One day in Rio

Brazil is beautiful, enormous and has a special vibe because of its very open-minded people. Out of all places I have visited so far, Rio is the one that left a great impression because of its uniqueness. If you are visiting Brasil, you have to spend at least a day or two in Rio.

Here is a route that includes all interesting places you can visit in a day.

If you are coming from some other city or directly from the airport, your first contact with Rio will probably be a bus station (which is marked in the picture).  There you can take a direct line to your first destination-  Christ the Redeemer statue.

Picture taken from the link.

1. Christ the Redeemer

This statue of Jesus Christ is the most famous in the world.  It is 30 meters tall and its arms stretch 28 meters wide. It was finished in 1931 after 10 years of construction. The view of Rio from the hill is magnificent and definitely worth visiting. I suggest you arrive before 8 a.m. because if you arrive later than that you will not be able to approach it due to the large crowds. I also saw people coming with previously purchased online tickets, which is in this case a very smart move.

2. Copacabana and Ipanema

After visiting the statue of Christ the Redeemer you can catch a bus which will take you to Ipanema and Copacabana- beaches in Rio. Two beaches are located next to one another and are 50 kilometers long. Copacabana is more popular but Ipanema is much cleaner and more beautiful. There you can get a glimpse of Brasil as seen on TV- women walking around in thong bikinis, topless, everybody is happy, playing basketball and socializing. You will not see this on other beaches in Brasil since they are quite conservative. Rio does not represent Brasil just as Belgrade does not represent Serbia. These two beaches have a special vibe because of people, energy and atmosphere. I enjoyed drinking coconut water directly from the coconut that I bought for 1 EUR.

3. Escadaria Selarón – Selaron Steps

Beautiful steps decorated with ceramic collages are one of the main attractions in Rio. Steps were named after Chilean-born artist Jorge Selarón who covered these steps 26 years ago by bringing tiles from all around the world to decorate all 250 of steps. Jorge was found dead in 2013 in Rio where he lived. Every part of these steps is a story of its own.

4. Lapa

Next to these steps is a part of the city called Lapa. I haven’t see many tourists in this part of the city, mainly locals living their lives, some even defying the law. This place is beautiful, there are a number of different graffiti and weird-looking buildings. There are a lot of police officers in this part of the city who are constatnly walking around the streets. I felt like a stranger because I was given some dirty looks that made me feel as if I was in a danger zone, but at the same time it was very safe because of the police circling around. This is the place where you can meet a bunch of different people, buy tasty food and witness the weirdest scenes. It is worth visiting.

5. Local flea market

After Lapa you can go to place number 5 where you can find a local flea market located in narrow streets. If you love shopping, this is the right place for you. You can find the most accessible things here, cool gifts and souvenirs. It is rather big so you will need some time to see everythig.

6. A walk along the coast

After the flea market you can visit the star next to the place number 6 which is the Museum of Tomorrow. They say it is really interesting, unfortunately I did not go inside.  You can get a wonderful view of the bay here. The day is coming to an end so you can slowly start walking towards the bus station following the coast. This landscape is very interesting because it is not a tourist part of the city and you get to witness different scenes of everyday life in Rio.

*Graffiti

What especially amazed me about Rio were grafitti. There are all over the place and each graffiti is unique. If I ever settle down in some city, that would definitely be a city filled with graffiti or simply- Rio. 🙂

I made a short one-minute video of my one-day Rio visit: