Rio de Janeiro Travel

Blessed with long stretches of golden shore skirted by Atlantic Coast and braced by mountains blanketed with lush tropical forest, vibrant Rio de Janeiro is one of the world’s most splendid cities. It’s a place where glitz mingles with grit, and the senses are always enlivened.

Bathed in sunshine, it’s hard to be too serious about anything in decadent Rio. It’s not Brazil’s political nor financial center. For residents, work is something that gets in the way of hours-long social calls and beach time. Travelers will have no problem falling into Rio’s round-the-clock coastal-cosmopolitan reverie. But pretty as it is, Rio de Janeiro has depth, too. Travel beyond the beach to the city’s historic downtown to find colonial facades that harken to Portuguese settlement and other vestiges of a centuries-old city. Deep dive into history to learn how Rio was once the capital of Portugal, and how its past as one of the largest slave ports influences its present—from samba to capoeira to Carnival—and how it reflects in the ancestry of nearly half of all Brazilians.