Best of Rio de Janeiro: 4-Day Customizable Tour

Sugar Loaf Mountain and City Tour (4 hours) In the morning, zip around Rio’s top historical sights in air-conditioned transport. Visit the bustling Cinelandia Square, or officially Praça Floriano Peixoto, named after the second president of Brazil. Pass by the Municipal Theater, the National Library and the National Museum of Fine Arts. Stop by the cone-shaped Metropolitan Cathedral, a design inspired by a Mayan pyramid. A fan of Carnival? Check out the Sambadrome, where the city’s samba schools compete with Olympics-level dedication during the annual festival. 
Next, board a glass cable car in the Urca district that whisks you up Sugar Loaf Mountain. Make a brief stop at 700 feet (213 meters) above sea level to snap shots of the city, Guanabara Bay, the Rio-Niteroi Bridge and Corcovado Mountain. Then reach the apex of Sugar Loaf, 1,299 feet (396 meters) high, and marvel at panoramas of the Santa Cruz Fortress and the beaches of Niteroi and Copacabana. After drop-off at your hotel, explore the city on your own in the afternoon.

Corcovado Mountain with Christ the Redeemer Statue (4 hours) Enjoy a free morning to yourself and then in the afternoon, hop aboard a cog train and travel through the lush Tijuca Forest. In 20 minutes, you’re at the top of Corcovado Mountain, next to the feet of the iconic Christ the Redeemer statue, 130 feet (39 meters) tall, and looking up at his arms that stretch 98 feet (30 meters) wide. Soak up the sights of Rio from your mountaintop vantage point as you learn about the 1931 art-deco statue named one of the New Seven Wonders of the World in 2007.

Enjoy a 90-minute drive north past forests and waterfalls to Petrópolis, a popular mountain resort known as Brazil’s Imperial City, nestled in the wooded hills of the Serra dos Órgãos. Arrive in the cobbled streets of Petrópolis and enter the Imperial Museum, housed in the former summer palace of Pedro II, Brazil's second and final emperor. Inside the restored Austrian-style palace built in 1845, get a look at how the country's royalty once lived. Stroll by tapestries, antique furniture and jewels, and admire the imperial crown studded with over 600 diamonds, weighing nearly 4 pounds (1.7 kg). Next, visit the Gothic-style St Peter of Alcantara Cathedral and see the tombstones of Pedro II and his family. Follow your guide to a tranquil park and marvel at the Crystal Palace, a ballroom made of glass and steel, where Princess Isabel held expositions and royal parties. Purchase lunch at a restaurant of your choice in town, and feel free to ask your guide for recommendations. Your tour ends with transport back to Rio.

Sugar Loaf Mountain and City Tour (4 hours) In the morning, zip around Rio’s top historical sights in air-conditioned transport. Visit the bustling Cinelandia Square, or officially Praça Floriano Peixoto, named after the second president of Brazil. Pass by the Municipal Theater, the National Library and the National Museum of Fine Arts. Stop by the cone-shaped Metropolitan Cathedral, a design inspired by a Mayan pyramid. A fan of Carnival? Check out the Sambadrome, where the city’s samba schools compete with Olympics-level dedication during the annual festival. 
Next, board a glass cable car in the Urca district that whisks you up Sugar Loaf Mountain. Make a brief stop at 700 feet (213 meters) above sea level to snap shots of the city, Guanabara Bay, the Rio-Niteroi Bridge and Corcovado Mountain. Then reach the apex of Sugar Loaf, 1,299 feet (396 meters) high, and marvel at panoramas of the Santa Cruz Fortress and the beaches of Niteroi and Copacabana. After drop-off at your hotel, explore the city on your own in the afternoon.

Corcovado Mountain with Christ the Redeemer Statue (4 hours) Enjoy a free morning to yourself and then in the afternoon, hop aboard a cog train and travel through the lush Tijuca Forest. In 20 minutes, you’re at the top of Corcovado Mountain, next to the feet of the iconic Christ the Redeemer statue, 130 feet (39 meters) tall, and looking up at his arms that stretch 98 feet (30 meters) wide. Soak up the sights of Rio from your mountaintop vantage point as you learn about the 1931 art-deco statue named one of the New Seven Wonders of the World in 2007.