Rio de Janeiro, Brazil: Mountains, Beaches, and the City Between

Christ the Redeemer (Cristo Redentor), on the summit of Corcovado Mountain at 710 meters, is the central image of Rio and one of the most visited monuments in the world. The preferred ascent is the Corcovado rack railway from the Cosme Velho neighborhood, which takes twenty minutes; the summit is clear in the morning and often in cloud by afternoon. Tickets must be booked in advance through the official Trem do Corcovado website; the summit itself requires a further short walk or escalator. The view on a clear day encompasses the entire city, Guanabara Bay, and both Atlantic beaches.

The Sugarloaf cable car system, operating since 1912, runs in two stages: first to Urca Hill (232 meters), then to the Sugarloaf itself (396 meters). The Urca stage provides a view of the harbor, Corcovado, and the beaches; the summit stage adds the open Atlantic to the south. The station at Praia Vermelha, a small sheltered beach at the base of the cable-car route, is walkable from the Botafogo neighborhood and has a cluster of straightforward restaurants.

Ipanema and Copacabana beaches, about forty minutes from the port by taxi, are the canonical Rio beach experience: four kilometers of broad white sand with the Dois Irmãos peaks at the western end of Ipanema and the symmetrical arc of Copacabana Fort closing the bay at the east. Ipanema's Posto 9, the stretch between lifeguard posts 9 and 10, has been the gathering point for the city's beach culture since the 1960s. Sunday on either beach involves live music, caipirinhas, and foot-volleyball games that are impossible to look away from.

The Museu do Amanhã (Museum of Tomorrow), a Santiago Calatrava building cantilevered over the Pier Mauá waterfront adjacent to the cruise terminal, is a science and sustainability museum aimed at general audiences with strong interactive exhibits and a well-designed building. It is possible to walk there directly from the ship. The Museu de Arte do Rio (MAR), across the plaza, covers Brazilian visual culture from colonial portraits through urban street art with a particularly strong section on Rio's social history.