I'm traveling with one of my friends to Rio de Janeiro in June. We've never been there before and are looking for suggestions of things to do. Obviously we know about the big things, such as Sugar loaf mountain and the Cristo redemptor, etc. We're staying at a resort on Copacabana beach. Thanks in advance for the info..

If you are a thrillseeker, you can go hangliding. Main spot to do this is off the mountain peaks overlooking the Intercontinental hotel which is about a 20 minute taxi ride south of Copacabana Beach.

If you are going to be there over the weekend, you should catch the Hippie fair/market which sets up right in front of the Copacabana beach. Not certain of the time but I think it might be Sunday afternoons when they set up.
Plent of outdoor restaurants fronting the beach make for interesting people watching in the evening.

HELP discoteque is at Copa and is worth a visit. Watch your wallet however.

Frank's and Barbarella's are two bars within walung distance of Copa beach if you are looking for that sort of thing.

Try a Capenhia drink at least once. But once you get tired of the cushasha, order it with vodka instead. Much better!

I might be stating the obvious, but even though I consider myself somewhat traveled, I just recently discovered that you have to obtain a visa from the consulate prior to traveling to Brazil. I just assumed you only had to book your flights and grab your passport. You probably already knew this though... mentioning it just in case.

Tabasco it's funny that you mention that because I didn't know about the whole visa thing until about a week after the trip had been booked. Thankfully I had time to get all that taken care of.

When i was looking in traveling to rio last fall they were recomending a yellow fever vacine before going. You may want to check that out.

i thought about rio for my honeymoon, but the visa and shots deterred me.

I looked on the CDC website and it said:

Vaccination is NOT recommended for travel to the following coastal cities: Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Salvador, Recife, and Fortaleza.

S.S. Aggie,

You should not have let shots or a visa deter you. We did our honeymoon in Brazil over 2 weeks last February starting with 5 days in Rio at the end of Carnival before moving on to Fortaleza, Salvador, Foz do Iguacu, and Sao Paulo. Since we were mostly in the cities listed, above we were not required to get shots. I would go back to Rio in a heartbeat.

To the OP:

Obviously see Christ the Redeemer statue. However, I would prearrange transportation to Corcovado with a reputable outfit. We simply grabbed the first cab we saw on the street. This had to be the biggest POS cab in the city. The statue overlooks the city from a mountain that has a favela (slum) at its base. We thought the scariest party of our trip was going to be when the cab driver stopped and got out at an intersection in the favela to talk to some dudes, thinking we were being delivered to them for robbing or kidnapping. That was until he got back in and we began our ascent up the narrow mountain road. Aside from the fact the cab sounded like it had a struggling lawn mower engine in it, we were flying around blind cures and corners where the road was about 1.5 lanes wide.



We finally made it up and then back to our apartment. To top it off, I left my digital camera on the back seat of the taxi, so we lost all our pictures from the statute and the Carnival parade at the Sambadrome. At least I still have the video.

Sugar Loaf is a must and is an easy cab ride from Leblon, Ipanema or Copacabana, the safer and more touristy part of the city. We stayed in an apartment 2 blocks off Ipanema Beach right where it meets Leblon, and we loved our location.

Spend some time on Ipanema and Copacabana beach as well as the shops and restaurants that line them. However, Copacabana, which I believe is a good bit longer, had many more than Ipanema. The same goes for the booths selling paintings, souvenirs, clothes, swimsuits, statues, etc. We picked up lots of fun cheap stuff there.

Help Discotheque is nothing more than an organized pick up spot for prostitutes. My wife was 1 of about 5 girls there not working. If you want to spend an entire night with one (or more) of the most beautiful women in the world for around $200 each then go for it. With that said, they had a good DJ, cheap bottle service, and it was the best people watching I've ever experienced. I'm sure we'll go back on our next trip to Rio.

We're both heterosexual women and not looking for prostitutes- lol

I've been down there three times for work. Our driver/translator took us to an amazing seafood restaurant, no tourist, but still a high class place. I have sent him an email asking the name and address. Stay away from the favellas (slums) and be aware of your surroudings was the advice given to me; however, I felt just as safe/safer than some areas of Houston/Dallas.

The hang gliding to high up for me, couldn't get the courage up.

if you're hanging out on copacabana beach, learn to say "ja compre"....loosely means "i already bought it". there are tons of vendors walking up and down the beaches and they'll hound you every minute or so, especially if they can tell you're american.

also, when you go to the beach, don't get ripped off if you rent a couple chairs and an umbrella. you should not have to pay more than R$5 per piece for the day (closer to 2 or 3), but if they know you're a tourist, they will try to charge you 20 or 30 per piece or more. my girlfriend is brazillian and they thought i was a tourist with a hooker, so they tried to charge us R$100 for two chairs and an umbrella. when my girlfriend told them she was paying, it cost us R$9.