TESTIMONIALS

One among only a handful of English-speaking guides is a man named Pedro Paulo Pinto Jr., who may be reached at 55 31 99067717. Michael Uhl (Frommer's Travel Guide)

Our own guide, Pedro Paulo Pinto, whom I highly recommend, may be contacted at 55 31 99067717 or write to him at optravel@uai.com.br Blaise Simpson (Los Angeles Times)

For travelers to Brazil, here is the name of one excellent guide by whom we were led. Personable, very knowledgeable and good conversationalist: Pedro Paulo Pinto Jr. Mildred Garretson (International Travel News)

I would like to commend Pedro Paulo Pinto Jr., not only for a job well done, but for one above and beyond that which would be expected. Sam Rose (Knoxville Friendship Force)

 ... but mainly, this is to thank you for all your help with our trip to Ouro Preto. The friendliness and professionalism of everyone with whom we dealt, stand in great credit to your country Declan Clark (London - UK)

My wife and I would like to thank you for your fine company and guiding in Ouro Preto. We enjoyed ourselves very much Desmond Senior (Brussels - Belgium)

We had a wonderful time in Ouro Preto; it was absoultely beautiful. You were great; very informative.Mamta Tailor (New Jersey - USA)

Thanks for the unforgetable tour through Ouro Preto Paul & Wendela Elsinger (Holland)

Where shall I start?  Fayanne, my mother, and I had such a wonderful time in Ouro Preto.  By sharing your knowledge of the history of the region and your familiarity with the towns we visited, you greatly enriched our trip.  Your restaurant recommendations were fantastic.  Most of all, you were charming company and we felt very well taken care of. Laura Riegelhaupt (Massachusetts - USA)

Pedro, so good to hear from you. Our visit to Ouro Preto and meeting you was a highlight of our trip for which we are most grateful. Your organisational skills were much appreciated given our lack of local language skills. Room for improvement would be hard to find.  However some very minor suggestions and they concern advice at the start. We did not know until the end that the hotel (which we thought was an excellent choice) provided a shuttle service to the town centre which would have made us more adventurous in the evening, we wish to have been informed on arrival of what was provided or  available I wish we had been told where to go to for Minas Gerais cooking earlier, the food was so much more interesting than the usual  'tourist' spaghetti and steak restaurants, our last meal on your recommendation was superb, a highlight again The hotel did not have heating thus the rooms were very cold (but all other features were excellent)  we were also grateful for arranging an early morning breakfast on the last morning. We enjoyed your sense of humour matched to your knowledge of the history of the area.  We recall your' tropics, catholic and Portuguese' quote as the perfect summary of Brazil which we think has a 'wow' factor a real buzz. Wish you and the family (Pedro 1,2 and 3?) good health and success in the future. Should you ever arrive in Australia please contact me on our home email Marcel Colman (Australia)

Dear Pedro, how are you? Cristiano and I are back to Italy and back to our routine life. We are astonished in realising how impressed we were about our Brazilian trip but above all how much we enjoyed and appreciated the tour we had with you; after Minas Gerais we visited other regions, other cities, other sites, as beautiful as yours but I'm sorry (and proud) to say that not as involving as the ones we visited with you. And we know that the difference was your presence, your kindness and your passion. For this reasons we want to thank you once again for having made us appreciate so much your beautiful country. We'll be remembering Pedro Paulo and Minas Gerais for years to come. Love. Letizia Matarrese and Cristiano (Rome - Italy)

Hi....we thought Pedro was an excellent guide!  He was professional, yet friendly,  with a great sense of humor.  We felt very relaxed with him and we learned so much about the history of Ouro Preto. He is really an expert on the history of the churches, the town, the culture and even on the minerals & gemstones.  He recommended great places to eat and we enjoyed all of them very much.  The pizza place (Passos?) was excellent as was Flute de Bene's  where we ate two delicious meals.  He also directed us to a great Gemstone dealer (ITA Gemas) that we thought was extremely professional and very skilled in his field.  All of his tips were correct and much appreciated! I have already referred Pedro to several American friends in Campinas that wish to travel to the beautiful town of Ouro Preto Tracey Nelson (North Carolina - USA)

To our wonderful guide Pedro Paulo, thanks to you, our visit of Minas Gerais will stay in our mind. Thank you for your humor, culture and kindness. Hope everything is OK for you and your lovely wife. Pedro, do you have any evaluation form we could fill ? If no, what do you think about this? This summer we visited the region of Belo Horizonte and our travel has been a big success. We choose the  package you can see below. If we were to give a grade from 0 to 10, this is what I would do. Transportation 10/10 the mini bus was confortable, the driver expert and the roads are super. Hotels 10/10 the Pousada were so beautyful,confortable and the breakfast  delicious!!! Restaurants 10/10 the Minas Geiras' cuisine is excellent. The guide 15/10 Pedro , thank You so much for this trip. You are so cultured, so kind and so patient. Suavis Nahimana, Luc and Alexis Vandeweerd, Suzon Lefebvre (Bridel - Grand Duché de Luxembourg)

It was a most excellent tour.  I was expertly guided to good accommodations and enjoyable dining.  The transportation could not have been better.  Considering that we needed to travel to many different and far-removed sites in an area bigger than California and still managed to visit all of them on time is miraculous.  I would recommend Ouro Preto Travel to anyone. David Williamson (Tennessee - USA)

My family and I were very satisfied with out 3 days spent in Minas Gerais.  Pedro Paulo Pinto was an excellent guide, and did his best to accommodate us. I hope he was satisfied with our Tip! I'm very glad he was able to accompany us for 3 days. We had 5 or 6 tour guide during our stay in Brazil, but he was the best. I would recommend Ouro Preto Travel and Pedro to my friends going to Brazil. Bill Sano (Salem Massachsuetts, USA)

Hi Pedro. Thank you for looking after as so well, we were very impressed with Minas Gerais and hope to be back in the future. The Transportation and The attention that we received was First class. The restaurants and the food were superb. The Hotel in Ouro Preto was good. Over all we had a good time and we learned a great deal about the history of Brazil specially about the churches and the mining industry. Thank you for great time. Best Regards. Miguel Diez. (London - UK)

Hello Pedro, Just wanted to take a moment to thank you for a wonderful few days in your beautiful part of Brazil!  While I am back in Canada, I have left part of my heart in Minas Gerais! Zoli and I really enjoyed our travels with you, and will be recommending Ouro Preto Travel to any friends interested in seeing the area.  I would have loved to have another few days there, because there was a great deal to see...  The Pousada in Tiradentes was amazing, and having a little more time there would have been wonderful. Thank you very much for the customization you did on our tour.  The emerald and topaz mines, and subsequent visit with the mine owner were the highlights along with the furniture shops and Lion carvers!  I am really looking forward to hearing from Zoli when his beautiful lions arrive in Rio.... take care, my friend! Ellen Harris & Zoltan Palmai (Canada)

Dear Pedro, I would like to thank you very much for really excellent tour to Marianna and  Ouro Preto. These two towns (and whole Minas Gerais) were very impressive for  me. My transportations from Belo Horizonte Airport to Ouro Preto, to Belo  Horizonte and to the airport were exclusiveness and comfortable, with no  problems.  Hotel in Ouro Preto, Pousada Classica, was comfortable and provided nice  accommodation.  My guide, Jairo Luiz de Lima was excellent, friendly, willing to help, detailed answered to my questions and was highly educated as regards  to the history, culture and life in Minas Gerais. I have to express him big  thanks and recognition. Restaurants were also excellent and I could taste local specialties. In summary, I can say to be highly satisfied with OURO PRETO TRAVEL's  services and I am able to only advise visitors of Ouro Preto to use your  services. Once more, thank you very much and probably, see you again. With my best regards, (Jan Simkanin - Czech Republic)

Hello Pedro, What can I say, I had such a lovely  time that I can't criticise anything, except that I didn't go near another church for at least a week! The car was fine even if it was designed  to drive on the right hand side of the road (fortunately all the traffic was doing the same). By the time I left Canada I was managing to get into the correct side of the car by pretending to myself that I was going to drive it - but it  took two countries for me to get it right.  Namibia and New Zealand were easy.  I certainly wasn't nervous but I would have been if you had driven like that here! The hotel in Ouro Preto was right in the main street  so I enjoyed watching  the university students having a good time. The hotel in Tiradentes was quite  different, miles from the town but such friendly people. The guide's (what his name)  knowledge of the subject was superb and it was grand brushing brains with him. He was generous and kind and professional. The restaurants were too tempting.  I am sure that I put on 2 kilos while in Minas Gerais and the sweets were irresistible. Bad luck - I don' t  think I'll make it to Brazil again. Cheers (Mary Straiton – Perth Western Australia)

Hello Pedro, I am happy to comment about my visit with you to the Colonial Towns of Minas Gerais. The whole tour was very enjoyable. I have long wanted to visit Ouro Preto, after hearing a radio broadcast possibly 40 years ago, by an eminent émigré architectural historian, Nicholas Pevsner, which caught my imagination. The tour gave me not only the chance to explore Ouro Preto but opened my eyes to other wonderful places in the region, of which I was previously unaware, as well as the lovely scenery of that part of Brasil. I was met at Belo Horizonte Airport, most courteously, and driven around the region speedily but safely, in a comfortable car. Great care was taken to ensure my safety at all times. The hotels in Ouro Preto and Tiradentes were comfortable, quiet and all that I require when travelling, not a person who enjoys 5 star treatment. Staff were generally very helpful. The restaurants for lunch were excellent, being buffet, they gave me a chance to sample typical cuisine of the Minas Gerais region, which was very tasty. Restaurants recommended for the evenings were also good and friendly. The guide tour that you gave me was thorough and comprehensive, information was supplied as relevant and the background to subjects, such as slavery, were delivered as and when appropriate. It gave me a lot to think about and helped me understand how the region developed over the centuries. You are an very interesting man and I very much enjoyed the time spent together, and the interesting conversations. I was also grateful for the tour of Belo Horizonte, as I am just as interested in modern architecture as historic, and to visit buildings by Oscar Niemeyer was a privilege. Also to learn about your childhood in the city. All together this was a wonderful experience and the culmination of my Round the World tour, visiting places that I have longed to see at first hand. Thanks also for the photographs. Regards and thanks. John How (London – UK)

Hi Talline, I apologize for being tardy in responding to your request for information.  We had a wonderful time on the trip. Pedro was very informative and pleasant to be with. The hotel in Ouro Preto and Belo Horizonte were wonderful. We enjoyed the trip so much that we plan to come back and spend more time in the Ouro Preto area and try and organize some digging in the local mines. Thanks and regards, Mandy and John Wahby (Florida - USA)

Dear Pedro, Hardly seems like 3 months have passed since we visited you wonderful country and in particular Ouro Preto.  My wife and I were very pleased with the professionalism and the level of service provided in our transfers from Belo Horizonte to Ouro Preto and return.  We found your company more than cooperative in adjusting pick-up times to accommodate our needs.  It made our visit enjoyable and stress free! Keith Rans (Saskatoon Saskatchewan Canada)

Hello Pedro! Thank you for the pictures! We appreciate them a lot. In-action, and unaware of the camera makes the motives and the camera man perform at their best. Lovely!   Transportation: Comfortable and on time every time. The transports felt safe during all times thanks to excellent driving and a good car. Hotels: Wonderful choices! Comfortable and well equipped in Belo Horizonte and authentic and comfortable in Tiradentes and Ouro Preto. Good locations! No complaints here. Excellent that they all provided free wifi. Guide: We asked for a guide that could tell us the history and this we got - and more than we ever hoped for. Thanks for wonderful history lessons and detailed stories - you have a real in-depth knowledge. We also said that we liked to take photos and that we wanted extra time for that, so we especially liked that you have photography knowledge and could advise us about best photo shot points. You made our stay in Minas Gerais very interesting and unforgettable. Restaurants:
We appreciate the choices of restaurants with local food on the menu. All three of them served very tasty meals, and the last one in Ouro Preto was a real gem! Thank you once again and have a nice vacation in Europe! Magnus and Irina Johansson (Stockholm Area - Sweden)

Hello. We are glad to give you our comments: Guide: Pedro Wonderful man! We enjoyed his company for the 4 days. He was polite, on time, courteous, opening doors for us, listening to what we wanted and adjusting the tours to suit out desires. And most of all, he was knowledgeable. I learned more about Brasil in those 4 days than I had learned in the last 3 years of living here. He could tell us about history, culture, economy, politics, and the environment. He enjoyed photography and was eager to stop and take pictures with us when ever we wanted to. His English skills were excellent so we had no problem understanding him and enjoyed his sense of humor. I would highly recommend him. The last morning Pedro made arrangements for a different man to drive us to the airport. He had a lovely car and drove very well. He was there early which we appreciated. Transportation: The car was comfortable, airconditioned, and Pedro made it easy for us by dropping us off and then leaving to park the car so we did not have to take the time to walk from the car. That was nice. The only negative I would say was the highway driving. We are used to the way Brasilaros drive on the highways but people who are just visiting here would be quite alarmed at the speeds they drive, the way they follow so closely behind vehicles, and the way they take chances passing on 2-lane roads. There were times when we were quite afraid for our safety as we speeded past big trucks and small cars on the narrow, curving, 2-way highways. But, we got everywhere safely so that was good. Hotels: In Tiradentes - excellent. Everything was wonderful - the reception was pretty and welcoming, the room was large and had a lovely sitting area, the amenities were good (snacks, soaps, towels, etc), and the grounds were just lovely. There were many places to sit and relax in the sun, the pool was wonderful to soak our tired feet in, the cat was friendly and a good companion. The food (breakfast) was very good and the service was warm and friendly. Highly recommend this place even though it is a little distance from the main town. The walk is pretty and Pedro told us there was no crime there so we felt very safe. Tours: Pedro took us so many interesting places in every town and share the history of each place. I requested we visit a pewter factory because I am interested in the process and wanted to buy some so Pedro took us to one and arranged with the owner to talk with us. It was a high light. Another interesting thing was visiting with the pilgrims at the shrine in Congonhas. A cultural experience we will long remember. The train to Marianna was fun even though Pedro thought it was not worth it. Pedro took us to the soap stone market in Ouro Preto which we would not have found on our own. We bought things there at half the price we had seen in Curitiba. We never got tired of the churches although there were a lot of them! There is so much culture and history in this area. I think it is the best area of Brasil that we have seen. Restaurants: In Belo Horizonte - wonderful food and amazing atmosphere. Keep this one on your list of places to take people! Road-side cafes - these were fun to stop at and we enjoyed every one. In Ouro Preto  was very cool and I had pork rinds for the first time. Yumm. We did not have any out standing meals but all the places we ate at were good. All in all, this was a great trip and probably the best of any we've taken in Brasil. Your company is well organized and friendly. I have recommended it to many of my friends. All the best to you and thank you for giving us such great memories of our brief time in Minas Gerais. Ruth and Stan Klapauszak (Canada)

Dear Talline Lana, Thank you for you mail of 20 July. Sorry for not answering sooner. We were very satisfied with the transfer from the airport at Belo Horizonte to Ouro Preto. The driver (and guide) Mr. Edson Melo did his job very well. He told us about different places along the route, such as places of interest for tourists to see and also about other facts concerning Belo Horizonte and its surroundings and of course about Ouro Preto. We made use of him again on Monday 18 July when he took us to Mina da Passagem. So all in all, the services which you provided for us during our visit to Ouro Preto were to our full satisfaction. If and when we ever come back there, we will certainly contact you again. Best regards, Karin and Harry Albinsson (Täby, Sweden)

Tour Guide Brazil - Alameda Eponina Ruas, 99 - Ouro Preto MG Brazil - Phones : 55 31 99067717 / 55 31 88910751 / 55 31 35523868