DECEMBER 2019
By the time you are reading this blog, I am back home in the Netherlands after an amazing period! The last destination of our three month travels was Rio de Janeiro. In Rio we met up with my mother and sister for a few days of Christmas fun. We had six days to spend in Rio de Janeiro, but if you want to include a few beach days, you can spend much longer in Rio de Janeiro. In the case you are visiting Rio de Janeiro during Christmas, make sure you have restaurant reservations for Christmas Eve, as most good restaurants close and the hotels only offer expensive buffet dinners. The Brazilians only celebrate Christmas Eve and the first day of Christmas and on the first day of Christmas lots of restaurants are open. Be prepared as we has six days in Rio and Rio is quite photogenic, this became a long blog.
Practical information
Rio de Janeiro has several airports, we would recommend taking an Uber from the airport as this is much cheaper than taking a taxi. Hielke bought a SIM card of the company TIM, which came in handy when booking Ubers. In Brazil you pay with Reais. I would advise not to take out too much cash, just a minimum amount to pay for some water bottles and taxis. In most restaurants and stores you can pay with creditcard and the creditcard had better rates.
We did some research on where to stay in Rio de Janeiro and ended up staying near the Copacabana in the Windsor Plaza hotel. The Copacabana definitely isn’t the most pretty area to stay in Rio de Janeiro, but it is relatively safe, affordable and close to most major sights. I much preferred Ipanema to Copacabana, as the Copacabana has lost some of its glory and Ipanema is super lively and has better restaurants. However Ipanema is only a 10 minute Uber ride away from Copacabana and the hotels are much cheaper in Copacabana. In the Santa Teresa neighborhood you will find lots of beautiful boutique hotels, so if you have enough money to spend, I would recommend staying there. We also considered staying in the Lapa area, but in the end we were happy we didn’t stay the night there, as the area already felt a bit dingy in full daylight. The sunsets are best in Ipanema, so you can also take that in consideration when deciding on a place to stay.
Safety of course is a topic when you stay in Rio de Janeiro. We had no safety issues whatsoever and felt comfortable walking around during the day. In the evenings we always took the Uber and we only had good experiences. We decided not to do a tour of the favelas as your safety cannot be guaranteed and it also didn’t feel right to visit one.
Christ the Redeemer
One of the wonders of the world Christ the Redeemer is located in Rio de Janeiro. To be honest, I didn’t expect too much of the statue, but I was very impressed when I saw it in real life. We took the Trem do Corcovado to climb the hill and visit Christ (€ 20 per person). We didn’t make any online reservations, so we had to wait for an hour until a train was free. You can save some time by booking a time slot on the internet. The train ride itself was already really impressive, the train ride is quite steep and it goes through right through the jungle. If you are lucky you can even spot monkeys! From the train you have to walk some steps to get to the viewing platforms surrounding the statue, nothing too hard. From the viewing platforms you also have beautiful views of Rio de Janeiro. The platforms are really crowded and everyone is taking selfies with Christ… yet it still is a fun visit as the vision of Christ towering above you is really impressive.
I think we hung around Christ the Redeemer for about an hour, then it started to rain really hard and we quickly ascended the Corcovado hill again. Visiting the statue was the first activity we did in Rio de Janeiro and I loved seeing Christ the Redeemer every day from a different angle, as it is visible from so many locations in the city. We also didn’t get to experience a traditional Christmas and visiting Christ was the most Christmassy thing we did.
Pao de Azucar/Sugarloaf
On Christmas Day a lot of activities close in Rio de Janeiro. Luckily we discovered that a visit to the Sugarloaf hill was possible. For € 25 you can buy tickets for the gondola that will take you up to the Sugarloaf. I didn’t do a whole lot of research, so I had no idea that there is a first hill on which you can walk around, before you get to the second hill which is the Sugarloaf. The Sugarloaf is a quintessential Rio thing to do and you mainly visit for the views. Luckily the Corcovado hill is far away, so you get to see very different views than when you visit Christ the Redeemer. The Sugarloaf is highly commercialized, but in the case of the Sugarloaf I didn’t find it a bad thing. We loved having lunch at Classico Beachclub, which is a restaurant on top of the Sugarloaf. We had hamburgers and caipirinhas and paid about € 80 for four people for lunch. The atmosphere of the restaurant is very nice, the views are amazing (if you have a table with view) and the food was very good. On the Sugarloaf you will also find a little jungle trail where you can spot the smallest monkeys I have ever seen and you can bring home some presents from the shops. On Christmas Day there was no queue for the gondola at all. I heard that at times the Sugarloaf can be really busy and that it might be useful to buy a skip-the-line ticket, but just know that these cost double.
Beaches
Rio features many beautiful beaches, it is super special that the beaches are located so close to this enormous city and that they are surrounded by jungle-like hills. Of course there are smaller, more relaxed beaches, but we decided to visit Ipanema and Copacabana beach. Both beaches are really good for people watching, don’t expect to have a quiet afternoon at the beach, as lots of people will play music, host parties and soccer games and street vendors will ask you if you want some grilled cheese or a caipirinha;) To me an afternoon on a beach like this is the perfect local experience. We paid about € 6 for two chairs and an umbrella at Copacabana beach. During Christmas when the locals were free, the beach was absolutely packed. In the case you want to do some shopping and visit some trendy restaurants, I would recommend Ipanema over Copacabana. In Ipanema we visited the restaurants Nosso and Zaza Bistro Tropical. Both were really good, but at Nosso we had our favorite meal of our Rio trip. Nosso offers a good variation of small dishes, which you can share, while also having a good wine menu and funny waiters.
Lapa & Escadaria Selarón
Two other famous sights of Rio are located in the neighborhood Lapa: the Lapa arches and the iconic staircase Escadaria Selarón. The Escadaria Selarón is a tribute to the Brazilian people, designed by the artist Jorge Selarón, and it is arguably one of the prettiest stairs in the world. The steps consists of many tiles, selected from countries all over the world, we even found some typical Dutch tiles! These colorful stairs are definitely worth visiting Lapa for, but just expect the place to be completely packed. Hielke visited the stairs eight years prior, when hardly anyone knew these stairs existed, but these days everybody knows about the stairs. You can definitely get cute pictures, but you have to be really patient. Most of the time whole groups of people will walk into your picture frame… Lapa itself is also really colorful, we even found a church covered in Portuguese tiles and some street art works. I did find Lapa a bit of a dodgy neighborhood, especially when you drift away from the main tourist sights, definitely visit during the daylight and take care of your belongings.
Santa Teresa
Santa Teresa is one of the more bohemian neighborhoods of Rio de Janeiro. From Lapa you can take the Santa Teresa tram, which is a fun experience. It costs € 4 per person and it includes a ticket back to Lapa. The Santa Teresa streets are good for a walk through the colorful streets and the area also features some good restaurants. We visited Aprazivel, which was recommended by a friend of mine who lives in Brazil. The restaurant is really atmospheric, the tropical vibes even reminded me of Asia, and as Santa Teresa is located high in the city, the views of the city are stunning. In Santa Teresa you can also find restaurants specialized in local cuisine with live samba music, it feels really authentic!
City Center & Olympic Boulevard
The city center and the Olympic Boulevard are located close to each other. The city center is really good if you want to do some shopping, there are quite some original boutique stores with clothes you cannot find in Europe. We had lunch in R. do Mercado which is a cute pedestrian alley filled with restaurants. Don’t expect anything fancy, just Brazilian food such as chicken fillet, beans and rice, with music blasting in the background and great vibes all around.
In the city center you will also find the Royal Portuguese Reading Room, which is a library with beautiful details such as hardwood cabinets, Portuguese tiles and a stained glass roof. It is free to visit, if you want to take good pictures I would recommend to go just after opening.
The Olympic Boulevard is filled with street art. The famous Brazilian street artist Kobra has created enormous works for the Olympic Games that were hosted in Rio that are definitely worth visiting. His works are supposed to be the biggest in the world, definitely the biggest I have ever seen! I love his colorful style and amazingly detailed faces, becoming familiar with his works in Miami. If you are visiting Rio with kids, the Olympic Boulevard is the place to be as it also features an aquarium and giant Ferris wheel.
Niteroi
Niteroi is a city close to Rio de Janeiro, going there will surprise you with a different view of Rio. We actually went for the Niteroi museum which is designed by the famous architect Oscar Niemeyer, but found it closed on Christmas Day even though the website indicated it was open. The architecture of the museum reminded us of the Evoluon in Eindhoven 😉 Unfortunately we cannot say anything about the art works or the restaurant, but we heard they are really great. You might want to call them before you head to the museum as this will be the most expensive taxi ride of your stay in Rio.
Botanical Garden
Sometimes I end up a bit disappointed by a botanical garden, but with Rio’s Botanical Garden that was certainly not the case. The entrance fee is about € 4 and for that price you receive many hours in a beautiful surrounding. The palm tree boulevards are particularly impressive, but we also loved the orchids greenhouse, the cactus garden, the jungle vibes and the Japanese garden. If you like gardening and plants, this is a must visit in Rio! Opposite the Botanical Garden you will find the restaurant and microbrewery Casa Camolese, which is worth visiting for the fine food, original beers and relaxed atmosphere. The restaurant was a true oasis of rest in the busy Rio de Janeiro.
Weer een mooi verhaal Hanneke! Met veel plezier jouw blog gevolgd, genoten van de mooie verhalen, en de prachtige foto’s (complimenten aan Hielke!) . Wellicht volgt er nog iets van een epiloog of zo, maar wat mij betreft nu alvast een tip, advies, suggestie: de verhalen en de foto’s zijn de moeite waard om te bundelen, en misschien ook uit te, in een mooi boekje. Dus dat zou ik zeker overwegen!
Arie