attractions, a very flavorous tipycal food and amazing experiences. This Cruises can be customised, but in general they last around 3 nights and 4 days and can be booked online and in the most of the tourism agencies in Manaus.
Another possibility, in a faster visit, is the "Amazon Day Tour", or some similar named tour, that means a one day boat tour in the Black and Solimon Rivers. In this option, you will be picked up in your Hotel around 8am, be driven til the Port, where a mid-size boat with around 40 seats will navigate from the Black River to some pretty interesting attractions, such as a visit in a native Indigenous Tribe, a stop to swimm with the Amazon Dolphins ("Botos"), a lunch in an submersible restaurant over the river with tipycal amazon food (many kinds of fluvial fishs) and finally the beatiful meeting of the rivers Negro (Black) and Solimões (Yellow). This tour ends around 5pm, when you be driven back to your hotel or left in some of the central attractions of the city (it is up to you) and can also be booked in the most of the local tourism agencies.
The city of Manaus also have some interesting attractions such as the Amazon Theater, which is considered in of the most beautiful Opera Houses in Latin America, and offers different kinds of shows every weekend. Other two points of interest in Manaus are the Arena Amazonas, the Football World Cup 2014 Stadium, and the Municipal Market, where you can find the tipycal Amazonic Flaviours in some very uniques local condiments and natural ingredients. And finally, there is a small town close to Manaus called President Figueiredo Falls that can be easilt visited and offer to its visitants some beatiful and refreshing falls.
GENERAL TIPS:
- Manaus' weather is pretty warm and humid, so you should drink water as much as you can to keep yourself always hydrated.
- To avoid loose your valuable time in Manaus you may want to try to book all the attractions you are planning to do in advance. If possible you should consider to have everything booked before landing there.
- People from all over the world visit Manaus, so during those tours mentioned above you have a great opportunity to make new friends and interact with different cultures. There is an incredible environment during the tours because, afterwards, everybody there will be experiencing a true adventure togheter.
- The Indigenous Tribes visited in these regular tours are native and true, but they live quite close to Manaus and their habits are already very influenced by the "White Man". If you want to visit a real Indigenous Jungle Tribe, with original habits, you should looking for some very specialized tours that will demand more time, preparation and will be followed by authorized and well prepared personnel.
- Brazilian people from Manaus are very open and welcoming. But although they are accostumed with tourists, the English idiom is not spoken by the most of the regular citizens. So if you want to interact with the locals it will be important to learn at least some Portuguese or even Spanish,which can be understanded with some patience, as well.
- The violence level in Manaus is not high, but it can also not be considered a very safe city, so you should have caution there, mainly in the empities downtown streets at night.
