DOs in Rio de Janeiro:
- Stay in Santa Teresa, the old bohemian living area on a hill directly overlooking Lapa’s nightlife and Rio’s metropolitan center, for example in: Terra Brasilis
- Take the old tram, “Bondinho” from behind the Cathedral/Petrobras Building to Santa Teresa or right up to the foot of Corcovado
- Go by bus: you see a lot of Rio, the ticket clerks are usually very nice and tell you where they go, where they don’t and when to hop off. Also Rio bus drivers all seem to love formula 1, at least they try driving that way, but the buses only seem to jump out of the curves, they really don’t
- Go up to Corcovado’s Christ the redeemer statue, it’s really worth it
- Try as many juices from the juice stands you find every 20m in Rio – once you’ve left Brasil you will miss them
- Try the burgers at the juice shops too, they are not the usual McDo stuff, they taste great
- Have a cold can of beer on Saturday evening/night (around 7-8pm) at the Curvelo station (first stop in Santa Teresa): locals gather to play, sing and dance samba on the street. 100% non-commercial
- Have a Sunday afternoon stroll through Lapa. Maybe don’t go into too dark streets, don’t wave around with you wallet and don’t wear golden necklaces (where would you do that in South America anyway…), but though that nightlife area looks a bit run-down during the day it’s really actually the closest you can get to a historic center in Rio
DON’Ts in Rio:
- A city tour – there is really nothing you cannot see yourself, and Rio is not about specific buildings or sites (o.k., the Corcovado, see above) but the whole setting and atmosphere – you will not take that in from a bus driving through the traffic jam
- Pay an agency for a “tour” to see a Samba school rehearsal – it’s really not worth it, and if you really want to go just take a taxi to the place. They are not in dangerous favelas (whatever the tour operators want to make you believe – crime and danger in Rio seem to be a business factor too…), taxis do drive there and you can leave whenever you want as well. Though still, rather go to Curvelo on saturday evening or a samba show in Lapa
Narrow streets down from Santa Teresa to Lapa
Ons of many stops for a quick fruit juice (recommended combinations: Papaya / Orange, Orange / Goyaba, or just plain Water melon, hmmm)
Tourist on Copacabana 
Christmas feeling in Ipanema
How to resist that maracuja caipirinha...
Ipanema beach at late afternoon (see Caipirinha above why not early afternoon )
Walk through the "historic center" - not much left of it, Rio center seems to be "modernized" mainly in the 60ies/70ies, same as elsewhere they just loved their concrete back then...
Alô?
Taking the "bondinho" back to Santa Teresa - with a very nice brazilian from Belem we've met at the station
Santa Teresa by night
Santa Teresa by night II
Lagoa Rodrigo de Freitas from Corcovado
Cristo redentor - Christ the redeemer. Planned in 1922, inaugurated in 1931
Pao de Azucar from Corcovado (Sugar loaf, Zuckerhut...)
Rieke and a japanese bunny on Corcovado (no, we did not ask...)
A happy couple on Corcovado
At maracana stadium - with the great tour we did we actually did not enter the stadium (nor did we see much else of what we had thought. TOP TIP Rio: do not make tours...)
The sambodromo. Here goes the world known Samba parade on Rio's Carnival - and just here. Every samba school (there are 12) has 90 minutes to parade up and down that road, 200.000 spectators fit in here, but the parade never leaves that place. I'd think it's a bit sterile, and though people in Rio think carnival is the best in the world here I'd rather go to Recife or Salvador or elsewhere.. I was stranded in Corumba in the Pantanal in 1995 and that carnival there was just great too
Metropolitan Cathedral with Christmas deco
THIS reminded me SO much of my good old Ruhr-University in Bochum... 60s/70s concrete sins look similar all over the world I guess judge yourself
That could well be between Hörsaalzentrum Ost and the N buildings...
The Petrobras building. Looks nice at night in green and yellow
Bondinho by day - at Curvelo stop in Santa Teresa
Nice mansions in Santa Teresa
Not so well preserved but grand old building in Santa Teresa
Parque das Ruinas in Santa Teresa - a cultural center (theater and stuff). That's where we had the pleasure to meet and chat with an 83 year old man, turning out to have been a pretty successful playwright and music compositor back in the days, and the son of the late founder of the Brazilian Comunist Party (Abilio Nequete). Incredible the people you meet travelling
Locals playing Samba and generally having a good time near Curvelo on Saturday evening
View from our room over Lapa and the city center
even our bathroom had a view
Walk through Lapa
Wall painting at the aquaeduct in Lapa
more wall paintings
More of Lapa - how nice could that part of the city center be (and in fact then would be the real historic center) if overhauled it a bit, like they did with the Pelorinho in Salvador de Bahia...
Christmas deco on our way to Leblon
At the samba school rehearsal (yes, we went... Don't do it unless you don't mind tourist events)
A bit of "Pagode" before the Samba part
Samba
Good-bye Rio
Andreas,
Great Post! It seems that you had lots of fun in my country. I’m glad. Loved your recommendations, I will try to follow some of it next time I go to Rio, like Lapa that I never been.
Agree with you that the best carnival is in Salvador, but disagree about the place to stay: I love Ipanema. Actually when I go to Rio I don´t leave Ipanema/leblon area.
Next time you should try to go to Niteroi – the island in front of Rio, very nice beaches and very peaceful.