The quickest way to get around the city, there’s extremely helpful maps in the metro stations. You can buy a Riocard at the majority of metro stations, and they’re reloadable at any of their kiosks. Just make sure you have enough money loaded on your Riocard for a few rides, some of the metro entrances don’t have kiosks. A metro ride will cost R$ 4.30 , and a bus is R$ 3.80.
There’s a ton to see and do in Rio. If you only have a few days, you’re going to need a solid plan. Rio is huge and the barrios are like small cities in themselves. If you try to bounce from neighbourhood to neighbourhood, you’re going to spend all day in transit. Here’s a quick breakdown of the three spots you can’t miss in Rio, and where they are.
Sugarloaf is located in the Urca neighbourhood, so if you’re spending the day by the beach in Copacabana, it’s a short uber ride to the entrance of Sugarloaf.
Christ the Redeemer is accessible from a few of the neighbourhoods, but if you were getting the train up the mountain, the closest metro stop is in Botafogo, while an Uber to the entrance is fairly short from Lapa.
Read my guide on the different ways to reach Christ the Redeemer!
Escadaria de Selarion is between Santa Teresa and Lapa, so it’s a good spot to begin early in the morning before the tour buses descend. From there you can walk to the Santa Teresa tram station, and explore the hippy mountaintop neighbourhood before it gets too hot. While in Santa Teresa don’t miss the Parque das Ruinas, it has a great vantage point over the city!
A confeitaria is a bakery/cafe/restaurant hybrid, and they’re on basically every corner in Rio. Took us a while to get used to them, since they can be kind of intimidating when you don’t speak Portuguese. First you order and pay at the cash register, then go to the counter and point out specifically what you want. Usually at the cash ‘salgado’ will cover the majority of the pastries, but once you’re at the counter most things aren’t labelled so we spent a lot of time pointing and gesturing to get what we wanted.
The majority of confeitarias we stopped in, there was very little English spoken. The offline google translate is a lifesaver, so make sure to have the Portuguese language downloaded.
Also, a website such as this:
https://www.foodrepublic.com/2018/07/03/64-portuguese-fooddrink-words-and-phrases/ which lists and explains some of the common Brazilian food and dishes, is great to have saved for offline reading.
Brazil is famous for it’s per kilos, and we ate at one almost every day we were in Rio. It’s usually buffet style so you can pick up however much of whatever you want, and they weigh the plate when you’re done choosing. Rio isn’t the best place to get your veggies in, but luckily the per kilos always have some sort of salad bar and fresh salsas, etc. Look for the charcoal grill, since there’s usually a grill master cooking up protein.
There’s usually a couple options to get freshly sliced steak, chicken, or sausage (tip, if you like your steak medium rare, ask for it mal passado). A full plate was usually about 15-20 riels.
Also, don’t be afraid of the street grills. Best advice for street food is to go where all the people are. That way you know the food is fresh and has a fairly quick turnover, and you’ll be a-ok!
Chope/chopp (pronounced SHOW-PEA) is Brazilian draft beer, while cerveja (SIR-VAY-HA) is bottled. Since most of Brazil is hot year round, draft beer is usually served in smaller glasses to keep it cold. Large bottle are also served with tiny glasses for the same reason.
Or, go for a caipirinha. You can never go wrong with a caipirinha. Brazil’s national drink, it’s cachaca, sugar, and lime muddled together. You can get all sorts of variations on this, my favourite was either the mango or pineapple. Caipiroska is another variation of the caipirinha, but made with vodka!
I was averaging about 1-2 acai bowls per day while I was in Brazil. A great source of antioxidants and a great caiprihana hangover cure, they’re sold absolutely everywhere in Rio. I noticed the acai tends to get less sweet as you travel north, with the Rio acai bowls being more like sorbet. Since acai on it’s own is fairly bitter, it’s usually blended with other ingredients to make it sweeter. Could be fruit if you’re lucky, or a pile of sugar if you’re not. I preferred to have mine blended with banana, just ask at the juice stand for what you want.
Going to the beach and hoping to not be immediately labelled as a tourist? You’ll stick out with a beach towel (we’ll pretend your non-existent tan didn’t give you away). So, leave the towel at home and opt for a canga (sarong) instead. Vendors all along the beach sell them, or you can pick one up in any of the little shops as well.
If you’re female (or male), and trying to blend in with the crowd, the full coverage bottoms can stay home with the towel as well. Body love is well embraced in Rio, and bottoms are itty-bitty at the beach. However, topless tanning is a no-no strangely enough, but tops can also be just as tiny as you want them to be. If Rio is your first stop, it’s a good excuse to work on those hard to tan areas.
If you’re waiting for a bus, you need to hail it like a cab. They won’t stop for you unless you wave them down. Yellow seats on the bus are meant for elderly, pregnant, or differently-abled people. It’s frowned upon to sit in them if you do not need them, even if the bus is full and they’re empty.
The tap water is safe to drink and meets Western health sanitation standards. Because of the cleaning process some people say it has a strange aftertaste, but it’s not going to make you sick. One goal for our trip was to not buy plastic water bottles, so we drank the tap water the entire time. We really didn’t notice the supposed taste. Makes a huge difference being able to drink the local water, when you’re going through gallons of water a day.
Ubers are in Rio and are definitely preferable over cabs. If a driver knows you’re a tourist, they can go a longer route to your destination, or just generally be shady. With Uber it’s easy to track your route, and that extra peace of mind is nice.
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