Day 2. Sugarloaf. Old Town. Evening – Carnival at the Sambadrome
After breakfast, a Sugarloaf Mountain tour awaits (4 hrs) with a stop at Urca Hill. From above, you'll take in the Niterói Bridge and Guanabara Bay, following boats far below with your eyes. You'll see how tightly Rio hugs the ocean: beyond the strip of sand, neighborhoods stretch out, then climb the mountains to the north. Then you'll walk through the old city among colonial facades, churches, and monasteries, and see the main cathedral.
Before the evening, rest up – you'll need energy for the entire Champions' Parade! A transfer takes you to the Rio Sambadrome, where the best schools from the Carnival competition perform. The final Carnival parade in Rio is something you'll want to watch with your phone forgotten: with every turn of the dancers, costumes flash with hundreds of reflections, and feathers catch the movement of their shoulders. Enormous floats glide past the stands, and you barely have time to take in the figures on top. All around you, people sing, raise their arms, and dance in place – staying seated yourself is almost impossible!
Carnival in Rio tickets are included in the program. After the parade, you'll be driven back to your hotel.
