Wanderlines
Aerial view of Christ the Redeemer above Rio de Janeiro
Brazil · Rio de Janeiro

Rio de Janeiro

A city where the rainforest comes down to the beach, the mountains have trails to their summits, and dinner can be a long tasting menu or a plate of feijoada on the pavement.

The hikesWhere to eat
Photo via Pexels
Overview

The marvellous city, on foot

Rio is six million people wrapped around granite peaks, a lagoon and 90 kilometres of coastline, with the largest urban rainforest in the world, the Tijuca, in the middle of it. The famous views are from above, and most of them can be walked to: Corcovado from the botanical quarter, Dois Irmãos from Vidigal, the Sugarloaf's little brother from a beach in Urca.

Stay in the Zona Sul, the south zone, where Copacabana, Ipanema and Leblon run along the ocean and Botafogo has the restaurants. Centro and Lapa are for daytime history and night-time samba; Santa Teresa, on its hill above them, for the bohemian afternoon.

Four days covers the icons and two hikes. A week adds the Tijuca forest, a samba night, a day of diving at Arraial do Cabo and the long lunch the city does best.

Bird's-eye view of the coast of Rio de Janeiro
Zona SulCopacabana, Ipanema, Leblon, Lagoa: the beaches, the promenade, the best hotels and most of the eating.
Botafogo & UrcaThe restaurant quarter and the quiet peninsula under the Sugarloaf with Bar Urca's sea wall.
Centro, Lapa & Santa TeresaColonial churches and the Colombo by day, samba under the arches by night, trams up the hill.
Tijuca & Jardim BotânicoThe forest, the trailheads, the gardens and Parque Lage's palace café.
Highlights

The icons, and how to do them well

Everyone sees these six. Timing is what separates a good visit from a queue.

Christ the Redeemer statue against the sky
Corcovado · 710 m

Christ the Redeemer

The 30-metre statue on Corcovado, finished in 1931, with the whole city at its feet. Book the first cog train of the morning, or walk up from Parque Lage (see Hikes) and arrive before the vans. Cloud sits on the summit by noon in summer.

Corcovado in detail →
The Sugarloaf cable car in black and white
Urca · 396 m

Sugarloaf

Two cable cars, Praia Vermelha to Morro da Urca then up to the Pão de Açúcar, for the sunset view back over Botafogo bay to Corcovado. Hike the first stage for free and pay only for the second.

Sugarloaf in detail →
View along Ipanema beach to the Dois Irmãos peaks
Zona Sul · Beach

Ipanema and Arpoador

The beach of the song, divided into numbered lifeguard posts with their own tribes. Walk to the Arpoador rock at the eastern end for sunset; the crowd applauds when the sun goes behind Dois Irmãos.

Ipanema & Arpoador in detail →
The tiled Selarón steps in Rio de Janeiro
Lapa · Centro

Selarón steps and Lapa

Jorge Selarón covered 215 steps between Lapa and Santa Teresa in tiles from sixty countries, working on them until his death in 2013. Early morning for photographs; return after dark for samba under the Lapa arches.

Selarón & Lapa in detail →
A colourful staircase in a hillside neighbourhood
Hill · Afternoon

Santa Teresa

The hill of artists' studios, crumbling mansions and the yellow tram that climbs from Centro over the Lapa aqueduct. Lunch at a boteco, the Chácara do Céu museum, then down the Selarón steps as the light goes.

Santa Teresa in detail →
Aerial view of Rio de Janeiro between forest and sea
Gardens · Forest edge

Jardim Botânico and Parque Lage

The 1808 botanical garden with its avenue of imperial palms, toucans in the canopy and marmosets on the paths, and next door the Parque Lage mansion with a café in its courtyard and the Corcovado trail starting behind it.

The gardens in detail →
Hikes & nature

Up the granite

Rio's hikes start at bus stops and end on summits with the city below. All are inside or beside Tijuca National Park, open 8am to 5pm; start early, carry two litres of water, and take a guide where we say so.

A hiker with a backpack on a mountain path
Demanding

Pedra da Gávea

The great flat-topped block above São Conrado, 844 metres straight out of the sea and the hardest day walk in the city. Steep forest steps for two hours, then the Carrasqueira, a 30-metre slab of exposed rock climbed on holds with a rope, then a long open ridge to a summit the size of a football pitch. The view takes in Barra, the Zona Sul, Corcovado and the Sugarloaf at once.

5–7 hround trip
~800 mascent
844 msummit

Go with a guide for the Carrasqueira, and only in dry weather. Trailhead in Barrinha, São Conrado.

Full route guide →
The sea coast of Rio de Janeiro with mountains behind
Moderate

Dois Irmãos

The twin peaks at the end of Ipanema, climbed from the top of Vidigal favela: a mototaxi or van up through the community, then an hour of steep, well-trodden forest path to the summit at 533 metres. The reward is the best view in Rio, Ipanema and Leblon laid out below, Rocinha on the other side, the Lagoa and Corcovado beyond.

2–3 hround trip
~400 mascent
533 msummit

Go with a local guide from Vidigal; it is respectful and it is safer. Mornings are clearest.

Full route guide →
A waterfall in dense green forest
Demanding

Corcovado from Parque Lage

The honest way up to Christ the Redeemer: a path that starts behind the Parque Lage mansion and climbs about 4 kilometres and 700 metres through Atlantic forest, past a waterfall, to the back of the summit platform. Two to three hours up, steep and humid, with a short stretch beside the cog railway. You arrive among the day-trippers with the mountain earned.

2–3 hup, 1.5 h down
~700 mascent
710 msummit

There have been robberies on this trail; go in a group or with a guide, early, and without valuables. Entry to the statue is paid at the top.

Full route guide →
A beach in Rio de Janeiro beneath a rocky hill
Easy

Morro da Urca via the Cláudio Coutinho path

From Praia Vermelha a flat, paved path runs along the foot of the Sugarloaf with marmosets in the trees and the sea on your left. Halfway along, a signed trail climbs 30 to 40 minutes to Morro da Urca, the first cable-car station, for free. Buy a one-way ticket there for the ride up the Sugarloaf itself, and ride the whole way down.

1–1.5 hto Morro da Urca
~200 mascent
220 msummit

Late afternoon for the sunset from the top. The path closes at 6pm.

Full route guide →
People hiking up a mountain trail
Easy

Pedra Bonita and Pico da Tijuca

Two Tijuca summits for two moods. Pedra Bonita is a 30-minute stroll from the road above São Conrado to a granite platform beside the hang-glider ramp, with Pedra da Gávea filling the view; most people are gliding off it by ten. Pico da Tijuca, at 1,021 metres the highest point in the park, is a longer forest climb from the Bom Retiro car park, with iron steps cut into the final rock.

1 h / 3–4 hrespectively
100 m / 500 mascent
1,021 mPico da Tijuca

Both need a car or ride-hail to the trailhead. Pedra Bonita is the one to do with children.

Full route guide →
Scuba & snorkel

Cold water, clear water

The city's own diving is modest; the best in the state is at Arraial do Cabo, two and a half hours east, where an upwelling of cold Atlantic water keeps the sea clear and full. Wear a 5 mm suit; the water is 15–20°C.

A scuba diver beside a reef
Brazil's bestOpen Water to Advanced

Arraial do Cabo

Granite islands, kelp-fringed walls and white sand in water that can reach 25 metres of visibility between September and April. Ilha dos Porcos is the classic reef dive, with turtles, rays and schooling grunts; the Gruta Azul, the Blue Grotto, is a 25-metre swim through tunnels and canyons; several wrecks sit in 20–30 metres. Dive centres run from the harbour at Praia dos Anjos.

8–30 mdepth
OW / Advancedlevel
5–25 mvisibility
Sep–Aprbest

Day trip by car or bus from Rio, or stay two nights. June to August brings swell and cancellations, but also humpback whales on the boat ride out.

A sea turtle swimming over a reef
Open Water

Ilhas Cagarras

The rocky islands five kilometres off Ipanema, a protected reserve of seabird colonies and rock reefs. Visibility is 8–15 metres on a good day, with green turtles, rays and shoals of grunts around the boulders. A morning's diving within sight of the beach, worth it for the novelty and the frigatebirds overhead.

6–20 mdepth
Open Waterlevel
8–15 mvisibility
Oct–Marbest

Boats leave from the Marina da Glória; choose a day after a spell of calm weather.

Good food

From the boteco to the tasting menu

Rio eats late, long and in company. The city has a handful of serious tasting menus and a Bib Gourmand list that is mostly neighbourhood trattorias, but its soul is the boteco: a bar with cold beer, fried snacks and a feijoada on the right day.

A dark stew simmering in a pot
Eat this · Saturdays

Feijoada

Black beans stewed for hours with every cut of pork, served with rice, farofa, collard greens and orange slices to cut the fat. The national dish, and in Rio a Saturday lunch ritual (Wednesdays in some houses) that ends in a nap.

A spread of Brazilian moqueca on a wooden table
Eat this

Moqueca and the sea

Fish or prawn stew in coconut milk, dendê oil and coriander, from Bahia but adopted here, plus grilled fish at the beach kiosks, bolinho de bacalhau at the bar and a whole grilled fish in Urca at sunset.

Assorted cocktails on a bar at sunset
Drink this

Caipirinha and petiscos

Cachaça, lime, sugar and ice, made at every kiosk and boteco; ask for it with passion fruit or cashew fruit. Alongside: pastel, coxinha, picanha skewers, pão de queijo, and a chopp, the tiny ice-cold draught beer that is Rio's unit of time.

The stars

World's 50 Best · No. 28

Lasai

Botafogo · dinner, tasting menu

Rafa Costa e Silva cooks from his own gardens in a townhouse with a handful of tables: a Brazilian tasting menu of vegetables, fish and fire that made it the only Brazilian restaurant on the 2025 World's 50 Best list. Book months ahead.

R$ 900–1,300 · $$$$
Fire kitchen

Oro

Leblon · dinner

Felipe Bronze's fire-driven tasting menu, cooked over embers in front of the counter: Brazilian produce, theatrical presentation, and one of the city's deepest wine cellars.

R$ 800–1,200 · $$$$
Latin America's 50 Best

Oteque

Botafogo · dinner

Alberto Landgraf's seafood tasting menu in a quiet dining room: raw and lightly cooked fish from the coast, precise sauces, a counter if you want to watch.

R$ 700–1,000 · $$$$
Copacabana Palace

Mee

Copacabana Palace · dinner

Pan-Asian cooking in the hotel that invented Copacabana glamour. Sushi counter, Thai and Vietnamese plates, cocktails in the Golden Room afterwards.

R$ 400–700 · $$$
Omakase

San Omakase

Counter · dinner

Twelve seats, one chef, a sequence of nigiri from Brazilian and imported fish. The city's best sushi, and quieter than its reputation.

R$ 500–800 · $$$$

Bib Gourmand and botecos

Bib Gourmand

Artigiano and Pici Trattoria

Ipanema · lunch and dinner

Two Italian rooms on the Bib list: Artigiano for handmade pasta and a short, good-value menu, Pici for Tuscan plates and a lively bar. Book for weekend dinner.

R$ 120–220 · $$
Bib Gourmand

Maria e o Boi

Copacabana · lunch

Traditional Brazilian cooking, beef front and centre: picanha, oxtail, rice and beans done properly. The Bib Gourmand for people who want the food of a Carioca grandmother at a fair price.

R$ 100–200 · $$
Bib Gourmand

Sult, Miam Miam, Didier, Brota and Koral

Around the Zona Sul

The rest of the city's Bib Gourmand list: Sult for Italian-Brazilian plates, Miam Miam for Botafogo comfort cooking, Didier for a French bistro, Brota for vegetarian food on Conde de Irajá, and Koral, the 2026 addition.

R$ 120–250 · $$
Boteco

Bar do Mineiro

Santa Teresa · lunch, Saturday feijoada

A 1980s boteco with walls of photographs and a hundred cachaças: feijoada on Saturdays, bolinho de feijoada every day, and the hill's best afternoon.

R$ 80–160 · $
Boteco

Bar Urca

Urca · late afternoon

Order beer and pastéis at the window, then sit on the sea wall opposite with the fishing boats and the Sugarloaf going pink. The city's favourite sunset, for the price of a chopp.

R$ 50–120 · $
Institution

Confeitaria Colombo

Centro · breakfast to tea

Belle-époque mirrors, stained glass and a 1894 pastry counter in the old centre. Coffee and a pastel de nata downstairs, or the buffet lunch upstairs under the skylight.

R$ 60–180 · $$
Wildlife

A rainforest inside the city

The Tijuca forest was replanted by hand in the 1860s after coffee plantations stripped the hills, and the animals came back. You do not need to leave town to see them.

Toucans, marmosets and capuchins

Tijuca National Park, Jardim Botânico, Parque Lage

Channel-billed toucans croak from the canopy in the botanical garden most mornings; common marmosets run the fences of Parque Lage and the Urca path; capuchins and coatis patrol the picnic areas of the Tijuca forest. Sloths are slower to find; the Taunay waterfall area is the best bet.

JFMAMJJASOND

Humpback whales

Arraial do Cabo and Búzios · boat trips

Humpbacks migrate north along the coast from July to September and are seen from the dive boats and whale-watching trips out of Arraial do Cabo. Occasionally one surfaces off Copacabana; mostly you go east for them.

JFMAMJJASOND

Capybaras on the Lagoa

Lagoa Rodrigo de Freitas · dusk

The world's largest rodent grazes the lawns around the lagoon at dusk, unbothered by joggers. Walk or cycle the 7.5-kilometre lakeside path and you will meet a family of them.

JFMAMJJASOND

Seabirds of the Cagarras

Off Ipanema · boat or beach

Frigatebirds, brown boobies and kelp gulls nest on the islands off Ipanema and work the beach all day; watch the frigatebirds rob the boobies from Arpoador. Boat trips circle the colonies.

JFMAMJJASOND
A toucan on a branch
All year

Toucan

Listen for the croak in the botanical garden's palms.

A monkey in a tree
All year

Marmoset

On the railings of Parque Lage, waiting for crumbs they should not get.

A toucan with a bright beak
Dawn

Forest mornings

The Tijuca is loudest in the first hour after sunrise.

Nightlife

Samba first

Rio's night is organised around the roda de samba, a circle of musicians at a table with the crowd singing every word. Find one, then worry about clubs.

Samba dancers in feathered costumes
Saúde · Monday and Friday

Pedra do Sal

Free samba on the rock where the music was born, in the old port district: musicians on the steps from about 7pm, the crowd filling the square, beer from coolers. The most Carioca night there is.

A samba parade with floats and dancers
Lapa · Thursday to Saturday

Rio Scenarium and Carioca da Gema

Lapa's samba houses: Rio Scenarium over three floors of antiques, Carioca da Gema smaller and more serious about the music. Arrive by eleven, stay until the band stops, eat a hot dog at the arches.

A row of cocktails on a wooden bar
Copacabana · nightly

Bip Bip

A bar the size of a corridor where choro and samba players sit in a circle and the audience stands on the pavement. Take your own beer from the fridge, note it on the honour sheet, keep quiet during the songs.

Baixo Gávea

Gávea · Thursday and Sunday

The square where university students drink on the street outside the bars until the police nudge them home. Loud, young, cheap.

Arpoador at sunset

Ipanema · every evening

Not nightlife, but the start of every night: the rock at the end of the beach, a vendor's caipirinha, applause as the sun drops behind Dois Irmãos.

Carnival blocos

February or March · the streets

The parades at the Sambadrome need tickets; the blocos, street parties that follow a sound truck through a neighbourhood, need only a costume and stamina. Hundreds of them over two weeks.

Take ride-hail between neighbourhoods after dark, keep your phone out of sight on the street, and carry only the cash you need. Lapa is fine inside the venues and busy on the main streets; use the car door to door.
Wine

Brazilian bubbles and the bars that pour them

Brazil makes serious sparkling wine in the Serra Gaúcha, the Italian-settled hills of the south, and Rio is where to drink it cold.

Two glasses of white wine on the sand at dusk

Serra Gaúcha, by the glass

The Vale dos Vinhedos, around Bento Gonçalves in Rio Grande do Sul, is the country's wine heartland, and its strength is sparkling: traditional-method bruts from houses like Cave Geisse, Casa Valduga and Miolo that stand beside cava and crémant. The reds, Merlot and Tannat mostly, are improving; the Moscatel sparklers are sweet and cheap and perfect at a kiosk.

Imported wine is taxed heavily in Brazil, which is why the national bottles are the value on every list. Ask for an espumante brut from the Serra Gaúcha and you will rarely be disappointed.

All Brazilian

Cave Nacional

Botafogo

A bar and shop that pours only Brazilian wine, by the glass and by the flight, with staff who can explain the difference between the Serra Gaúcha and the Campanha. The place to start.

Natural wine

Virtuoso Vinho

Between Ipanema and Copacabana

Small, low-lit and devoted to natural and low-intervention bottles from Brazil, Chile and Europe, with snacks to match. Late and loud at weekends.

Bubbles

Champanharia Ovelha Negra

Botafogo

A champanharia, which is a Rio institution: dozens of sparkling wines by the glass, Brazilian and French, drunk standing at the counter before dinner.

A dinner table with wine and candles
Deep lists

Oro, Lasai and Canastra

The two-star rooms keep the city's best cellars; Canastra in Ipanema, run by Frenchmen, pairs a smart short list with pizza and a pavement crowd. Belisco, women-run, and Bottega del Vino in Leblon round out the neighbourhood options.

A hand holding a wine glass against a sunset
What to drink

In the heat

Brut espumante with seafood, a chilled Brazilian rosé with feijoada's richness, and Tannat from the south only after the sun has gone. Supermarkets stock the Serra Gaúcha labels at half restaurant prices.

Practical notes

Before you go

Getting there

Galeão (GIG) is the international airport, 40–60 minutes from the Zona Sul by ride-hail or the BRT and metro. Santos Dumont (SDU), on the bay beside Centro, takes domestic flights and is twenty minutes from Copacabana. Buses from São Paulo take six to seven hours.

Getting around

The metro links Centro, Botafogo, Copacabana, Ipanema and Leblon; the VLT tram covers Centro and the port. Uber and 99 are cheap and the safest way to cross the city at night. Bike-share runs the whole beachfront path, closed to cars on Sundays.

Seasons

  • Dec–Mar: hot, humid, afternoon storms; Carnival in Feb or Mar.
  • Apr–Jun: warm, drier, quieter.
  • Jul–Sep: coolest and driest, best for hiking; whales.
  • Oct–Nov: warming up, good value.

Money

Brazilian real (R$). Cards are taken almost everywhere and Pix, the instant-payment system, is universal if you have a Brazilian account; otherwise carry small notes for kiosks and street vendors. Tipping is a 10 per cent service charge on the bill.

Safety

Street theft is the real risk. Nothing valuable on the beach, phone kept in a pocket on the street, ride-hail rather than walking after dark outside the beachfront, and favelas only with a local guide. Trails in groups. The beaches have lifeguards; the rips are strong.

Beach rules

Posto numbers mark the beach: 9 in Ipanema for the young crowd, 10 for families, Leblon's posto 12 for quiet. Kiosks rent chairs and umbrellas and sell coconuts; the vendors' cheese on a stick and Globo biscuits are part of the day. No swimming after rain, when the drains run.

Photography

Photo credits

Photographs on this page are by independent photographers published on Pexels under the free Pexels licence. Click a title to open the original.

Powered by Webloyt | Report abuse