Rio de Janeiro Travel Guide

Rio de Janeiro is the second largest city in Brazil, on the South Atlantic coast. Rio is famous for its breathtaking landscape, its laid-back beach culture and its annual carnival. The "Carioca Landscapes between the Mountain and the Sea" has been inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage list. The harbour of Rio de Janeiro is comprised of a unique entry from the ocean that makes it appear as the mouth of a river. Additionally, the harbor is surrounded by spectacular geographic features including Sugarloaf mountain at 395 meters (1,296 feet), Corcovado Peak at 704 meters (2,310 feet), and the hills of Tijuca at 1,021 meters (3,350 feet). These features work together to collectively make the harbor one of the Seven Natural Wonders of the World. Rio de Janeiro hosted many of the 2014 FIFA World Cup games, including the final. It also hosted the 2016 Summer Olympics and Paralympics, becoming the first South American city to host the Summer Olympics.

Rio is one of the country's major transportation hubs, second only to São Paulo.

Rio de Janeiro possesses an extensive and complex, highly multi-modal public transportation system, adapted to the city's unique topography – large areas covered by mountains surrounded by pockets of densely populated flat lands. Among the public transportation modes, there is subway, heavy rail, light rail, bus rapid transit, local buses, microbuses, cable cars and ferry boats.

Rio de Janeiro's reputation as a dangerous city was cemented internationally by the critically acclaimed movieCidade de Deus— a reputation that's not entirely unwarranted.

In theZona Sul, you will find Rio's fanciest and most popular hotels along the beaches of Ipanema and Copacabana, but there are lots of small, cheap, clean hotels around Flamengo and Catete. The street in front of the strip of tourist hotels in Copacabana can be seedy, due to both garishly-dressed tourists, and a few opportunistic locals ready to take advantage of them. The apart-hotels in Ipanema are a much more pleasant alternative, being both better appointed and in a nicer neighborhood with