edit Rio De Janeiro Travel Guide

By plane

By train

By car

By bus

By boat

By taxi

A cab is one of the best ways to move around Rio. All legal cabs are yellow with a blue stripe painted on the sides. Taxis not designed like this are special service cars (to the airport or bus stations) or illegal. Rio has some of the cheapest taxi systems in the world, so don't bother spending a little more in exchange of speed and safety. Most of the tours in the South Zone will cost around R$15, and the car can usually hold four people. You can ask a cab for a city tour, and arrange a fixed price (may be around US$20). Major taxi companies include Central de Taxi, Ouro Taxi and Yellow Taxi.

After getting into the taxi, check to see if the taximeter has been started (as of December 2006, it charges R$ 4.30 for the minimum ride, called bandeirada). If not, ask the taxi driver to do so. You may be ripped off by some taxi drivers. Avoid the blue, green, and white taxis as they tend to charge considerably more for the same ride.

Prior to arriving at the airport, it may also be useful to pre-book your airport to hotel transfers. Although there are not many reputable companies offering this service online, some, such as Rio Airport Transfer , allow you to book and pay before you leave home. Alternatively (and even easier) you can buy fixed price tickets for the blue and red taxis from a booth in the arrival hall. Fares vary depending your destination (for Copacabana and Ipanema BRL 72 one-way 2007). Taxi services such as this do cost a little extra but are well worth it for the additional security and peace of mind.

By car

Traffic within some parts of Rio can be daunting, but a car may be the best way to reach distant beaches like Grumari, and that can be an extra adventure. Avoid rush-hour traffic jams in neighborhoods such as Copacabana, Botafogo, Laranjeiras, and Tijuca, where moms line up their cars to pick up their children after school. In Rio, most road signals are placed after the curve you were supposed to take, and do not help unless you already know how to go there. Buy a map, and have fun.

By bus

Buses are a cheap and nice way to get around by day, while not exactly safe. By night they are more scarce but you can ride them anyway. Buses usually cost R$ 2.00 (as of December 2006), but some buses with air conditioning charge higher fares. The fare is paid in cash to a controller or the driver inside the bus, by passing through a roulette. There are no tickets. Some residents and students have a digital card for free pass. Keep an eye out for pickpockets when the bus is crowded, and don't be surprised if your driver goes a little faster than you'd like. Except for minibuses, all buses have two doors: passengers get in through the front door and get off through the back (it was otherwise until 2001-2002).

Bus stops in the South Zone are often equipped with a shelter and a bench, but sometimes, far from tourist areas, they are less obvious and have no signs at all - you might have to ask. Buses stop only when you hail them, by extending the arm. If you don't hail and there are no passengers waiting to get off, the bus simply won't stop. Actually, sometimes even if you wave your arms desperately, the result is the same. Even more absurdly, you could even try to block one of them by standing in the middle of the road; if the driver is not in the right mood, he will dodge you and won't take you. It's a matter of pure luck. There are no schedules nor timetables. Usually buses run no longer than every 15 minutes. However, unless it's daytime and downtown, they may take even an hour or longer (in fact, they may take this long even in normal times and places). The rule of thumb is: don't schedule your trip based on bus transportation.

There are 831 bus lines in Rio, but while they cover nearly all of the city, they might seem confusing to visitors, especially foreigners. Many lines differ only a few streets from each other in their itineraries, and some even have variants within the same line. Bus lines with a

• or a letter means that this bus has a variant. It means that there may be a bus with the same name, same number, same origin, even same destination but with a complete different tour. Lines are numbered accordingly to the general route they serve:
• beginning with 1 - South Zone/Downtown
• beginning with 2 - North Zone/Downtown
• beginning with 3 - West Zone/Downtown
• beginning with 5 - within South Zone
• beginning with 6 - North Zone/West Zone
• beginning with 7 and 9 - from Rio to neighboring cities (Niterói, Duque de Caxias, Nova Iguaçu etc.)
• beginning with 8 - within West Zone

Most popular lines for tourists are 583 and 584 (from Copacabana and Ipanema to Corcovado railway station), as well as 464 and 435 (from Copacabana to Maracanã). Typically bus drivers and controllers won't understand any foreign language. If you can't speak Portuguese at all, use a map. Trying to speak Spanish could be offensive or useless.

By subway

The Metrô Rio subway system is very useful for reaching areas from Copacabana to Downtown, although the rest of Zona Sul is not particularly well-served and it closes after midnight (it opens 24x7 during Carnival). It is the only totally safe transport in Rio. The air-conditioned subway is clean, comfortable, and quick, and in 2006 it received bilingual Portuguese-English signs, maps, and a loudspeaker system to make the life of millions of foreign tourists easier (sometimes in a low volume and difficult to understand or they just forget to announce, so pay attention as if you rely only on the speaker you can miss your station). There are two main lines: Line 1 (Orange) has service to Copacabana, the Saara district, and much of Downtown, as well as Tijuca, where you can visit Corcovado. Line 2 (Green) stops at the zoo, Maracanã stadium, and Rio State University. The two lines intersect at Estácio station.

Since 2003, the Metrô company operates bus lines from some stations to nearby neighborhoods which are not served by the subway system. This is particularly helpful for places uphill such as Gávea, Laranjeiras, Grajaú and Usina. Since the city grew around the Tijuca Range mountains, these neighborhoods will never be served by the subway, but you now can take the integração (connection) minibuses. The company calls it Metrônibus and Metrô na Superfície (literally, Subway on Ground), but actually they are ordinary buses in special routes for subway commuters. You can buy tickets for these - just ask for expresso (pronounced "eysh-PRAH-sso", not "express-o") when buying a ticket (price is R$ 3.00 as of June 2007), then keep it after crossing the roulette. When you leave the subway, give the ticket to the bus driver (who shall be waiting in the bus stop just outside of the station). If you buy an ordinary ticket, you won't be able to get this bus for free - then it will cost a regular fee.

Recently the last wagon of each train has been marked women-only with a pink window sticker, in order to avoid potential harassment in crowded trains. Some men, however, are still to get used to this separation (since it is very recent) and many women, who are accustomed to hassle-free everyday travel in Rio's subway, also think the measure is unnecessary. Anyway, if you're a man, avoid getting into trouble with local security staff and stay off the pink-marked wagons.
Note that the women only policy for the wagon is valid only in specific periods of the day (usually the rush hour).

Rio Subway stations


Line 1 (Orange)

• Cantagalo (in Copacabana) - to Arpoador and the lagoon (inaugurated on 27th of February 2007)
• Siqueira Campos (in Copacabana) - to Copacabana beach, and coaches to Ipanema, Leblon, and Gávea
• Cardeal Arcoverde (in Copacabana) - to Copacabana and Leme beach
• Botafogo (in Botafogo) - to Botafogo beach, mall, and indie/art movie theaters
• Flamengo (in Flamengo) - to Flamengo beach, Guanabara Palace (governor's)
• Largo do Machado (in Laranjeiras) - to Corcovado, where is the Jesus statue
• Catete (in Catete) - to Catete palace (former presidential building, now Museum of the Republic)
• Glória (in Glória) - to Our Lady of Glory cathedral, Museum of Modern Art
• Cinelândia (in downtown) - to main square downtown, with National Library, City Hall, Municipal Theater (Rio's Opera house) and Odeon movie theater
• Carioca (in downtown) - to Lapa (Bohemian district), Santa Teresa tram station, downtown offices
• Uruguaiana (in downtown) - to popular market
• Presidente Vargas (in downtown) - to downtown offices
• Central (in downtown) - to Central do Brasil rail station, Itamaraty Palace (foreign ministry)
• Praça Onze (in downtown) - to Sambódromo, the samba parade venue during Carnival
• Estácio (in downtown) - to Line 2
• Afonso Pena (in Tijuca)
• São Francisco Xavier (in Tijuca)
• Saens Peña (in Tijuca) - to Tijuca forest trail (way up!)

Line 2 (Green)

• Estácio (in downtown) - to Line 1
• São Cristóvão (in São Cristóvão) - to the Rio Zoo and Feira de São Cristóvão, typical market and fair with food, drinks and craft from Brazilian Northeastern culture
• Maracanã (in Maracanã) - to Maracanã football stadium
• Triagem (in Mangueira) - to Mangueira, the most famous favela and samba school
• Maria da Graça (in Maria da Graça)
• Del Castilho (in Del Castilho) - to outlet clothes mall
• Inhaúma (in Inhaúma)
• Engenho da Rainha (in Engenho da Rainha)
• Thomaz Coelho (in Thomaz Coelho)
• Vicente de Carvalho (in Vicente de Carvalho)
• Irajá (in Irajá)
• Colégio (in Colégio)
• Coelho Neto (in Coelho Neto)
• Acari/Fazenda Botafogo (in Acari)
• Engenheiro Rubens Paiva (in Engenheiro Rubens Paiva)
• Pavuna (in Pavuna)

Police

Fire Department

Hospitals

Crime

Smoking