Rio first. Then all of Brazil.
Which Corcovado day also gets you up Sugarloaf. Whether the Iguazu boat is worth the soaking. What a capoeira roda in Salvador actually costs. Every tour in Brazil, reviewed.
Rio’s big three, and what Brazil books next.
Every review →Corcovado, the Sugarloaf cable car and a churrasco lunch fill most first days in Rio. Past those, the country spreads out fast — the falls, the Bahian coast, the river.
1
6-Stop Highlights of Rio with Lunch
A practical 8-hour Rio highlights loop with Christ the Redeemer, Selarón Steps, Maracanã and Sambadrome exteriors, Cathedral stained glass, and Sugarloaf.
From · $130
Read our review →
2
Christ the Redeemer Entry Ticket by Corcovado Train
from $45
3
Rio’s City Tour – Tickets for Christ, Sugar Loaf & Lunch included
from $159
4
Rafting – Brotas – Rio Jacaré Pepira
from $37
5
Full Day: Christ Redeemer, Sugarloaf, City Tour & Barbecue Lunch
from $74
6
Rocinha Favela Walking Tour with Local Guide
from $36
7
Sugarloaf Cable Car Official Ticket
from $46
8
Rio’s Full Day: Selarón Steps, Christ & Sugarloaf – Tickets & Lunch Included
from $159
Corcovado, Iguazu, the Amazon, the coast.
The days that get booked before the flight is paid for, and the best version of each.
Christ and Sugarloaf: pick how you climb them.
All 67 Christ the Redeemer tours →
A cog train through Tijuca forest, a cable car in two hops over the bay, or thirty minutes with the door off. The three routes cost wildly different money and eat wildly different amounts of your day.
Corcovado, Sugarloaf and a churrasco lunch
One van, both summits, the Selarón steps in between, and a rodízio lunch where the waiters keep arriving. It is the default first day in Rio and it earns the slot.
Two hops to the top of Sugarloaf
Urca first, then the second car across to Pão de Açúcar itself. Go for the last hour of light and you get Copacabana switching on underneath you on the way down.
Thirty minutes over both summits
The statue at eye level, Sugarloaf’s two humps, and the whole crescent of the south zone in one turn. Short, expensive, and the only way to see how the city fits between granite and sea.
South of Rio the road runs out at the water.
Arraial do Cabo has the water people fly to the Caribbean for. Ilha Grande has no cars on it. Paraty is cobbles, schooners and a cachaça still up the valley, and Búzios is where Rio goes for the weekend. All of it is a day trip or one night away.
At Iguazu the argument is which side. The answer is both.
Brazil gives you the panorama — the whole wall of it across the gorge, and the catwalk out into the spray at the bottom. Argentina puts you directly over the Devil’s Throat. The bridge between them takes twenty minutes, which is why the two-country day is the one most people book.
Rocinha is a city inside Rio, and people live in it.
Something in the order of a hundred thousand people call Rocinha home, on a hillside with its own banks, bakeries, bus routes, schools and samba. Vidigal sits under the Dois Irmãos peaks; Santa Marta has a funicular that residents ride home from work. The walks that are worth booking are the ones led by people who grew up in the alleys they are walking you down, and who are paid properly for the morning.
Every resident-led walk →The Amazon starts where two rivers refuse to mix.
The Rio Negro runs black, the Solimões runs the colour of milky coffee, and for several kilometres below Manaus they travel side by side without blending. Nearly every trip out of the city starts at that line and carries on into flooded forest, stilt villages and a night out looking for caiman.
- 1One-Day Amazon Jungle Experiencefrom $100
- 2Full-Day Tour on the Amazon Riverfrom $55
- 3Presidente Figueiredo Waterfalls Daytripfrom $90
Samba, capoeira, and 78,000 people at the Maracanã.
Beaches and waterfalls exist elsewhere. A roda in Salvador, a samba school drilling one break for forty minutes, and a Flamengo night at the Maracanã do not.
The Samba School Rehearsal
Rio’s schools rehearse in public from roughly August until Carnival, in their own quadras out in the north zone. An ensaio is a working practice, not a show: the bateria drills one break for forty minutes while a couple of thousand people dance to it. The costumes and the Sambadrome arrive in February. The rehearsals run most of the year and cost a fraction.
- 1Beginner Samba Lesson in Ipanema★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 · 1,071 reviews
- 2Pub Crawl in Lapa with Cachaça Tasting and Live Samba★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 881 reviews
- 3Carnival Backstage Tour at Samba City with Cocktail★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 520 reviews
The Capoeira Roda
Capoeira came out of Bahia among enslaved Africans, stayed illegal in Brazil until the 1930s, and is still taught in the Salvador academies that fought for it — Mestre Bimba’s first school is a working room to this day. A roda is a circle, a berimbau setting the speed, and two people playing a game that only looks like a fight.
- 1Cultural Treasure of Salvador – Capoeira★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 44 reviews
- 2Capoeira Class at Mestre Bimba’s 1st Ever School.★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 · 34 reviews
- 3Capoeira Classes for Beginners in Rio de Janeiro★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 27 reviews
A Night at the Maracanã
Flamengo can fill the Maracanã on a Wednesday for a league game nobody outside Rio has heard of. The stands do not sit down and the drums do not stop. Fixtures are confirmed a round or two ahead and the tickets that come with a local host go the same week, so this is not a stadium you turn up to on spec.
- 1Football Match in Rio de Janeiro – Guided with Transportation★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 150 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
From a cable-car ticket to a week on the Rio Negro.
What a day out actually costs in Brazil, from ticket-only mornings to the once-a-trip splurges. A very good day in Rio starts at about the price of lunch.
Cable-car and stadium tickets, samba lessons, Lapa pub crawls and the walking mornings that cost less than a taxi across town.
Half-day Rio combinations, Paraty schooner trips, Arraial boat days and most cooking classes.
The full landmark day with lunch, both sides of the falls, and the Costa Verde day trips that leave at seven.
Helicopters over the bay, river lodges with nights included, and private guides who build the whole day around you.
- 1Hang gliding Hang gliding Experience Rotorflyfrom $294
- 2Skydive Tandem – São Paulo – Brazilfrom $160
- 3Hang Gliding Adventurefrom $229
Rio’s summer rain arrives at four and is gone by six.
December to March the afternoon builds all day and drops in one go; in Manaus the wet season simply runs December to May. Neither cancels much. The cathedral, the samba room, the cachaça bench and the capoeira floor are all under a roof — and the falls are at their loudest a day after heavy rain.
In Brazil these run on a calendar, not on your schedule.
Most of the country can be booked from the hotel the night before. These cannot. They run on fixture lists, timed entry slots, one week in February, and a wind that either turns up at Pedra Bonita or does not.
- 01Christ the Redeemer Entry Ticket by Corcovado TrainEntry to the statue is timed and the cog railway runs to a fixed timetable. The early departures clear the cloud; the late ones often do not.
- 02Maracanã Stadium Official Entrance TicketFixtures are only confirmed a round or two ahead, and the tickets that come with a local host go the same week they are announced.
- 03Carnival Backstage Tour at Samba City with CocktailCarnival is one week in February and Sambadrome seats move through agents months out. The backstage workshops run year-round; the parade does not.
- 04Hang gliding Hang gliding Experience RotorflyFlights only leave Pedra Bonita when the wind cooperates, so operators keep each day’s list short and roll cancellations forward.
By region — where are you based?
Rio de Janeiro746 tours
São Paulo145 tours
Foz do Iguaçu124 tours
Salvador76 tours
Manaus73 tours
Paraty42 tours
Florianópolis29 tours
Fortaleza32 tours- All regions →
By experience — what kind of day is it?
Fresh out of Rio, Salvador and the falls.
Everything recent →
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Angra & Ilha Grande From Rio: Boat Tour With Barbecue and Drinks
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Private Tour with Churrasco in Vela Catamaran – Velas do Rio
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Half-Day Private Tour:Rio de Janeiro Highlights by Bernard Moraes
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Private Day Tour, both Argentina & Brazil Iguazú Falls
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Christ the Redeemer, Selaron Steps and Santa Teresa Half-day Tour
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PRIVATE SUV Tour Tijuca Forest, hiking & waterfalls + photos
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