Oscar Niemeyer's 2006 Museum of Contemporary Art in Niteroi. Photo: Ruy Barbosa Pinto via Flickr

By Mackie Healy, Art Market Views Contributor

Our bikini, sun block and Portuguese-English dictionary are packed.

Art in America magazine has joined forces with art travel company Pinacoteca to create a deluxe tour of Brazil’s booming contemporary art scene. Coinciding with the 29th Sao Paulo Biennial, the trip takes place from Sept. 19-26. Brazil 2010 includes access to the fair, guided museum tours, trips to private collections and artists’ studios.

First stop is the Sao Paulo Art Biennial. Featuring more than 30,000 square meters of exhibition space, the Biennial hosts national presentations as well international exhibitions held under the direction of selected curators.

Heading to the coast, a behind-the-scenes tour of Niterói Contemporary Art Museum is the highlight of the trip to Rio De Janeiro, along with visits to the Brazilian tourist spots like Sugarloaf Mountain and Ipanema Beach.

Destinations along the way include major contemporary galleries – A Gentil Carioca, Andre Millan, Manoel Macedo and others. Studio visits include Sandra Cinto, Jeanete Musatti and Laura Vinci.

The trip concludes with a one-day visit to much touted Instituto Cultural Inhotim in Belo Horizonte, an open-air contemporary art museum inside a 3,000-plus-acre botanical garden.

Pinacoteca specializes in vacations for the “cosmopolitan culture seeker.” Former Christie’s Latin American Paintings Department specialist Anna di Stasi founded the company in 2007.

The trip costs $5,500, exclusive of hotels and international airfare.