26 Best things to see & do in Rio de Janeiro

Every year on the weekend before Shrove Tuesday, Rio throws the world’s boldest and brashest party – Carnaval. There are events throughout the city, from huge bloco samba-swinging street parties (including in Ipanema, Copacabana, the City Centre and Santa Teresa), to balls in the Copacabana Palace.

The main spectacle is undoubtedly the famous samba schools’ parade which takes place in the Sambódromo – a purpose-built arena in the city centre. This all-night kaleidoscope of gargantuan floats, sequinned samba dancers, drummers and scantily clad carnival queens, leaves the senses reeling. Unmissable.

Perched over Rio, on a high peak swathed with rainforest and illuminated in brilliant-white at night, this art deco beauty is a global icon every bit as good in real life as it looks in the pictures.

And the views of the city from the statue’s feet are as breathtaking as the Christ itself – the heart-shaped lagoon, Ipanema Beach and the distant bulk of the Sugar Loaf sitting over the shimmering bay.

There are many ways to see it – private car, taxi or organized tour – but the best way is probably via the funicular train, on a ride up through rainforest filled with floating butterflies, in the early morning when the light is golden. If budget allows, take a helicopter from Corcovado or Sugarloaf and go face-to-face with this spectacular statue, rather than staring up from its feet.

Guanabara Bay shimmering at your feet, Christ the Redeemer hovering on the horizon, rainforest, bays and beaches all around: few urban locations in the world offer a more spectacular backdrop to a rock climb or an abseil.

While it looks like a single mountain, the Sugarloaf you see in the photographs is actually two – the lower Morro da Urca (Urca hill) and the higher Pao de Acucar (Sugarloaf itself). There are climbing routes up both, ranging from the beginner level Morro da Urca Overview (a popular training route) to the technical, advanced Via dos Italianos route. Views are spectacular on all climbs.

Rio has some excellent climbing clubs and schools with fully accredited climbers and state-of-the-art equipment.

Rio’s most famous mountain crouches like a sphinx over a perfect half-moon bay just close to Copacabana. It’s a stunning sight – its haunches carpeted with forest, its slopes reflected in the calm water.

The views from the top are even more breathtaking; especially in the late afternoon when the sun shines buttery-yellow on the sands of Copacabana, before dropping behind the Christ statue; and the lights of Rio twinkle on like stars.

Rio is a city of beautiful views – and the best views of all are from a helicopter as it floats over the city’s boulder-like mountains, beach-fringed bays and sweeping Atlantic Ocean strands.

All flights fly right up to and face-to-face with the magnificent Christ the Redeemer statue, and drift over the dense rainforest that shrouds Tijuca National Park.

The views – of the city, sparkling bays with golden curves of beach, and hills covered with think rainforest or sprawling favela – are so breathtaking that you’ll be back on land before you remember you have vertigo, and the adrenaline buzz will be with you for the rest of the day.

Samba, Brazilian football, Rio funk and carnival were all born in Rio’s vibrant favelas. These marginalised, poor slums are as much a part of Rio – and the Rio experience – as the beaches or nightlife, and tours now take you inside – not only to see what life is like for residents, but to lay bare one of the most artistically vibrant and alternative communities in Latin America.

It’s an edgy, culturally intriguing and slightly nerve-racking experience – but one that shows how much Rio is indebted to these tightly-knit communities.

Most of central Rio’s boulder-mountains are protected as a vast sweep of wild tropical forest – cut by mountain streams and waterfalls and busy with toucans and monkeys as small as a kitten.

With fabulous views of the Christ the Redeemer statue and Rio’s beaches at every turn, Tijuca is a wonderful place for a steep cycle ride or hike with a view. Jungle trails run to a series of spectacular peaks – including Gavea Rock (Pedra Gavea, the world’s largest monolith), Bonita Rock (Pedra Bonita, where there’s hang gliding) and Tijuca Peak (Pico da Tijuca), the highest peak in Rio.

The path up Gávea involves an exposed rope-assisted scramble that hovers over a sheer precipice. It’s not for the faint-hearted but the views are incredible. The path to Pedra Bonita is steep but short and easier – taking around 40 minutes, with stunning views over southern Rio. Active types should not miss the exceptional 3-hour hike to Tijuca Peak.

Life in Rio revolves around its long, golden beaches, where cariocas meet to relax, play and socialise. No visit to Rio would be complete without experiencing at least one. Beaches facing Guanabara Bay, including Botafogo and Flamengo, are pretty but water quality is poor. Atlantic-facing beaches, including Copacabana and Ipanema, are larger and cleaner. Beaches in the outer suburbs – like Grumari and Prainha – have the highest water quality and the best surf.

Join Rio locals for an early-morning workout. Joggers run along the sand, gym bunnies pump iron al fresco and everyone gathers at kiosks for a pre-work acai or coconut juice.

This world-famous 4km crescent is the epicentre of Rio’s beach scene and the perfect place for beach sports and people-watching. It;’s not great for swimming – water quality is especially poor when the tide comes in.

Rio is the city of Samba you‘ll hear the music everywhere, in all its diverse forms. Like jazz, samba takes many forms – from the visceral, multi-drum beat which powers Carnival to the gentle sway you’ll hear in intimate clubs and restaurants throughout Rio.

The best place to sample it is Lapa, on a weekend night. The neighbourhood is crammed with arty little boho clubs – set in converted costume warehouses, historic Belle Epoque mansions and tiny hole-in-the-wall bars. Cariocas and foreigners gather here – to swing together on the dance floor and congregate outside on the cobbled streets, fuelling the fun with icy caipirinha cocktails and draught chope beer.

With warm weather and towering coastal mountains creating almost constant thermals, myriad broad sandy beaches for landing strips and spectacular views over boulder-mountain studded bays, Rio is a hotspot for hang gliding.

The sport is long-established here, and a number of operators offer tandem or solo flights, which take off from the paragliding station atop the giant 520m-high monolith of Bonita Rock (Pedra Bonita).

If you’ve ever wanted to try hang gliding, this is as good a place as any.

Rio’s Botanical Gardens are a delight – with leafy trails running through semi-wild gardens to lily ponds, tinkling waterfalls and spectacular views of the Christ statue and Corcovado mountain at every turn. They preserve one of the best collections of neotropical plants in the world, and are a haven for wildlife – with 140 recorded species of birds – including 20 species of hummingbird.

Founded as the private retreat of the Brazilian emperor in the 19th century, and now listed by UNESCO as a biosphere reserve, the gardens are a great break from the heat and the beach – with shady glades and al fresco cafes.

Rio’s prettiest, chicest ocean beach, is watched over by the impressive Dois Irmaos mountain that sits behind. The water is cleaner, and the crowd more exclusive the further south you go, where Ipanema Beach merges into the more upscale Leblon Beach.

On first glance Rio’s architecture is uninspiring. But this is the nation’s former capital and the birthplace of starchitect Oscar Niemeyer – and there are some real gems hidden away in the sea of concrete towers – which is why Rio was the first city to be nominated a World City of Architecture by UNESCO in 2020.

The city centre has some of the finest baroque buildings in South America (including gold-glittering Sao Bento monastery and Sao Francisco church), and a new museum district with Santiago Calatrava’s spaceship-like Museu do Amanha at its centre. In Niteroi across the bay, Niemeyer’s stunning Contemporary Art Museum hovers over the water. A city centre walk and tram ride is the best way to take in the highlights, followed by a ferry hop across the water to Niteroi.

In 2017 Rio de Janeiro was awarded its second World Heritage Site by UNESCO. Valongo Wharf (Cais do Valongo) is the former stone dock where, from 1811 onwards, an estimated 900,000 enslaved Africans arrived in South America – part of the greatest number transported to the Americas.

The archaeological site lies at the heart of a burgeoning area devoted to African-Brazilian heritage which includes new museums, cultural centres and the Pedra do Sal steps, where weekly live concerts celebrate the birth of Rio samba here in the 19th century.

Two of Brazil’s best walking tour companies offer guided visits to the area, which can include the Pedra do Sal samba shows.

At just over 1,000m, Tijuca Peak is the highest of Rio’s boulder-mountains, and the views from the summit are spectacular – with Rio’s stunning landscape of bays and forest-covered mountains at your feet.

The hike itself is one of the best walks in Tijuca National Park – cutting through wildlife-filled forest, before climbing steeply through a long staircase of steps literally cut into the rock face. It’s easily done as a round trip in around 3 hours, and you can visit Tijuca’s waterfalls or even the Christ the Redeemer statue on Corcovado on the way back. Plenty of Rio tour operators offer the hike.

This beautiful and little-known two-hour trail hugs the coastline between Barra de Guaratiba village in Rio’s extreme southern suburbs and the long crescent moon surf beach at Grumari.

The path climbs through protected rainforest, affording wonderful views over the long, wild beaches of da Marambaia and from the Telegraph Rock lookout (with a seemingly endless spread of beaches and mountains at your feet). It then drops to a series of rocky coves and bays before emerging on long, pearl-white Grumari beach.

There’s wildlife to see on the way – electric blue Morpho Blue butterflies as big as a handkerchief, hummingbirds, capuchin monkeys and soaring frigate birds. And the bottle-green, surf and body-surf friendly sea at Grumari is as fresh and clean as you’ll find anywhere in Rio.

This hulking 842m-high granite monolith, Pedra da Gavea, towers above both Corcovado and Sugar Loaf; the 6-hour hike up through the wildlife-filled rainforests of the Tijuca National Park is ultimately rewarded with some of the best views in Rio.

Even in high season, you’ll share the experience with just a handful of other walkers. The catch is that it’s a half-day hike and a scary rope-secured scramble to the summit, making this a challenge solely for the vertigo-tolerant, fit, agile and wild at heart.

Climb in Rio lead a range of guided climbs up Pedra da Gavea for the more serious mountain climber.

This wonderful rainforest and beach walk winds around Morro da Urca hill next to Sugar Loaf mountain, offering myriad beautiful mountain and ocean views of Rio and the Sugar Loaf.

The walk is easy – hugging the coast around Botafogo Bay – before climbing through dense forest, winding past myriad spectacular viewpoints and reaching the summit of the hill. It takes around 45 minutes to complete one way. There’s plenty of wildlife to see en route – tiny, tufted-eared marmoset and brown capuchin monkeys, brilliantly-coloured tanagers and hummingbirds. And it’s straightforward to catch the cable car up to Sugarloaf or back to ground level.

Brazilian star-modernist architect Oscar Niemeyer’s most famous Rio building sits sentinel over Guanabara Bay like a giant concrete flying saucer. Inside, the ‘MAC’ houses the main collection of Brazilian artist Joao Sattamin, plus works by other Brazilian artists like Aluisio Carvao, Dionisio Del Santo and Lygia Clark.

Pelé da Praia has been teaching locals and tourists Brazilian football tricks on Ipanema beach for more than a decade. One-to-one tuition and group classes available. Contact him at peledapraia1@hotmail.com.

Glittering with mirrors, and with gorgeous art deco galleries illuminated by a vast ceiling skylight, this traditional Portuguese coffee house in the city centre is the perfect coffee spot, and a must for lovers of architecture.

Even if you’re not religious, this landmark cathedral is worth a stop to admire the building alone. A towering brutalist cone, its dark, cavernous interior is lit with long strips of iridescent modernist stained glass.

The beach, carnival and football are Rio’s passions, but if locals had to choose just one, it would probably be the beautiful game.

Watching a match – in the national stadium Maracanã, or at local teams Flamengo, Botafogo, Fluminense or Vasco – is an unforgettable experience: the roar from the huge crowd, the pounding of samba drums, the colours and costumes swirl together to create an atmosphere so charged it raises the hairs on the back of your neck – especially at a local derby or a match between the national team and arch-rivals Argentina.

An Instagram favourite, these colourful mosaic steps were created by Chilean immigrant Jorge Selaron. Visit the bottom end in Lapa (off Rua Joaquim Silva) – the upper reaches in Santa Teresa lie close to a favela and are unsafe.

This neo-Gothic Verdigris-covered fantasy palace, built during the days of the Empire of Brazil, is Rio’s former customs house. It’s now a small naval museum that you can visit. Tours depart from the nearby Navy Cultural Centre.