Week 13 – Visiting Rio, Tips and Views

Here is the list of the main spots in Rio and some Quick Tips on how to move in the city.

rio — Make my day in Rio de Janeiro – Lonely Planet

Back in my post Week 6 – Readings of the week, from Kids travel Guides to Naples based novel I wrote bout the travel guide I had bought to visit Rio de Janeiro. As I explained I often travel in places where I have friends or family so I tend to rely on them to choose the activities and visits. I used to buy the most complete (and expensive) guides and then barely use it (1000 pages for India’s Lonely Planet Guide). This time I found a new concept by Lonely Planet: each page is actually cut in 3 parts, representing the Morning, Afternoon and Evening options. Each part of the day is a set of “cards” with different possible activities and addresses. You just need to flip the pages to mix and match until you create the perfect day. The guide contains minimum information about culture and history but it is efficient and light, perfect for keeping it in your bag during the day.

As I have now been using it for the past few days I confirm that it is exactly what I needed. I am spending 3 days in Rio in which I will visit it mostly on my own, so I quickly selected what to visit each day and now it is day 2 and I have done all I wanted to see.

How I used it

Make my day Rio de Janeiro – Lonely Planet

The Guide lists 39 main activities. I went through them and decided which ones were the most important: I skipped museums (Science and Modern Art are not typical of Rio), the Aquarium and I rely on my friends for the night life part.

Then on the general map I striked through the numbers I did not want to visit and joined together according to their positions the ones I cared to see. There were very little information on each activity just

Tips

To go around the city the tube is very safe and brings you in the main spots. You can buy a Rio Card, charge it and tap it as you go.

Also wi-fi connections are scarce around the city except in the shopping malls, hence I personally bought a “VIVO” SIM card for the week which is very useful to get information during the day.

Visits: Day 1

5 – Hippie Fair (on Sundays)
11 – Museu de Amanha (Museum of Tomorrow)

Muro de Etnias

Ipanema beach (N°1)

Lagoa Rodrigo de Freitas (n°15)

Leblon Shopping Center – no pictures, just a great place to refresh yourself, get some snacks, buy some very cheap Havaianas (I bought 7 pairs, that’s normal)!