Rio is one of the few cities where the skyline competes with the geography. Granite peaks sit right in the middle of downtown, rising up between the neighborhoods instead of staying politely on the horizon. This was a return trip for me, and this time the plan was to rock climb some of these peaks. The rain had other ideas. We only got one summit, and we filled the rest of the four days with enough else that the trip never felt like it was missing something.
Friday: The New GOL Direct, and a Slow Afternoon Along the Beach
We left JFK Thursday night on GOL’s newly launched nonstop to Rio, landing at GIG Friday morning. No connection through São Paulo, no red-eye layover math. It’s a new route, so worth booking while the schedule holds.
We checked into the JW Marriott in Copacabana and kept the rest of the day loose. We walked the beach path all the way to Ipanema, past the volleyball nets and the kiosks, and ended at Arpoador to watch the sunset over the rock. The vibe was great — people surfing, playing foot volley, and others just hanging out on the rock drinking caipirinhas.
For dinner, we went up into Santa Teresa to Aprazível, a super cute, tree-house feeling restaurant perched on the hillside with views back down toward the city. Afterward, chasing a local’s tip for Friday night energy, we headed to Feira de São Cristóvão. It was a bust: the crowd was thin, the music was cranked up with nobody really dancing to it, and the stalls felt like a row of karaoke bars parked next to each other rather than a market. We didn’t stay long. We rerouted to Lapa instead and found a different flavour of nightlife.
Saturday: Rockclimbing Sugarloaf Mountain
Saturday was our first climbing day, and we’d planned it around the sunset, starting at 2pm. That gave us a slow morning back in Copacabana before we made our way to Praia Vermelha (Red Beach) to pick up the trail to the Coringa Route.
We chose Coringa into Castao, a rock scramble that connects the rock climb to the summit of Sugarloaf and allows you to top out. A group ahead of us on the route turned our timing into a problem: what should have been a sunset finish became a scramble in full dark, headlamps on, feeling out holds by feel as much as sight. It was more of an experience than we’d planned for, and more adventure than a clean, on schedule climb probably would have been.
We summited and took in the view alongside all the tourists who has taken the cable car up. I was grinning with joy to think we had just scaled the mountain’s side to get to this point. Eventually, we made our way down. Climbers get free access to the cable car from Sugar Loaf to Mount Urca, so we took that down. But given the darkness, rather than do the traditional hike down Morro da Urca, we paid for the second cable car down to the base.
Dinner afterward was at Churrascaria Palace, and we closed the night with a short walk to Bip Bip for live music in what’s essentially someone’s front room turned bar.
Sunday: Doors Off Over Rio, Then Under Sail
Sunday was built for adrenaline. We started with Rio2Fly for a doors-off helicopter tour, harnessed in with our legs hanging out over open air for parts of the flight. This was a special way to take in the full city – wind blowing in our hair and feet daggling out as we circled Christ the Redeemer up in the sky. The views were breathtaking – we could see Sugarloaf in the distance, Copacabana Beach, and so much more. What a way to experience the city.
From there we went straight into a private sail, out on a Brazilian sailboat with Captain Gustavo. Captain Gustavo was used to guests who are more interested in drinking capirinhas and snacking on fruits, but when he realized we wanted to sail, he handed me the tiller and off we went! The wind and weather cooperated fully, and seeing the city’s mountains from the water flipped the whole trip’s perspective. We wound down the day with a stop at the floating restaurant and then Bar Urca before heading back in.
Monday: Rain Rewrites the Plan
We were up at 5am for a planned sunrise climb up to Christ the Redeemer, but the rain had been coming down all night and the rock face was still soaked by morning. This was heartbreaking as this was one of my key reasons to want to come back to Rio, and it just wasn’t in the cards (I guess an excuse for why I must return!). We swapped the plan for a day touring Rocinha favela instead: motorcycles to the top, then working our way back down on foot, hearing along the way how the neighborhood functions less like a district and more like its own self-contained city. [something about the favela and what it is why tour it]
