Amazing Brazil: What to do in Rio de Janeiro in 4 days

Sharing is caring!

‘Oi’ friends! How are you? I just came back from Rio de Janeiro in Brazil and I have had the most wild experience! I want to share with you everything that I discovered and my first hand experience so you know what to do in Rio de Janeiro and what to expect!

Throughout this post, I will be covering topics such as ‘first impressions’ – where I will speak about my experience in this beautiful place so close to my heart. The ‘safety of Rio de Janeiro’ – I will give you some tips of what I did whilst I was there. I will be sharing where I stayed and other great options for you staying under ‘where to stay’ and ‘top 5 things to do in Rio de Janeiro’ during a weekend. I hope you enjoy this reading and if this is something you would like to read more, let me know in the comments! 

First things first, I want to let you know why I went to Brazil. Maybe you know this already, but for those who don’t, I speak Portuguese and as part of my work (back in London), I am paid to meet new people. I went to Brazil to connect and get to know travel agencies that offer the UK as a trip destination. Brazilians speak Portuguese, so then I went!

I’ve always wanted to go to Brazil and South America, but for some reason I always chased cultures that were very different from mine. This experience was very eye opening for me, made me fall in love with another part of the world that I took for granted and made me visit my 5^th continent! 

First impressions

The moment I got off the airport, I fell in love with the country. The best of Brazil is its people!

I was welcomed by my taxi driver at the arrivals, Alvim (from Alvim & CIA**) who has his own business as a people’s carrier around Brazil. He was so welcoming and friendly! My flight landed quite late, it was about 11pm, Alvim was very professional and always trying to see if I was okay. 

Rio is very green, and surrounded by mountains – I was not expecting this. It gave me a sensation of Hawaii, but with a lot of buildings. The streets are large, there are different birds flying high, and tall trees. 

People are relaxed walking down the streets. They wear a lot of flip flops and easy going shorts. I noticed a lot of families chilling in the parks or in any green spaces, even between main roads patches of green. You casually see people having a nap back-facing a palm tree in the middle of the day. 

There is a lot of Portuguese heritage in Rio, way more than in Sao Paulo. I felt love everywhere and in every corner.

The best food I ever tried! I am biassed, I am Portuguese, and in Portugal we do sell a lot of Brazilian dishes, and they happen to be my favourite food. However, in Brazil, I was not able to stop eating!

Brazil is a developing country, you see these signs a lot in Rio. 

Safety in Rio de Janeiro: What to expect and what to do?

This is a very sensitive topic. Everyone has heard about Rio-de-Janeiro and its “favelas” – by the way, it is now called communities – and how dangerous they are.

I was told by family members to be very careful, my mum was panicking telling me to not leave the hotel and I had a friend telling me that if I see 2 men in a motorbike I should run!

My opinion about Rio de Janeiro was somehow formed before I even got there. Luckily, I am a curious person and like to judge things with my own eyes. 
You arrive in Rio de Janeiro and you jump on the “linha amarela” which is the motorway. This motorway crosses right in the middle of two very dangerous communities. The first one is called the “complex do Alemao” and the other one “Mare”. They are very dangerous, and controlled by the people that live inside them.

These two communities are rivals, and they often get into confrontation. I was told a story about a famous musician from a band that got shot without question. It happened just because his car was similar to another car from the other community and the driver made a wrong turn. The musician got killed inside the community. 

Brazil has lovely people, with very good hearts, but in Rio de Janeiro there are a lot of things going on that I was not aware of. Nothing happened to me whilst in Rio, I didn’t feel as safe as I wished to feel. But that is based on pre-warning from people and the stories that I have heard. 

In every country I go, I try to blend as much as possible with locals, in this way I can become “one of them”. In Rio de Janeiro this was no different. I was determined to be as local as possible. I was sure this would come handy to avoid being robbed. If you are like me, in Rio specially, please consider:   

• To dress down
• Not to wear anything of value to the beach
• Get a waterproof purse to go to the beach (I got havaianas waterproof purse)
• Get a waist purse that you can store your belongings in front of you
• Avoiding taking buses late at night
• To not have a lot of cash with you. Credit cards are widely used
• Remember that cameras, smartphones and expensive electronics can attract a lot of attention

What is a Favela/community?

A “favela/community” is basically a slum. The houses are normally built by people, and on each roof another house is subsequently built and so on. These houses don’t have electricity or water. Locals that live in the communities collect water from the rain in blue containers and electricity is taken from the street poles.

Where to stay in Rio de Janeiro

Rio de Janeiro is a huge city, and therefore there are a lot of options of places to stay. 

The best places to stay in Rio are located in the South of the city, places like: Ipanema, Copacabana, Leblon, Botafogo e in the old town centre.
I stayed in Copacabana in the Hilton Hotel, right in front of the beach with an amazing sea view! The rooms were spacious and the hotel had two swimming pools – one with a rooftop bar! 
My bed was a super king size, and I stayed on the 17^th floor with a view to the beach and Pão de Açucar mountain. Perfect place to stay:

There were also other hotels where I was considering staying: 

• Copacabana Palace
• Miramar by Windsor Copacabana
• Windsor Palace Copacabana 

In the end I stayed at Hilton Copacabana because I got it a great deal with work.

What to do in Rio de Janeiro

There is always something to do in Rio. However, the activities that you pick will highly depend on how you are as a traveller. I tend to go on adventure thrills, and then cultural exchange. But I am adding everything I planned for my trip here so you can choose. 

1.     Helicopter around Rio 

I booked a Helicopter Tour experience because I didn’t have much time in Rio, but due to bad weather it turned out to be cancelled. However, I highly recommend doing this if you have little time in Rio and the monetary possibility. It is a bit more expensive than the rest of the options below. But for sure you will have an incredible and unique experience. There are several companies to choose from, personally I recommend Rio Vertical (their experience is insane – but more expensive) and/or 4FLY RJ (link here). 

2.     Pão de Açucar mountain

Picture the mountain of Rio de Janeiro that you see everywhere, and imagine accessing it with a cable car. It is very possible! Pão de Açucar mountain can be visited from the ground by teleferic (cable car), this experience offers an immense view from Copacabana to Christ Redeemer, the communities and all the centre with the harbour. 

3.     Visit Christ Redeemer

We all know that the Christ Redeemer is one of the must dos in Rio de Janeiro, and the views to the city are unforgettable. My suggestion is to be aware of the weather conditions. The Christ Redeemer is located above the clouds level. I was not expecting to be so high. Be prepared to see monkeys everywhere! 

4.     Visit the community of the Rocinha

Rocinha is the biggest community in Rio de Janeiro and one of the only ones that welcome tourists. I highly recommend booking this in advance, and make sure that you are guided by someone from the community. Some people might find that visiting a community is not the best idea. For some, it involves getting a reality shock. In my opinion, it is a way of getting informed of different lifestyles, cross culture exchange and giving back. Majority of the tours to these communities re-invest a large percentage on regenerating the communities. These investments go far beyond what we might think. Tour guides use it to renovate housing, in education and assist in daily life of its people. 

5.     Visit the Botanic Park

Exploring the botanic park of Rio de Janeiro, its trees and fauna is another must. The fauna in South America is incredible, perfect and deserves to be witnessed and photographed. This park is famous even for the locals. People travel all over Brazil to enjoy the peace inside of this Botanic garden. P.S make sure you walk through the long tree hall. 

6.     Do an all-inclusive tour of Rio de Janeiro

Do a tour that includes the famous colourful steps, Rocinha, Christo Redeemer and Copacabana. If you just have a couple of days and prefer to have everything organised with a local tour guide, I would suggest going on a tour. It is fun, and if you are solo travelling you get to meet other fellow travellers like you – what a great way to explore Rio de Janeiro!

Going to Brazil was a very positive experience. I was expecting to like it because of the connection with Portugal, but I wasn’t expecting to love it the way I did. I was a bit scared at first because of what everyone says but after a while, I just didn’t want to leave at all.

I could not recommend you more to go! 

If this blog post is useful, feel free to let me know why, and if you need anything else to be added here please let me know in the comments below! 

In the meantime, 

Safe travels 

M x

Sharing is caring!