The Abbey of Our Lady of Montserrat, more commonly known as the Mosteiro de São Bento (Monastery of St. Benedict), is a Benedictine abbey located in downtown Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The abbey was founded by Benedictine monks who came from the state of Bahia in 1590. It is still operational today, along with the Colégio de São Bento (St. Benedict College) nearby. The façade was part of the original Mannerist project and featured a centralized edifice with three archways at the entrance, as well as a triangular gable. Two towers crowned by pyramidal spires flanked the entryway. After passing through the entrance archway, the building houses a tiled porch and iron gates from the nineteenth century.
With architecture inspired by the Mayan pyramids of Mexico, the conical shape is believed to give proximity to God. Four stained glass windows run from floor to ceiling forming a cross at the top. Acoustics are "heavenly" here!
The Maracanã Stadium, was inaugurated in 1950 to host the World Cup. It is the largest stadium in Brazil, with capacity for more than 78 thousand fans. The "Maraca", as it is also called, besides the games of the national champions, is the Brazilian and of other great international competitions, is the stage of the great musical spectacles.We will not go inside it and will make a quick stop outside, at Bellini's statue, for pictures visit.
Fort Copacabana is a military base at the south end of the beach that defines the district of Copacabana, Rio de Janeiro. The base is open to the public and contains the Museu Histórico do Exército (Army Historical Museum) and a coastal defense fort that is the actual Fort Copacabana.
The Carioca Aqueduct is located in the centre of the city, in the Lapa neighbourhood, and is frequently called Arcos da Lapa (Lapa Arches) by Brazilian people. Since the end of the 19th century the aqueduct serves as a bridge for a popular tram that connects the city centre with the Santa Teresa neighbourhood uphill, the Santa Teresa Tramway.
Escadaria Selarón, also known as the 'Selaron Steps', is a set of world-famous steps in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. They are the work of Chilean-born artist Jorge Selarón who claimed it as "my tribute to the Brazilian people. In 1990, Selarón began renovating dilapidated steps that ran along the front of his house. At first, neighbours mocked him for his choice of colours as he covered the steps in fragments of blue, green and yellow tiles – the colours of the Brazilian flag. It started out as a side-project to his main passion, painting, but soon became an obsession. He found he was constantly out of money, so Selarón sold paintings to fund his work. It was long and exhausting work but he continued on and eventually covered the entire set of steps in tiles, ceramics and mirrors.
Botafogo is a beachfront neighbourhood. It is a mostly upper middle class and small commerce community, and is located between the hills of Mundo Novo, Dona Marta (which separates it from Laranjeiras) and São João (which separates it from Copacabana). The word Botafogo also refers to a Latin American ballroom dance move, named so because the area of Botafogo is where it originated.
Flamengo is located between Catete and Botafogo districts on the edge of Guanabara Bay. The beachfront area is dominated by the Brigadier Eduardo Gomes Park, also known as Aterro do Flamengo, built on nearly 300 acres (1.2 km²) of land reclaimed from the bay and completed in 1965. The park features gardens designed by well-known Brazilian landscape designer Roberto Burle Marx.
Lavradio street is a famous place in Lapa district because it has several antique shops, bars and restaurants that attract people all the time. On the first weekend of each month there is a street fair that concentrates national and foreign tourists and locals who know of the local fame. The bars occupy the streets with small tables and several stalls market everything, which gives a respectable agglomeration
This trip was really enjoyable. My guide, Victoria, was very knowledgeable and passionate about Rio de Janeiro, her English was excellent and she had a lovely disposition. The highlights for me were the Seleron Steps and St Benedict’s monastery (Victoria is very good at keeping a surprise!). I can’t remember our driver’s name but they made a good team! Thank you.
Very unprofessional company. Late for pick up for almost 1 hour. Driver drive van very fast and guide make little comments. On each spot we stay not more than 5-10 min with little comments
Monica was knowledgeable, engaging, and passionate, offering insightful stories, local history, and vibrant cultural experiences. Highly recommended for exploring the city!
This Rio de Janeiro city tour is worth to take. It covers most of the key sight seeing spots for people who are short of time to stay.
Monica was good n knowledgeable in her job…she toured us around according the description of the tour.
We had a fantastic time with Meiling and Andre, incredible experience, thank you! We highly recommend for English speakers.
Victoria was awesome and made sure we had a lively and great experience! Excellent introduction to the downtown area and a warm welcome to an amazing city.
Arthur and Andre were a great team efficiently wisking us around sites safely. Arthur’s deep knowledge of history and architecture enriched the experience and really added to understanding the significance of each stop and the narration along the way. Andre was the formidable force behind the wheel expertly navigating the rather crazy traffic with grace and assertiveness.
The guide Monica is passionate to present us history of Rio with excellent preparation of historic photos to show the contrast. Detail oriented and attentive all along the tour and working seamlessly with her driver. Most importantly I feel safe travelling with such a professional guide/driver team
The tour guide was amazing very knowledgeable and very organised tour. Definitely, recommend if you are on a short time period and want to see a bit of Rio
Monica was wonderful! She captured the heart of Rio and engaged our attention throughout the tour. We saw many of the historical and relevant sites. Highly recommend this tour.
The English speaking guide was excellent, as was the driver. There were only 4 of us English speakers, but all was top notch
Very nice. Tailored to our needs Tour guide Meilin was articulate, personable, and knowledgeable. The pace was about right for the amount of ground covered.
We had the perfect guide and was very informative and enjoyed my time with the team and all of the sites we visited and would do it again
Learning about the history of Brazil and Rio de Janeiro, as well as about the monuments and key historical figures and neighborhoods in Rio
Best guide in Rio! Monica is a fantastic guide and a true and passionate lover of her home city. We did a tour from Maracana Stadium to the Benedictine Monastery, the Samba-Drome and the Seleron Stairs, the cathedral and many other places and got great insights from Monica on the historical and cultural background as well as many many hands-on tips for our visit to Rio (where to go next, how to stay safe, etc.), a perfect start to our journey! 😎👍
Our tour was amazing and our guide Monica was humble and knowledgeable about everything we experienced. She even made my husband's birthday special thank you.
Victoria, our tour guide was warm very knowledgeable and adapted tour - an excellent way to see a snap shot of downtown Rio , cathedral and steps, thoroughly recommended.
This is an ideal tour when you just have a few hours to spend in Rio, after visiting the important landmarks like Christ the Redeemer and Sugar Loaf Mountain. The guide, Sabina and the driver Ricardo very excellent and made sure the 3 hours were spent in seeing all the sights without rushing us
Good tour! Very informative, the length at each of the stops was appropriate, Kiko the tour guide was very knowledgeable and professional. Overall, great quick tour!
Great tour for a solo traveler. Our guide was very friendly, gave great information and was very knowledgeable of the areas. Would definitely recommend.
Sergio was an excellent guide. Very informative, friendly and generous. We loved all the places visited. Highly recommend this tour with Sergio.
Our tour guide was Vincent Thomas (a freelance tour guide for Carioca Tropical Tours). He was excellent. It turned out that we were the only two people on the tour. His English was very good and understandable and he took a personal interest in making this tour memorable.
We purchased this 1/2 bus tour including 5 major stops to visit landmarks not included in the trip itinerary package provided by the travel agency we work with. This was an well worth time and money. Sandra is n amazing guide who delivered in a very interesting way lots of details about the historical and architectural part of each place we stopped and visited. There was also an opportunity at the Sambodrom to have pictures taken with a samba costume which we rented for a small fee at the quiosque. Sandra was also very nice and agreed to take us many pictures at all stops - the time we spent at each stop (20-30 min) was sufficient to go around and see some details we were interested in. Sandra is not only a great tour guide but she was taking a good care of us by advising where to pay more attention on the surroundings and be more careful. We had a great afternoon with her and the driver (sorry forgot his name) who was always helping us to get in and out of the bus. We highly recommend this tour.
If you want to see the other many attractions Rio has to offer, this is a great way to see them in 3 hours. Did not stop at all the attractions like the Maracana Stadium and the Arches but did stop at most of the places like the Rio de Janeiro Cathedral, The Sambadrome and the Escadaria Selaron Steps. Can be very busy with the traffic and to get round these places in 3 hours was excellent. Would of liked to of spent more time at the Steps but with the limited time and busy traffic i would recommend this tour to see Downtown Rio in one afternoon.
<p>I chose this tour thinking that it would orient me to the city on my first day there. It was pretty good for that. Our guide was quite good, both personable and knowledgeable about the city. I had a good time but some of the sights on the tour just aren't much fun. For example, the Sambadrome must be great fun when there are events going on, but it isn't very interesting when it is empty. Our guide realized the same was true of the Maracana stadium so she gave us the option of walking in another area instead, by the port area, which was a great choice. My favorite point on the tour was the Selaron steps, which I revisited later.</p>
Excellent tour, very punctual, the gua Monica very nice and interesting, we were very comfortable and had time to know the places and take pictures, we loved the tour, it is just what we were looking for in this experience!
Excellent tour, highly recommended. Monica was a luxury, attentive, very willing and informed guide. It provided history of each of the places we visited.
Wonderful day with ride to the center at the main attractions of Rio. The guide Monica was helpful, friendly and extremely competent.
Monica is very kind. He handled the guide in two languages excellently, giving equal attention to everyone. The time given to visit the attractions was enough
We were on a tour of downtown Rio with our Monica Guide Francesca Bertazzolo, an amazing day!! Monica explained everything in many details, about the history of Rio, its creation and in each place we visited explained and absolved all our doubts. Super friendly, attentive to our needs, very patient and very cheerful, we take great memories of Brazil and will definitely return to Rio and again think of Monica to accompany me and my family.
A co-comfortable walk through the historic part of the wonderful city, with an exclusive Guide. Highly recommended. Very nice views
I recommend this tour 100%. Mónica guided us and showed us the colonial River, with all the details and explanations, answering questions and commenting on curiosities. Our driver did everything possible to get us closer to the places of interest. An excellent cultural visit to the Primeval River.
Monday through Friday 9 am to 7 pm EST
Reach us by phone
Reach us by email