Travel bucket list idea:
Rio de Janeiro , Southeastern Region, Brazil
Bucket List Experience
Credit Shutterstock.com/Aline Alcantara
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.
Rio de Janeiro , Southeastern Region, Brazil
Experience
A museum dedicated to exploring the possibilities and challenges that lie ahead for our planet, and offering a unique perspective on the future of humanity. Housed in a stunning modernist fantasy building.
Adult price 7
Best for ages 8
Rio de Janeiro , Southeastern Region, Brazil
Experience
This 17th-century Portuguese church, Ordem Terceira de Sao Francisco, is the centrepiece of a complex of historic buildings on a hillside on central Rio, and has one of the most spectacular gilt, baroque interiors in the Americas.
Best for ages 18
Rio de Janeiro , Southeastern Region, Brazil
Experience
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.
Best for ages 18
Rio de Janeiro , Southeastern Region, Brazil
Experience
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.
Adult price 15
Best for ages 18
Rio de Janeiro , Southeastern Region, Brazil
Experience
Designed in the 1930s by Le Corbusier, Oscar Niemeyer and Lucio Costa, this was the first modernist building in the Americas, presaging a style that was echoed in Brasilia.
Best for ages 18
Rio de Janeiro , Southeastern Region, Brazil
Experience
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.
Best for ages 18
Rio de Janeiro , Southeastern Region, Brazil
Experience
The modest facade of this 16th-century church, Mosteiro de Sao Bento, hides a lavishly decorated gilt baroque interior, which shimmers in the low light.
Best for ages 18
Rio de Janeiro , Southeastern Region, Brazil
Experience
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.
Best for ages 18
Rio de Janeiro , Southeastern Region, Brazil
Experience
With a vast reading room lined with galleries of shelves, this neo-Gothic meets art nouveau library looks like a film set from a Harry Potter movie.
Best for ages 18
Rio de Janeiro, Southeastern Region, Brazil
Experience
A new World Heritage Site, Roberto Burle Marx’s former home sits in stunning gardens, designed by the landscape architect who worked on Brasilia.
Best for ages 18
Rio de Janeiro , Southeastern Region, Brazil
Bucket List Experience
Experience
This iconic, art deco beauty, the symbol of South America, watches out over Rio from high on Corcovado Mountain. The panoramic views from the statue’s feet are dazzling.
Best for ages 13
Rio’s best buildings can easily be seen by self-guided walking and taxi. Begin a full-day tour at the Utopia Aquario tram stop in the heart of the recently renovated docklands district, walking past the extraordinary building-high indigenous murals by Eduardo Kobra and continuing east to the complex of museums and renovated colonial buildings on Praca Maua square. The most spectacular of these is Santiago Calatrava’s bone-white, spaceship-like Museum of Tomorrow.
Take a five-minute cab ride from here to the glittering baroque Sao Bento monastery, continuing on to the spectacular Manueline Gothic Real Gabinete library. Stop for a drink at the gorgeous art nouveau Confeitaria Colombo cafe. It’s a five-minute walk from here along the Largo da Carioca to Sao Francisco da Penitencia – Rio’s most spectacular colonial church.
In the afternoon take a 30-minute cab ride to Oscar Niemeyer’s extraordinary MAC museum – perched over the ocean like a flying saucer, returning on the ferry – past the striking neo-Gothic customs house on the Ilha Fiscal island. Boats leave for this return journey from the Estacao das Barcas de Niteroi (a ten-minute cab ride from MAC).
Our selection of the best Viator tours of this attraction or activity
Rio de Janeiro
Viator
Price $294
Min age 1
Rating 4.93 / 5 [29 ratings]
Tour supplied by:
Destination guides including or relevant to this experience
Southeastern Region, Brazil
Destination guide
Heaven for healthy hedonists – hang glide, surf or hike by day, relax on the beach and party all night. Then, of course, there’s that carnival…
