Rio de Janeiro Main Landmarks Tour
Recommended by 94% of travelers
Badge of Excellence
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
- 7 hours (approx.)
- Pickup offered
- Mobile ticket
- Offered in: English
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Overview
See Rio's most important sights, including Christ the Redeemer atop Corcovado Mountain, during this comprehensive 5-hour guided tour. Visit Sao Conrado beach, a popular landing spot for hang gliders taking off from Pedra Bonita, to watch the gravity-defying adventurers soar high above the beach. Travel through Tijuca National Park's rainforest to the Christ the Redeemer statue, enjoying spectacular views over the city. Descend into the Santa Teresa neighborhood to visit the Escadaria Selaron and have lunch (own expense). Choose to return to your hotel or be dropped off at Sugar Loaf Mountain to view the sunset.
- Visit Sao Conrado beach, a popular landing spot for hang gliders taking off from Pedra Bonita
- View the Christ the Redeemer statue, enjoying spectacular views over the city
- Descend into the Santa Teresa neighborhood to visit the Escadaria Selaron and have lunch (own expense)
- Return to your hotel or be dropped off at Sugar Loaf Mountain to view the sunset
What's Included
- Local guide
- Air-conditioned vehicle
- Hotel pickup and drop-off from Zona Sul hotels (please check your location)
- Christ the Redeemer Ticket Included
- Food and drinks
- Hotel pickup and drop-off from hotels outside Zona Sul
- Sugar Loaf Ticket
Meeting and Pickup
You can head directly to the meeting point, or request pickup
Arranged start time
Confirm time with the local provider in advance of your experience.
- 05/01/2026 - 05/02/2026
Friday - Saturday : 7:30 AM - 10:00 PM
- 05/03/2026 - 05/03/2026
Sunday : 7:30 AM - 10:00 PM
- 05/04/2026 - 05/10/2026
Monday - Sunday : 7:30 AM - 10:00 PM
- 05/11/2026 - 05/14/2026
Monday - Thursday : 7:30 AM - 10:00 PM
- 05/15/2026 - 05/17/2026
Friday - Sunday : 7:30 AM - 10:00 PM
- 05/18/2026 - 05/24/2026
Monday - Sunday : 7:30 AM - 10:00 PM
- 05/25/2026 - 05/29/2026
Monday - Friday : 7:30 AM - 10:00 PM
- 05/30/2026 - 10/25/2026
Monday - Sunday : 7:30 AM - 10:00 PM
- 10/26/2026 - 04/25/2027
Monday - Sunday : 7:30 AM - 10:00 PM
- 04/26/2027 - 04/28/2027
Monday - Wednesday : 7:30 AM - 10:00 PM
- 04/29/2027 - 05/20/2027
Monday - Sunday : 7:30 AM - 10:00 PM
Itinerary
1
Corcovado - Christ the Redeemer
50 minutes • Admission Ticket Included
2
Santa Teresa
15 minutes • Admission Ticket Free
3
Escadaria Selaron
20 minutes • Admission Ticket Free
4
The Metropolitan Cathedral of Saint Sebastian
15 minutes • Admission Ticket Free
5
Theatro Municipal do Rio de Janeiro
5 minutes • Admission Ticket Free
6
Restaurante Conde Gourmet
40 minutes • Admission Ticket Not Included
7
Maracana Stadium
10 minutes • Admission Ticket Not Included
8
Parque Lage
30 minutes • Admission Ticket Free
9
Sugar Loaf cable car
15 minutes • Admission Ticket Not Included
Additional Info
- Confirmation will be received at time of booking
- May be operated by a multi-lingual guide
- It is recommended that you wear comfortable walking shoes and bring water, sunscreen and sunglasses
- Not wheelchair accessible
- Most travelers can participate
- This tour/activity will have a maximum of 14 travelers
Supplied by
Cancellation Policy
You can cancel up to 24 hours in advance of the experience for a full refund.
Traveler Photos
Reviews
4.8
based on 151 reviews
Sherwin_O, Apr 2026
This tour was a great way to see the main highlights in a short amount of time. Everything was well-organized, and the itinerary covered all the must-visit spots, making it very convenient especially for first-time visitors.
A special mention to our guide, Vanessa, who truly made the experience exceptional. She was very knowledgeable, engaging, and helpful in every way—always ready to answer questions and make sure everyone was comfortable throughout the tour. Her insights and friendly approach added so much value to the day.
Overall, a well-planned and enjoyable tour that I would definitely recommend.
Response from Host, Apr 2026
Thank you so much for your kind words!
We’re really happy to hear that you enjoyed the tour and that everything met your expectations. It means a lot to us that you found the experience well-organized and convenient.
We’ll be sure to pass your lovely feedback on to Vanessa — she will be very happy to hear it! She truly is an amazing guide, and we’re glad she made your day even more special.
Thank you again for your recommendation, and we hope to welcome you back in Rio in the future!
Sarah_S, Jun 2024
Joao and Marcelo were the best. Joao knew an incredible amount and was the perfect tour guide! The tour itself hit a lot of high notes but didn’t feel dragged-out.
Recommend!
Response from Host, Jun 2024
Hello Sarah
We are glad to have you in our big dude tour! Thank you and have a safe trip!
All the best!
Road31351212503, Sep 2019
Really good experience. Our guide was very good and knowledgeable and gave us lots of interesting information about what we were seeing.
The tour itself was nicely balanced and felt like we got to see everything with enough time, and was clear on the plan. Our guide also gave some ideas and suggestions on other things we could do for the rest of our time in Rio.
There was some difficulties with a couple of the tour members who were inconsiderate and not listening to the guides in terms of time, but the guide and driver handled this very well, and the tour continued fine without delaying the rest of the tour.
Would definitely recommend this as a good way to visit the city highlights.
Sam_L, Jun 2018
Absolutely brilliant day from start to finish, started off nice and early with pick up from our hotel at 9am on the dot. Greeted by our driver Marcel who was lovely and welcoming and then went on to pick up the fellow passengers on the tour and our tour guide Alex. Alex was engaging and chatty throughout making sure there was never a dull moment between stop offs. Every stop off was fantastic and the only downer on the day was that the weather was pretty bad, even still we had an amazing day and this was probably one of the best tours I have ever been on. Would highly recommend to anyone wanting to see a few main sights in Rio in a day :.
Troyrantae_J, May 2018
Truly enjoyed the tour and excursion its very very worth the money. Steven the tour guide is good very informative. 89.99 of your tour is done riding around you will get sleepy. The Selaron steps were the highlight of the excursion theirs vendors there selling stuff get itvery cheap you wont see it around RIO again.
Sara_V, Apr 2018
Amazing tour with an amazing guide named Wellington. He was so amazing and really focused on catering to whatever we needed as a group.
Brian_M, Mar 2018
One of the very best trips we have had with Viator.Phillipe looked after us beautifully,picked up on time,great interactive all day with passengers.Packed with information and was very adaptable. Congratulations Viator.
Nathan F, Feb 2018
Wow what can I say? Both the driver and the tour guide couldn't have been more helpful and informative. They went way and beyond to take us to all the great sites Rio has to offer. We even got a few extra stop offs put in that wasn't listed on the itinerary! I wouldn't hesitate to recommend this tour. Top marks from me!
Brian T, Feb 2018
Comfortable way to see all the city's highlights. Lunch was mediocre, but otherwise a great value and the tour guides were very helpful.
h c, Oct 2017
Went to all the landmarks. But the guide is not knowledgeable and didn't share much information about the places, the history or the people. Had a feeling that even the driver knows better than the guide. Pity that the driver doesn't speak much English to take the role.
Marli S, Oct 2017
Our guide was great! What an enjoyable tour where we saw almost everything! Highly recommended!
Yining W, Sep 2017
The perfect one day trip to see the landmarks of Rio. The best thing is you can ask to be dropped at sugar loaf mountain to see the sunset.
alistair.rundell, Jul 2017
The tour was awesome - covered all the main sights in Rio. Philippe was an extremely knowledgeable tour guide, and his English was great. The driver Marcelo navigated all the roads with ease and courtesy, and was always making us laugh : I would highly recommend this tour to anyone visiting Rio!
enp2108, May 2017
Loved the guide! Went to a all the landmarks in the description.
John S, Jan 2017
Late arrival. No tickets prepurchased so having to make two trips to Christ the redeemer. Very little organisation and a poor tour guide who, although helpful when asked questions, spent too much time texting or whatever on his mobile. Use another provider.
William_M, Dec 2016
Even though the weather wasn't very good, our guide, Steve, turned this into an awesome excursion! His local knowledge and stories were so interesting and he was able to provide personal insight into life in Rio. I would highly recommend this tour.
Emmanuel_V, Oct 2016
Our guide arrived on time and he was very nice and accommodating..However he forgot to pickup a group of americans so we had to head back and i think we lost a good 30 minutes.. Wish we went to Christ the Redeemer in the afternoon instead of the morning because the its better to take phots selfies with the light the front than at the back. The restaurant he took us was wonderful and it was great making friends with other foreigners. I loved he gave us historial backgrounds of the place. Later in the evening he invited us to a Brazilian Football game! different charge. - it was also very fun.
Donnalee D, Oct 2016
My low rating is for two reasons. Firstly, we only saw 2 of the 4 advertised sites, and secondly, the responses to our complaints were poor and deceptive.
The trip started off about 30-45 minutes late. I was told to meet the group at a hotel at 10. We did not leave until 10:30. They did not have enough seats in the tour van to take everyone, so some had to wait for a second vehicle. Our first stop was Christ the Redeemer, which we left after noon. The guide had not pre-purchased tickets, so we wasted a lot of time waiting for tickets, and waiting in line to go up. Because we wasted so much time at Christ the Redeemer, she said we did not have time to go to Sao Conrado.
We drove through Santa Teresa, and had to beg the driver to stop so we could explore the neighbourhood. He eventually did so. The lunch was good, and we were able to take pics at Escadaria Selaron.
From there we were supposed to go to the rainforest. The driver initially said he would not take us because it was so late, and offered to show us the Maracana stadium. At that time it was after 3. We all said we wanted to go to the rainforest, so he agreed to drive there. Actually, he drove directly to the stadium, which is not in the same direction as the rainforest, and once we got to the stadium, he reiterated that it was too late for the forest. So we simply drove past the Maracana stadium.
I felt we were cheated of both our time and our money on this trip. We did not see Sao Conrado or the Tijuca National Park as advertised. Furthermore, when we all requested to to go the rainforest, the driver lied and pretended that he was taking us there, when he was really driving us past the stadium, which was useless since we were not going inside.
Rosario B, Sep 2016
Great experience with the guide Lucia and driver Marcelo.
Indea S, Aug 2016
brilliant tour, guide and driver were fab! both gave facts I would never have known prior! the picture spots they know are amazing! if sugar loaf was part of the whole agenda I wouldn't fault it at all,with the optional side I didn't end up going as it was dark when we finished!
Ashley V, Aug 2016
Hi, I am not recommending this tour during the Olympics. It was supposed to be a 5 hour tour, but it turned into 9.5 hours as we were waiting at Cristo for 4.5 hours. The guide was nice and made sure we saw the Santa Teresa ? neighborhood despite the late hour, but by the time we were there, it was dark. The group voted not to go to Sugarloaf as it was super late.
Due to the timings, we also didn't stop for food and lived off of snacks - had we known the waiting time, we could have easily had a nice lunch, but it seems like no one really knew how bad it was.
Overall, not a great experience - felt exhausted and bad from not having proper food all day :
Brijida R, Jul 2016
Murillo was great. He took us to many places and gave us the history of those places in Brazil. He was a cool guy . I enjoyed my tour.
Fabrice D, Jun 2016
Just as advertised. Very friendly guides who go above and beyond to make sure you're satisfied. A great tour and very good value! It's a no-brainer and a must if visiting Rio
Dennis D, May 2016
I would highly recommend this tour. We went to all the highlights and it was excellent. The guide help with all the translations and gave valuable information about the city. We traveled through out South America and this was by far our best tour.
Tiffany T, Mar 2016
I originally book the early access tour,to get there super early which is highly recommended to beat the lines, crowd and sun but there was a misunderstanding and they never came to pick me up at my hotel. So I booked this tour simply to kill time my last day in Brazil and hopefully to see something other than the beach on my bday and it was amazing. This tour was better than I expected. My only complaint was that the train or whatever that was to take us to the top to see Christ the Redeemer broke down so we had to wait an extra hour in the sun for the tourist vans to drive us up there, not to mention it was over crowded. Once there it was worth the wait. I was very impressed because I saw more sights than expected and more than what I would have seen on the Early access tour. I would highly recommend this tour. And wear jeans or long sleeves or insect repellent for the forest. There weren't many mesquites, I only got bit once wearing a summer dress,it was my bday but with the Zika virus it good to be safe!! This tour does not include the Sugar loaf Mt but you do pass by it and will get a great view of it at Christ the Redeemer!!
Book373, Dec 2015
This tour was awesome and I had a lot of fun on it. The two tor guides one did the driving and the other did the speaking as we toured around the great city of Rio! I really enjoyed myself on this tour and again the tour guides were awesome and it was a good 5-6 hour tour. Lots of fun, it was a great way to see Rio!!!
Kimberly E, Nov 2015
My family had an excellent time on this tour. The guides we ran into another group and were often together throughout the day were knowledgeable and very accommodating to the children in the group. The tour ran on time from pick up to drop off. I highly recommend this tour as even though it was a foggy day they found a few out of the way spots to take excellent pictures. All landmarks were entered in smoothly and with no issue.
Leonila C, Sep 2015
Carlos was our tour guide and he's very knowledgeable and funny! Selaron steps is very colorful! The Christ the Redeemer is amazing!
Cessalee Ophelia S, Sep 2015
Yes, we did get to go to most of the places listed. And the driver was wonderful! But the rest was pretty rough.
First of all, the tour started 2 hours late. My sheet said the last pick up was at 9, and they would come to your hotels before that if you were in the district. Although I was about four blocks away and in the district, I never heard from anyone about picking up so I went to meet at the hotel at 9. No one was there at 9 and when I called the first time, they said 9:30. When I called the second time they said the guide was running late so they would pick me up around 9:45, but then I had to sit and wait a 1/2 hour more people to join the tour. Then we had to pick up more people in Ipanema, and then we had to go pick up the guide who came on board with a flurry of profanity promising to make it up to us--not the best start so we actually started heading towards the first location sometime around 11:30. Unfortunately, I had a friend who was leaving town at 4:30. The original 7 hour tour would have had me back in time to say goodbye, but as we didn't get started until after 11, that went out the window. As the tour went on, there was one couple who could understand english, but mainly spoke spanish so the driver guided them as Carlos the cussing tour guide led us. After talking about his 12 year old's tits and using the N word I'm Black by the way I was really over it. He also gave a lot of information that didn't seem to be true. Or at least thing that have been contradicted by almost everything I've read and studied. But it was a great price to be taken to see all the sites and that was nice. We didn't have much of a wait for anything, but the day was so cloudy, no one else was interested in Christ the Redeemer. Because Sugar Loaf would have been a complete waste, they did go to a really cool look out spot that wasn't on the tour. So the two stars are for the driver and the owner was very nice and apologetic about the delay and had a sweet baby.
Sandra_K, Jul 2018
Die Abholung erfolgte pünktlich, unser Fahrer-Guide hat uns viel Information gegeben. Wir haben sehr viel von Rio gesehen und hatten immer Zeit zum Fotografieren. Wenn man nur wenig Zeit in Rio zu Verfügung hat, eine sehr gute Tour!
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Attractions in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
- Rodrigo de Freitas Lagoon (Lagoa Rodrigo de Freitas) Tours & Tickets
- Rio de Janeiro Cathedral (Catedral Metropolitana de Sao Sebastiao) Tours & Tickets
- Rio Art Museum (Museu de Arte do Rio) Tours & Tickets
- Copacabana Beach (Praia de Copacabana) Tours & Tickets
- Glória Marina (Marina da Glória) Tours & Tickets
- Lage Park (Parque Lage) Tours & Tickets
- Pedra Bonita Tours & Tickets
- Sao Bento Monastery (Mosteiro de Sao Bento) Tours & Tickets
- Sugarloaf Mountain (Pao de Açúcar) Tours & Tickets
- Royal Portuguese Reading Room (Real Gabinete Portugues de Leitura) Tours & Tickets
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- La Candelaria Church (Iglesia de Nuestra Señora de la Candelaria) Tours & Tickets
- Pepino Beach (Praia do Pepino) Tours & Tickets
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- Corcovado Train (Trem do Corcovado) Tours & Tickets
- Vista Chinesa Tours & Tickets
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More attractions near Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
- Christ the Redeemer Statue (Cristo Redentor) Tours & Tickets
- Sugarloaf Mountain (Pao de Açúcar) Tours & Tickets
- Maracana Stadium (Estádio do Maracanã) Tours & Tickets
- Tijuca National Park (Parque Nacional da Tijuca) Tours & Tickets
- Copacabana Beach (Praia de Copacabana) Tours & Tickets
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