Rio hands you the postcard on the first morning. Then the city starts.
Which way up Corcovado skips the queue at the statue. What the Sugarloaf cable car is worth at golden hour. Whether Ilha Grande or Arraial do Cabo repays a fourteen-hour day. Reviews of every tour you can book in Rio de Janeiro.
Corcovado, a day in the bay, the forest, and a night in Lapa.
The five bookings a first week in Rio is built around. What each one costs, and what the people who took it say.
01The first morningChrist the Redeemer Entry Ticket by Corcovado TrainThe cog train up through the forest from Cosme Velho. Take an early slot: by eleven the statue is standing in a crowd.
02The whole city at once6-Stop Highlights of Rio with LunchCorcovado, the bondinho, the steps and lunch in one long day. The shortcut for a short trip.
03The island dayAngra dos Reis and Ilha Grande Full-Day TourFourteen hours out to Angra dos Reis and Ilha Grande, most of it on water. Green Coast beaches with no road to them.
04Off the rampHang Gliding Tandem FlightRunning off Pedra Bonita on a tandem wing and landing on São Conrado beach. Weather decides the hour, not you.
05The Lapa nightPub Crawl in Lapa with Cachaça Tasting and Live SambaCachaça, live samba and the arches. Go with somebody who knows which door is worth the queue.
Corcovado, Sugarloaf, or a granite peak you walk up yourself.
Rio is a city with mountains dropped into the middle of it, and almost every visitor books at least one of them. Three ways to end up looking down at the bay, what each costs to board, and how long it takes.
Six Rio landmarks, and the best day out at each one.
A statue on a granite peak, a cable car over the bay, rainforest inside the city limits, two beaches everybody has already seen, a hill of tiled steps and a street that only wakes up at midnight.
The days out more people book than anything else in Rio.
Every Rio tour we have reviewed →The tours travellers take in the biggest numbers, and what earns each of them the slot.
1
6-Stop Highlights of Rio with Lunch
See Christ the Redeemer, Sugarloaf, Selarón Steps, Maracanã, Sambadrome, and Rio Cathedral with lunch in one full day.
From · $130
Read our review →
2
Christ the Redeemer Entry Ticket by Corcovado Train
from $45
3
Christ the Redeemer, Sugarloaf, Selaron & BBQ Lunch
from $69
4
Angra dos Reis and Ilha Grande Full-Day Tour
from $77
5
Beginner Samba Lesson in Ipanema
from $25
6
Sunset Sailing Tour
from $75
7
Pub Crawl in Lapa with Cachaça Tasting and Live Samba
from $33
8
Christ, Selaron Steps, and Tijuca Park Tour
from $68
Guanabara Bay, and the coast either side of it.
The schooners leave from Marina da Glória, the speedboats cut across to Niterói, and the long day trips run east to Arraial do Cabo or west to Ilha Grande. Rio reads differently from a deck.
Lapa on a Friday is the loudest room in Brazil.
Under the white arches the bars run into each other and the samba is live, not piped. Learn the step in an hour in Ipanema first, or walk in behind a guide who already knows which door is worth the queue.
Every Rio night out →
What a day out in Rio actually costs.
Every tour on the site, grouped by price. A surprising number of the best Rio days come in under the cost of dinner on Ipanema.
Samba lessons, stadium entry, walking mornings and the cheaper ways onto Corcovado.
The full-day standards: both summits in one go, the forest jeeps, the Green Coast boat days.
Helicopters over the bay, tandem hang gliding and private cars for a whole day.
- 1Hang Gliding Adventurefrom $229
- 2Helicopter Tourfrom $220
- 3Hang Gliding Tandem Flightfrom $301
Three things this city does that nowhere else does.
Beaches and viewpoints exist everywhere. Running off a mountain into a beach landing, a stadium that changed how football is watched, and a staircase one man tiled for twenty years do not.
Flying off the ramp
The launch ramp sits at 510 metres on Pedra Bonita, above the forest at the back of São Conrado. Tandem pilots run off it strapped alongside you, ride the sea breeze coming up the face of the rock, and land on the sand ten minutes later. Flights go when the wind is on the ramp and are called off when it is not, which is why the booking is for a day and not an hour.
- 1Hang Gliding Adventure★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 760 reviews
- 2Hang Gliding Tandem Flight★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 426 reviews
- 3Paragliding Tandem Flight★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 186 reviews
A stadium built for a crowd
Almost 200,000 people crammed in for the 1950 World Cup final, a number no stadium will be allowed to hold again. It is smaller and safer now, and still the best place in the country to watch Flamengo or Fluminense. Tour it on a quiet morning for the tunnel and the pitch, or take the matchday ticket and let the drums do the explaining.
- 1Skip the Line Maracana Stadium Entrance Ticket★★★★★★★★★★ 4.0 · 203 reviews
- 2Football Match in Rio de Janeiro – Guided with Transportation★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 150 reviews
- 3Football Game Ticket with Guide and a Drink★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 124 reviews
The steps and the tram
Jorge Selarón tiled the 215 steps between Lapa and Santa Teresa for two decades, taking donated tiles from every country that sent him one, and never called it finished. The bonde still grinds up the hill above them on rails laid over an eighteenth-century aqueduct. Both are free; a guide is for the stories, and for the streets on either side.
- 1Christ the Redeemer, Sugarloaf, Selaron & BBQ Lunch★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 2,428 reviews
- 2Christ, Selaron Steps, and Tijuca Park Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 857 reviews
- 3Santa Teresa, Lapa, and Cinelândia with Tram Ride and Selarón Steps★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 274 reviews
Four Rio bookings that will not wait for you.
Plenty of this city can be arranged the night before over a beer on the sand. These four run on timed slots, wind, fixture lists and a cable car that stops selling when the platform is full.
- 01Christ the Redeemer Entry Ticket by Corcovado TrainEntry to the platform is timed and capped, and the cog train from Cosme Velho sells its early departures first.
- 02Hang Gliding AdventureFlights only go when the wind is on the Pedra Bonita ramp. Book a day with room in it, not an hour.
- 03Skip the Line Maracana Stadium Entrance TicketMatchdays follow the fixture list, and the stadium tour stops running on the ones with a game in them.
- 04Sunset Sailing TourOne departure a day, and it moves with the light. Sunset boats out of Marina da Glória go days ahead in high season.
The mountains keep their own weather, and it changes by lunchtime.
Corcovado makes its own cloud, and a summer afternoon can shut the view down an hour after a clear morning. Locals plan around it: take the peaks early, keep the indoor half of the city for the wet hours. Kitchens, galleries, the stadium and a room with live music in it.
- 1Beginner Samba Lesson in Ipanemafrom $25
- 2Samba Class in Copacabanafrom $25
- 3Samba Class and Samba Night Tourfrom $63
By place — peaks, sand and neighbourhoods
Corcovado, the bondinho, the forest, Lapa: the week almost everybody does first.
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