Helicopter Tours You can pick up a helicopter tour of the city at the Heliport on Urca Mountain (the first stage of the gondola to Pão de Açúcar). A short trip of about ten minutes (R$200–300) takes a quick spin around Pão de Açúcar, the Cristo monument and Copacabana. Longer trips take you all the way up or down the...
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If you asked people all over the world to name three things related to Brazil, about 98% would have Carnaval in their list. The biggest party in the world, Carnaval continues to draw international crowds to the many festivities across the country. Most people want to come to the Mecca itself…to the party of parties…to Rio de...
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If you walk up Rua Gonçalves Dias from the Largo da Carioca, youll pass a number of cool shops. This is a great area for finding good deals on clothes. But the highlight of the street is the classic coffee shop and bakery, the Confeitaria Colombo (Gonçalves Dias 32). Used as the backdrop for numerous Brazilian films and soap...
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If you see one church in the downtown area, make it the Igreja de São Francisco (Largo da Carioca, 11am–4pm Wednesday–Friday). Recently restored, the church is a large and beautiful example of the Baroque churches of the 17th and 18th centuries in Brazil, such as those found in Minas Gerais. In fact, some of the master...
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When gold starting pouring out of Minas Gerais in the early 1700s, the small and innocuous town of São Sebastião do Rio de Janeiro turned into the most important port town on the Brazilian coast, even surpassing Salvador in importance. It wasn’t long before the Portuguese Crown took the capital of the colony away from Salvador...
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In Portuguese, the word rocinha (pronounced ho-seen-yah) a literally means a tract of land that has been cleared for planting. It is also used colloquially to refer to any field or backwoods area and that is exactly what Rocinha was in the late 1800s. It started as a settlement near the sugar plantations where poor ranch hands and...
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The world’s most famous beach boardwalk, Copacabana gained its greatest fame during Brazil’s cultural boom in the first half of the 20th century. The Copacabana Palace Hotel, formerly a legendary casino, attracted playboys and debutantes from all over the world. Soon this wide strip of white sand and blue waves became the summer...
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Despite the poverty, congestion, pollution, and other problems here, Rio is unarguably one of the most visually stunning cities in the world. Nowhere is this more apparent than from the top of Pão de Açúcar (Sugar Loaf), which jets out into the bay across from the Botafogo Beach. The gondola going up to Pão de Açúcar goes in...
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During the golden days of Hollywood, Brazil was experiencing a cultural and economic growth period at the tail end of the coffee boom. Here in Rio, a number of things were occurring, including international recognition of the city, mostly due to the casinos in Copacabana. In the old downtown area, a number of movie houses were...
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The Praça that marks a major turning point in Brazil’s history, moving from a monarchy to a republic, is right here in downtown Rio, in front of the old Imperial Palace (noon–6:30pm Tuesday–Sunday) home of the royal family from 1808–1889. Naturally, the praça was renamed in honor of the occasion, which took...
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Take a visual vacation to Brazil with this photo e-book. See just how blue the water is along the extensive coastline of the Northeast Region. Get a glimpse of the people and the culture that is Brazil. This promotional e-book is free and we encourage you to copy and distribute it as much as you can. 
Heading to Rio de Janeiro? Take this handy 3-day itinerary with you to get the most out of your journey in the least amount of time. Download and take it with you on your laptop or on CD, or use the printable pages in your notebook or day planner. Available for FREE from this site.
