Top Rio de Janeiro Bus Tours - page 24

This was well worth the early departure from the hotel. Our pickup was ontime, safe, and very professional. We met our guide Ederson at the site for the view of the sunrise. He was very knowledgeable about the Redeemer and Rio as a whole. After sunrise we went up to the Redeemer and he continued to explain the history, opinions and conflicts of the citizens at the time. He went above and beyond the topics of the tour and explained a lot of other cultural topics about the country he obviously loves. He did such a great job that we hired him for the next day to take us around to some markets, the forest, a tour of the city, and to a nice quiet beach restaurant an hour outside the city. It was hands down the best experience we have had with a tour guide in our years of traveling. We inadvertently through conversation discovered that our son had Ederson as his guide 6 months prior and had been raving about him before we left for Brazil what are the odds. Thank you Ederson for the wonderful experience. We look forward to seeing you again soon. Matt and Trina.

Marcela was an amazing guide! She is charming, incredibly knowledgeable, and made the tour enjoyable from start to finish. She guided the group seamlessly in both English and Portuguese and handled Rio’s traffic like a true professional. Thanks to her, we learned so much about the city’s history and culture. Highly recommended!

This was a very stimulating, inspiring and memorable experience. We visited a place where 200,000 people live in a way so far from our experience at home. Our tour guide Roberto went out of his way to explain and answer our questions, and with him we felt ultra safe, many thanks to him. There were some 'eye opening' parts of this visit (no spoilers, you have to go to experience the reality of being in a favela). Highly recommended.

Really efficient, well run, quite informative and fun. The guide Kiko (actually Hercules!) was full of knowledge and answered questions. The driver, Bruno, navigated the city traffic and then the winding mountain roads with ease. All in all, for a short tour, when you have a busy day planned, this could not have been more perfect.

Unfortunately, because it was the Tuesday of Carnaval we did not get to go to the Santa Teresa Neighbourhood or the Selaron steps. I did not see that when I booked the tour. They apologize because they could not go because of all of the traffic and different parades going on that day. I wish I had known that I would’ve booked it for the day after. Otherwise, Christ, the redeemer was a must see. Wonderful tour guide.

We spent a fabulous day with Fernanda in Rio. She advised an earlier than normal pickup time (6:20am) to beat crowds and to avoid some of the planned heat of the day. That was a great call. It got us to a viewpoint overlooking the City and Christ the Redeemer early with no crowds, and to the Christ the Redeemer itself right when it opened. It was still crowded but far less so than it would have been even 30 minutes later. That did mean we drove up the hill rather than taking the train, so if you have your heart set on the train, this may not be the best option (but driving up got us the first lookout, which you'd miss if taking the train). From there, we explored much of the City, including the Selaron Steps, the Cathedral, Library, and the Maracanã (football/soccer stadium), among others. We intentionally skipped Sugarloaf Mountain, knowing we could do it on our own another day, which left time to tour Maracanã (a great experience if you are a fan), and otherwise have a more leisurely afternoon. We also stopped for a quick breakfast at a tiny "hole in the wall" place that we never would have entered on our own, and enjoyed a fabulous Brazilian barbecue overlooking the water. Fernanda and her driver (whose name I unfortunately cannot remember) were a joy to be around, and you could tell Fernanda loved her job and her city, which made all the difference. I highly recommend booking this tour, and if you're lucky enough to get Fernanda, make sure you tell her your priorities in advance, so she can customize the itinerary for you. Skipping Sugarloaf was a great decision for us, and made the day much more enjoyable. And we got up the next morning and went up Sugarloaf on the first or second cable car of the day and enjoyed the place almost to ourselves for 30 minutes. We highly recommend this option if you have another morning to do Sugarloaf on your own.

This was a physically CHALLENGING experience! If you are not in decent physical shape (great knees, great legs, great lungs), this may not be a tour for you. The hike up the mountain is TOUGH! It is almost an hour long hike on rugged terrain. The Telegraph Stone is at a height of 1161 feet (354 meters). But if you can make it to the top, it is WORTH THE CHALLENGE! The views are breathtaking and the pics are priceless! Mauricio, our tour guide was patient, accommodating and as can be seen, also a GREAT PHOTOGRAPHER, he took my pix shown here, thanks bro. The tour van however is quite OLD and is in poor shape and SHOULD to be replaced. The ride in the van was very uncomfortable. We were all crammed in with little or no leg room. Please please please get a NEW VEHICLE. Would I do this specific tour again? HELL NO as it is very challenging physically plus, unless you're at the telegraph stone at the crack of dawn, you'll have to wait for close to 2 hrs to take your pics as there'll be others ahead of you and some folks in other tour groups are selfish and want to take 50 pics per person! There should be a limit of no more than 10 mins of pic taking per person! Anyway, I am happy I was able to complete the hike and get my pics with that iconic piece of rock! Go for it! You won't be disappointed!

An amazing tour from start to finish! It felt like the itinerary was created just for me — because it was! Luis was fantastic, knowledgeable, and made every stop interesting. Everything was well organized, flexible, and tailored to my interests. He took the time to understand what I wanted to see and made thoughtful adjustments along the way, even going a bit over the allotted time n order to do so. I felt well taken care of and enjoyed every moment. Highly recommend!