13 Jul 2025
Great day trip around Rio. I had already been to Sugarloaf and seen Corcovado from a helicopter so skipped the 2 most popular tourist sites. This gave me the opportunity to enjoy Rio with a lifelong Carioca who speaks excellent English (Luis) and get a good feel of the food, music, art, architecture and local neighborhoods. We went to the Botanical Garden, Laranjeira farmers market, Centro (for feijoada, COLD beer, and samba), amazing view of the Museum of Tomorrow, and Santa Teresa neighborhood.
Strongly recommend Luis. He spent over a decade living in the US so perfect for English speaking tourists. Very knowledgeable about nature, history, culture, society, food, anything. We covered a lot of ground.