Top 10 Things to Do in Rio De Janeiro

Ipanema Beach is one of the world's most famous stretches of sand — a 2.5-kilometre Atlantic shore in Rio's South Zone whose blend of spectacular mountain backdrop, pounding waves, and beautiful sun-worshippers has inspired bossa nova songs, fashion trends, and travel fantasies globally since the 1960s. The beach is a deeply social space divided into unofficial "postos" (numbered lifeguard stations), each with its own crowd identity ranging from family groups at Posto 10 to the LGBTQ+ community at Posto 8 and surfers at the western end near Arpoador. Wednesday and Sunday sunsets over the Two Brothers mountains are an unofficial civic ritual.

Copacabana Beach is Rio's most iconic strand, a crescent of 4 kilometres backed by its famous black-and-white wave-patterned mosaic promenade designed by Roberto Burle Marx, with the Copacabana Palace Hotel at its centre and the historic Forte de Copacabana at its southern tip. The beach hosts New Year's Eve celebrations that draw over two million people dressed in white to watch fireworks from the water, one of the world's greatest annual gatherings. Its beach volleyball courts produced Brazil's greatest players, and the informal pelada football matches at dawn are played with a casual skill that humbles watching tourists.

Sugarloaf Mountain is Rio's second great peak — a 396-metre bare granite monolith at the mouth of Guanabara Bay whose distinctive rounded silhouette gave rise to the Portuguese name "Pao de Acucar," comparing it to the conical sugar loaves used in colonial sugar refining. Two sequential aerial cable car rides, the first to Morro da Urca and the second to the Sugarloaf summit, have been transporting visitors since 1912, making it the oldest cable car system in the Americas. The summit view at sunset, when Guanabara Bay turns gold and the Christ statue glows across the ridgeline, is Rio's definitive vista.

The Lapa Arches — the Arcos da Lapa — are an 18th-century Roman-style aqueduct of 42 arches stretching 270 metres through central Rio, built between 1744 and 1750 to carry fresh water from the Santa Teresa hillside to the colonial city below and now serving as the trestle for the famous Santa Teresa tram. The surrounding Lapa neighbourhood is Rio's nightlife epicentre, where dozens of forrozeiros, samba clubs, and choro bars operate from colonial buildings until sunrise every weekend. The Friday night street party outside the arches is Rio's most joyful recurring event, drawing thousands for live music and cold beer beneath the illuminated aqueduct.

Santa Teresa is Rio's most bohemian hillside neighbourhood, a winding maze of cobblestone streets, 19th-century mansions, independent art galleries, and open-air restaurants that cling to a forested hillside above Lapa with sweeping views across Guanabara Bay. Accessible via the beloved yellow bonde tram that clatters across the Lapa Arches, the neighbourhood has been a refuge for artists, intellectuals, and eccentrics since the 1960s and retains its identity as Rio's creative soul. The Chacara do Ceu museum houses a remarkable collection of European and Brazilian modernist art, and its garden terrace is one of the finest viewpoints in the entire city.

The Rio de Janeiro Botanical Garden, founded by the Portuguese Crown Prince Dom Joao in 1808, spreads across 54 hectares at the base of Corcovado mountain and contains over 6,500 plant species from Brazil's biomes and around the world, including the famous Imperial Palm avenue — 64 palms planted in 1842 lining the entrance avenue to a height of 40 metres. The garden is home to rare Atlantic Forest orchids, a serene Japanese garden pavilion, and the oldest living imperial palm in Brazil. On weekday mornings it is one of the most tranquil and beautiful spaces in the entire city, threaded with birdsong and the sound of small streams.

Maracana is the world's most famous football stadium, a 78,000-capacity arena in north Rio that has hosted the 1950 and 2014 World Cup finals, the 1989 Copa America, the 2016 Olympic Games, and the 2021 Copa Libertadores final — accumulating a mythological status in the global game matched only by Wembley and Camp Nou. The 1950 World Cup Final, when Uruguay shocked Brazil 2-1 in front of nearly 200,000 spectators, is remembered in Brazil as the Maracanazo — one of sport's most traumatic collective moments. Tours of the stadium visit the pitch, dressing rooms, and press boxes, while a match-day visit to see Flamengo or Fluminense creates a noise and passion unmatched in world football.

Tijuca National Park is the world's largest urban forest — 3,953 hectares of restored Atlantic rainforest covering the mountains above Rio that were almost entirely deforested by 19th-century coffee plantations before being replanted from 1861 onwards in an early act of ecological conservation. The park harbours over 300 bird species, families of monkeys, and more plant species than the whole of continental Europe, and is accessible by trails that begin just 20 minutes from Ipanema. The park contains Corcovado, several spectacular waterfalls, and the Pedra Bonita hang gliding launch ramp from which pilots fly down to Sao Conrado beach with the entire city spread below.

Rio Carnival is the world's biggest party — a five-day February festival that takes over the entire city with an estimated 2 million people per day dancing in the streets during the blocos (informal neighbourhood street parties) and 90,000 spectators filling the Sambodromo to watch the elite samba school parade competition, where schools of up to 4,000 performers in extraordinary costumes compete for the championship under blazing floodlights. The Grande Rio, Mangueira, and Beija-Flor samba schools each spend an entire year and millions of reais constructing their floats and costumes for a 90-minute performance. Carnival is not an event you attend — it is an experience that consumes you entirely.

Ipanema Beach is one of the world's most famous stretches of sand — a 2.5-kilometre Atlantic shore in Rio's South Zone whose blend of spectacular mountain backdrop, pounding waves, and beautiful sun-worshippers has inspired bossa nova songs, fashion trends, and travel fantasies globally since the 1960s. The beach is a deeply social space divided into unofficial "postos" (numbered lifeguard stations), each with its own crowd identity ranging from family groups at Posto 10 to the LGBTQ+ community at Posto 8 and surfers at the western end near Arpoador. Wednesday and Sunday sunsets over the Two Brothers mountains are an unofficial civic ritual.

Copacabana Beach is Rio's most iconic strand, a crescent of 4 kilometres backed by its famous black-and-white wave-patterned mosaic promenade designed by Roberto Burle Marx, with the Copacabana Palace Hotel at its centre and the historic Forte de Copacabana at its southern tip. The beach hosts New Year's Eve celebrations that draw over two million people dressed in white to watch fireworks from the water, one of the world's greatest annual gatherings. Its beach volleyball courts produced Brazil's greatest players, and the informal pelada football matches at dawn are played with a casual skill that humbles watching tourists.

Sugarloaf Mountain is Rio's second great peak — a 396-metre bare granite monolith at the mouth of Guanabara Bay whose distinctive rounded silhouette gave rise to the Portuguese name "Pao de Acucar," comparing it to the conical sugar loaves used in colonial sugar refining. Two sequential aerial cable car rides, the first to Morro da Urca and the second to the Sugarloaf summit, have been transporting visitors since 1912, making it the oldest cable car system in the Americas. The summit view at sunset, when Guanabara Bay turns gold and the Christ statue glows across the ridgeline, is Rio's definitive vista.

The Lapa Arches — the Arcos da Lapa — are an 18th-century Roman-style aqueduct of 42 arches stretching 270 metres through central Rio, built between 1744 and 1750 to carry fresh water from the Santa Teresa hillside to the colonial city below and now serving as the trestle for the famous Santa Teresa tram. The surrounding Lapa neighbourhood is Rio's nightlife epicentre, where dozens of forrozeiros, samba clubs, and choro bars operate from colonial buildings until sunrise every weekend. The Friday night street party outside the arches is Rio's most joyful recurring event, drawing thousands for live music and cold beer beneath the illuminated aqueduct.

Santa Teresa is Rio's most bohemian hillside neighbourhood, a winding maze of cobblestone streets, 19th-century mansions, independent art galleries, and open-air restaurants that cling to a forested hillside above Lapa with sweeping views across Guanabara Bay. Accessible via the beloved yellow bonde tram that clatters across the Lapa Arches, the neighbourhood has been a refuge for artists, intellectuals, and eccentrics since the 1960s and retains its identity as Rio's creative soul. The Chacara do Ceu museum houses a remarkable collection of European and Brazilian modernist art, and its garden terrace is one of the finest viewpoints in the entire city.

The Rio de Janeiro Botanical Garden, founded by the Portuguese Crown Prince Dom Joao in 1808, spreads across 54 hectares at the base of Corcovado mountain and contains over 6,500 plant species from Brazil's biomes and around the world, including the famous Imperial Palm avenue — 64 palms planted in 1842 lining the entrance avenue to a height of 40 metres. The garden is home to rare Atlantic Forest orchids, a serene Japanese garden pavilion, and the oldest living imperial palm in Brazil. On weekday mornings it is one of the most tranquil and beautiful spaces in the entire city, threaded with birdsong and the sound of small streams.

Maracana is the world's most famous football stadium, a 78,000-capacity arena in north Rio that has hosted the 1950 and 2014 World Cup finals, the 1989 Copa America, the 2016 Olympic Games, and the 2021 Copa Libertadores final — accumulating a mythological status in the global game matched only by Wembley and Camp Nou. The 1950 World Cup Final, when Uruguay shocked Brazil 2-1 in front of nearly 200,000 spectators, is remembered in Brazil as the Maracanazo — one of sport's most traumatic collective moments. Tours of the stadium visit the pitch, dressing rooms, and press boxes, while a match-day visit to see Flamengo or Fluminense creates a noise and passion unmatched in world football.

Tijuca National Park is the world's largest urban forest — 3,953 hectares of restored Atlantic rainforest covering the mountains above Rio that were almost entirely deforested by 19th-century coffee plantations before being replanted from 1861 onwards in an early act of ecological conservation. The park harbours over 300 bird species, families of monkeys, and more plant species than the whole of continental Europe, and is accessible by trails that begin just 20 minutes from Ipanema. The park contains Corcovado, several spectacular waterfalls, and the Pedra Bonita hang gliding launch ramp from which pilots fly down to Sao Conrado beach with the entire city spread below.

Rio Carnival is the world's biggest party — a five-day February festival that takes over the entire city with an estimated 2 million people per day dancing in the streets during the blocos (informal neighbourhood street parties) and 90,000 spectators filling the Sambodromo to watch the elite samba school parade competition, where schools of up to 4,000 performers in extraordinary costumes compete for the championship under blazing floodlights. The Grande Rio, Mangueira, and Beija-Flor samba schools each spend an entire year and millions of reais constructing their floats and costumes for a 90-minute performance. Carnival is not an event you attend — it is an experience that consumes you entirely.