Rio de Janeiro

Rio de Janeiro is where most Brazil itineraries begin or end, and it earns that role easily. The city’s golden beaches sit directly beneath forested mountains, most famously Corcovado, where Christ the Redeemer looks out over the bay, and Sugarloaf, reached by cable car for views back over the city. Two or three days here, split between the beach and the hills, is usually enough to understand why Cariocas find it so hard to imagine living anywhere else.