Day 2: Sugarloaf Mountain and the Main Event – Sambadrome Parade
After breakfast, you head to the Sugarloaf Mountain cable car. First, the cable car takes you from Red Beach up to Urca Hill, where cafés and bars have great views over the city and the bay. Then a second cable car takes you to the very top. Before you: the whole of Rio — the black-and-white arc of Copacabana beach, the romantic Ipanema beach, the beautiful Guanabara Bay, the Niteroi bridge in the distance, and the Christ the Redeemer statue on Corcovado.
After Sugarloaf, you drive along the main streets and squares, past buildings in colonial style. You may stop at the Metropolitan Cathedral of Rio and take photos at the colorful Selaron Steps. The Rio city tour continues through the Santa Teresa neighborhood, one of the most atmospheric parts of the city.
In the evening, a transfer takes you to the legendary Sambadrome - the home of the Samba parade Rio. Tonight you watch the Carnival Champions Parade - the Samba schools parade of Rio de Janeiro. This is the greatest show of the Brazilian carnival, and the heart of the whole event.
What is the parade like? Enormous floats, thousands of dancers in spectacular costumes, the thunder of drums, and millions of lights turn the night into one long, non-stop celebration. If you are not sure what to see at the Carnival - this is the answer. In a single night you see more than ten thousand dancers. Sambadrome tickets are included in your Carnival package with hotel.
After the parade, a transfer takes you back to your hotel.