Had a brilliant day (as a sole traveler) with Andre as our guide to Christ the Redeemer, Sugar Loaf, Cathedral and Escadaria Selarón Stairs. We certainly skipped the queues which gave us more time to really take in all the grandeur of Rio. The tour vehicle was well appointed and had an exceptionally safe driver. Really recommend Grey Line for the next time you are in Rio - also the Brazilian Steak house we went to after the tour was exceptional in food and service.
About Activity
What's Included
Includes
- Professional guide
- Cable Car Ticket to Sugar Loaf Access
- Skip The Line Train Ticket to Christ Redeemer Statue Access
- Barbecue Lunch (Vegetarian options available) - On option with Lunch. If selecting an option without lunch, our guide will offer a variety of nearby suggestions that can fit any budget or taste!
- Port pickup and drop off
Excludes
- Gratuities
- Drinks
Departure & Return
Departure Point
- Meeting point is Cruise Terminal Pier Mauá - The guide will be waiting for you at the exit gate of the Cruise Terminal 4 (right in front of the Kobra Mural), and will walk with you to the vehicle.
Itinerary
Meeting point is Cruise Terminal Pier Mauá - The guide will be waiting for you at the exit gate of the Cruise Terminal 4 (right in front of the Kobra Mural), and will walk with you to the vehicle
You will pass through the historic Laranjeiras neighborhood, which hosts the Guanabara Palace, the ancient home of Princess Isabel who signed the Golden Law to free all slaves. Nowadays, the Palace is the official headquarters of the government of Rio de Janeiro.
Before reaching downtown you will pass next to the Sambodrome, where the Samba School Parade happens every year.
See from outside and get inside the iconic Metropolitan Cathedral which was built in a pyramidal form with an internal diameter of 96 meters and a height of 80 meters.
You will make your way to Urca through Aterro do Flamengo and its parks, designed by Burle Marx and hear all about Brazil’s participation in World War II as well as the founding of the city back in the late 1500s, just before arriving to Sugar Loaf.
Pass by the beautiful neighborhood that hosts one of the main sights of Rio de Janeiro, the Sugar Loaf Mountain.
The first cable car takes you to Urca Hill, a vantage point 215 meters high for which already grants beautiful views of Guanabara Bay and its islands, Flamengo and Botafogo beaches, Santos Dummont Airport, the Rio-Niterói Bridge, Urca’s neighborhood and Corcovado Mountain.
A second cable car takes you up to the top. When you get there, you will understand why Rio is considered one of the most beautiful cities in the world. At 395 meters you’ll enjoy breathtaking views from Copacabana beach, Niterói and the Santa Cruz fortress. From up there, you will have no trouble understanding why Rio is nicknamed “Wonderful City”.
After visiting Sugar Loaf Mountain, you will head down to an all-you-can-eat-style barbecue house. Brazilian Churrascarias (Barbecue places) offer a wide variety of sides and alternative options, in case you decide to stick with a vegetarian option, you will still leave delighted. Lunch is included only if option selected. If selecting an option without lunch, our guide will offer a variety of nearby suggestions that can fit any budget or taste!
Located between Arpoador and Jardim de Alah, it is one of the most famous beaches in the country (Have you ever heard "Girl from Ipanema"?) and one of the busiest in the city. About 2 km long, some areas of the beach have strong waves and currents, and can be used for sports.
Catch up nice views from the Leblon beach, where you can get a great perscpective of the Morro Dois Irmãos (Two Brothers Hill)
Pass by the famous Rodrigo de Freitas Lagoon. The lagoon is connected to the Atlantic Ocean, allowing sea water to enter by a canal along the edge of a park locally known as Jardim de Alah.
Get to Cosme Velho train Station, where you will catch the train to reach the Corcovado Mountain. Skip the line with pre-reserved, so you won't waste your time with long lines!
Upon reaching Cosme Velho Station, sitting at the bottom of Corcovado Mountain, we will catch the train with pre-reserved tickets to save time and it will take you up to the top, through the dense Tijuca Rainforest to the 38m tall (125ft) Christ Redeemer Statue. The 20 minute ride up will give you a chance to thoroughly appreciate the Tijuca Forest, which is considered to be the largest urban forest in the whole world. It represents 7% of the whole city`s territory! It’s breath taking and that alone already makes the trip well worth it.
Upon arriving at the Statue, you will have two options of reaching the top, by a lift and then an escalator, or the traditional way, by stairs, 222 Steps, but the prize makes it all worthwhile. Once up, the views and the imposing statue will take your mind off the walk up! Looking up you will feel blessed and protected by this beautiful monument of Christ with open arms, now one of the new Seven Wonders of the World! From up there you can see most of the city, all of the south zone and all the way to Niteroi. A unique view that will astound you. You will have about 40 minutes to get to know all the sides and views of Corcovado and take pictures.
Language Offered
Additional Info
Cancellation Policy
Reviews
The meeting point communications & directions between Viator & Gray Line "sucked", to say the least. Viator mapping directed us to a totally incorrect meeting point! After 1/2 hour we finally contacted Gray Lines via a Brazilian police officer who helped translate our location and then kindly walked us to our guide, Patricia. And right outside the port disembarkation. Logical right, but not where we were directed. After finding Patricia, the remaining day was wonderful. Patricia is a great guide, full of knowledge about Rio and all the locations we signed up for. She got us to the front of all lines! When there was confusion and a last minute change at Christ the Redeemer, she found us seats, while she waited in line. I highly recommend Patricia and Gray Line. Just beware, if your map directions take you away for the disembarkation point, stop and look for your guide 1st. A lesson we learned!
I had an amazing experience with Tania aka “TT”. She is funny and full of energy! This tour is helpful because you can knock out most of the must-see attractions all in one go
The guide was really good and very informative, changing the order of the itinerary to suit the changing weather. The tour did feel a bit rushed and no spare time to have a relaxed coffee away from the group. Lunch was fabulous, a great choice.
Millene our guide and our driver Alan made possible a very big plan for one day of sightseeing in Rio. They had great humor and kindness as they navigated us through Sugarloaf, Christ the Redeemer, Cathedral Metroplotana and a few other places I wanted to see. This was the best way to see the city. The info Millene provided plus her know-how made this day possible. Gray Line is a little difficult to make contact with. They didn’t respond to the confirmation they requested from me so I was beginning to lose hope but they did confirm, and the day was a great success. The included lunch was wonderful, but there was a lot of traffic driving to and from Ipanema. That’s the way it is.
Our guide, Henrique Joriam, was outstanding. Very glad we did the private tour option. This allowed us unlimited flexibility and never feeling rushed or having to wait on others. All of the sites visited were remarkable. Our guide was constantly watching the sky to choose the best time to see Christ the Redeemer and Sugarloaf. This worked out perfectly. Since we aren’t sports fans, we opted to see the Selaron Steps instead of the stadium. At the metropolitan Cathedral, the building across the street was pointed out because we would see it differently from the Christ mountain. From that viewpoint we later saw a cross formed by the inner perimeter that was not visible from the Cathedral. Our guide helped maneuver us to great seats on the cog train to and from the Christ, told us all about it and the chapel in the pedestal. We were able to view the city and spend as much time there as we wanted. Even though the tour title said “skip the line”, this applied just to the Christ not Sugarloaf. We opted to get the skip the line pass for Sugarloaf, which our guide paid for and we reimbursed him for. The $33 for both of us was well worth it. We went straight to the front of the line for all gondolas. The line at some exceeded 1.5 hours. Don’t even consider doing Sugarloaf without this pass. Our guide was so helpful, explaining what we were seeing. We never felt rushed throughout the tour. We opted for a late lunch at the steakhouse. So delicious. Our guide took extra time to take us to an outdoor market that happens one evening a week at Copacabana beach for a little shopping before returning to the ship. It was an amazing first visit to Rio and a wonderful experience that we highly recommend.
Best way to see two highlights in one day - beat the line with an expert - Erick was knowledgeable, confident and friendly.
Wow!!! This tour did EVERYTHING, and guide Roberta and driver Anna were Excellent!! Picked up at the port, We were given a choice of seeing the stadium from the outside or going to 217 steps. We chose steps, because that was unique to Rio. We stopped at the amazing Cathedral, then stopped at the steps, then skipped the two hour line at Sugarloaf, then skipped the line at Christ, the Redeemer train. Had plenty of time at all. And then a real Brazilian Steakhouse!!! Holy cow! Good and food and food! Delicious!!!! Then back to the port. Would recommend this yo anyone, but especially cruisers! One of Roberta’s first questions was “What time do you need to be back?” 10 stars!
Absolutely amazing! Andrea our tour guide goes above and beyond. The restaurant of choice was really good with plenty of meat selections. If you are on a Cruise ship I would not recommend this tour because you need more time than the ship allows to see both Cristo Redentor and Pan de Azúcar. This tour is a complete package and well worth it! Thank you Andrea! Miriam y Rafael Otero
Our guide Warly was very friendly and knowledgeable. He made our tour fun and easy. Lunch was awesome too!
This was the best experience ever! Louis was a awesome tour guide he was the best ever! I would recommend him if you choose to go on a excursion! Food was incredible!
It wasn't our tour operator's fault, but our tour operator didn't help much either. Our ship (Island Princess) was not cleared until after 12:00 Noon so our 8:30 Tour got off to a late start. We were told right from the beginning that we would not make the Rio de Janerio Cathedral so that was one item we missed. We also missed Tijuca National Park, along with visiting Sugarloaf Mountain at night when we saw nothing but lights from afar. Besides seeing "Christ the Redeemer", we saw a beach from a Sheraton hotel parking lot, and a soccer stadium from the outside that we circled around and watched people at the ticket counters. We realize the tour operator had no control over our ship letting people off late, but we spent so much time (at least an hour) just getting our group together, and a bunch of time wasted because the restaurant told us to kill time because they were crowded... Then, because we were so late and wasted so much time, the rain moved in like a monsoon and we had to make our way to the bus walking in 4" to 6" deep puddles.... It was a "Tour from Hell"! Our friends asked how we like Sugarloaf and we told the truth.. "We have NO Idea"!!
It was awesome, our trip was delayed by 4hrs because of the ship, but the team waited for us and rearranged the tour, the night tour at Sugar loaf was amazing. THANKS.
The places we visited were very good, but to pick up passengers from different hotels was too long. I thought it was only for cruise passengers. We wasted around two hours and we had to change the bus.
Took this tour over the cruise line's shore excursion because (1) it costs less, (2) included more sites and experiences, and (3) I was pleased that Viator now offers a guarantee not to miss your ship. The problem with Rio is heavy traffic, so you crawl from one site to another. Nevertheless, this tour took us up Sugarloaf Mountain on the cable car, the bog railway to see Christ the Redeemer and the viewing stands for Carnival. The only disappointment was that no drinks of any nature - water, soda, tea, coffee - were included with the lunch. For a few extra dollars, Euros, pounds, yens, pesos, reals, please throw in a complimentary, non-alcoholic drink.
This was a ten hour tour and although we did see sugar loaf mountain and Christ the redeemer we saw more back streets over and over again plus hotels. Over half of the tour was filled up with collecting more guests. Getting rid of some at lunch time then going round more hotels to pick up the afternoon crowd. Very frustrating and disappointing
<p>The highlights of this three-part tour were the gondola ride to the top of Sugar Loaf and the visit to the Christ Redeemer statue. It was a cloudy day, so some of the vistas were not spectacular, but that's touring. Between the two was a lunch at a grilled-meat restaurant. Although the food was tasty, it was a bit much for us and we would have been just as happy with a more modest meal, reducing the tour cost.</p> <p>For some reason, communication between Viator and the local company was incomplete. We had to pay for both the Sugar Loaf Gondola and the restaurant meal because the local company did not have a record of our payment credit card accepted, fortunately. Upon return to the US, we contacted Viator and they refunded the amount we were charged.</p>
<p>My friend and I had a wonderful day on this trip. The views from the top of Sugar Loaf mountain and Christ the Redeemer were wonderful. We were picked up from the port just after 8am and taken to a hotel to join a larger group for the tour. There were a few times during the day when the organisation was a bit chaotic as there were several gaps in the day when we had to wait for our transport to the next stage of the trip. The worst part was our return to the ship when we were transferred to a private taxi to take us back to the ship. The journey started well but, it turned out that the driver had no idea where the port was and it took almost 2 hours for us to get back to the ship. My friend and I do not panic easily however, given the warnings we had been given about safety in Rio I was worried. The content of the trip was great but, as a result of the return trip to the ship I wouldn't recommend using this company in Rio.</p>
<p>The points of interest were excellent. We loved the trolley ride up Sugar Loaf and the tram ride to see Christ The Redeemer. Lunch at the Brazilian Grill was great. Our morning guide was not very good however. He gave us very little information as we travelled along. That was a disappointment. Our afternoon guide was much better. However rating this tour against other Viator tours - the guides were not as good.</p>
Very nice and relaxing tour starting from the morning and ending at the late afternoon. Thanks Luciana!! Pasquale and Gaia from italy
<p>This tour was all and more than as advertised. The sights, the guide, the lunch... all super!</p>
<p>Tour was good - only problem was waiting quite a while for bus to arrive after lunch and at the end of the tour.</p>
<p>Nice to have both attractions on one tour. Things got off to a very rocky stock when, as required, I called to reconfirm my port pick-up. On three occasions, someone picked up the phone, said "me no speak English" and hung up on me. Fortunately, my hotel concierge was able to call for me and make the confirmation in Portuguese. City tour between the two main events was a bit of a waste. We whizzed by places of interest, such as the opera house and made stops at places that were marginally interesting at best.</p>
<p>we had problems getting picked up in the morning and eventually had to get a taxi to "catch up to them". we caught up and really had only missed the picking up of guest from all the different hotels ...so no harm really. the "morning part" of the tour sugar loaf was nice, but after that we started the drop off process of the people that were not going to continue to the "afternoon part". so what this tour is is the morning and the afternoon just put together. so you end up driving to hotels for pick up and drop off a lot. <br/> lunch was good, a local steak house. put the help at the restaurant was VERY confused and it took a long time to get the food and to the right people. but they had AC so it was nice to get in for a bit. FYI, all drinks even water are NOT included. we had 3 cokes and 2 waters and it was $R27. <br/> after lunch we headed with a new guide to the "afternoon" part of the tour. during the second part of the tour a few of us questioned wheather or not we (on a cruise ship) would have to go to all the hotels to drop everyone off, about 1.5 hours worth of driving or could we be taken straight to the ship. in the end they said they would get a bus and take us to the ship. so that was nice. would i do this tour again...no. would i go back to the sights, yes. after we got off the ship and checked into our hotel all of these tours were offered by our hotel and at a cheaper price. dont get me wrong i love viator and use them all the time this was a local tour hiccup. its alot of driving around. get a taxi for the day and do this on your on. it could be done very easily.</p>
<p>Two t5hings happened on this tour which were not expected. #1--thunder and lighting the night before closed down the visit to </p> <p></p> <p></p> <p><br/> We had 2 things happen on this tour which were not expected. #1--the Sugar Loaf tram was closed due to a thunder storm the night before which we could not reschedule due to our cruise departure. Not Viator's fault. #2--we wasted 2 hours over a lundh where we had to pay for a glass of water!!!! I stroongly suggest that they rethink that part of the tour. But---our ship was leavijng a 6PM and the tour guide got us up to see Christ the Redeemer which was fabulous and then arrange for our transpor back to the pier which turned out to be an empty 45 passenger coach!!! Good going Viator! M</p>
THEY'VE GOT A LOUSY ATTENTION. IN RECEPTION POOR TREATMENT FOR PASSENGERS RAW FOOD AT THE RESTAURANT D ORLEAN PESIMA ATTENTION OF THE WAITER AT TABLE 269 GIVE BAD INFORMATION AND INCORRECT . IT IS A COMPANY NOT RECOMMENDED WAS BOUGHT BY THE CARNIVAL SHIPPING COMPANY. I HAVE ALREADY DONE 4 COURSERS WITH OTHER COMPANIES AND A CORDIAL AND EXCELLENT TREATMENT IN ALL WAYS
Excellent tour. Our Guide Luciana Carvalho was wonderful. Excellent explanations. Great group control and excellent knowledge.
Simply a wonderful experience. Luiz and Marcos were very attentive. Luiz was our guide and he showed everything with a lot of patience and no rush. Besides, he was always willing to take pictures for us. So we can record incredible moments. Nor did we have to stay in queues for long, that was wonderful. And when I finished a place Marcos was already with the car waiting for us. It was a safe, quiet and wonderful walk. I super recommend to any Cover who come to Rio de Janeiro. It's very worth it. And if you can do this private tour with Luiz and Marcos. Certain that they will love. Super recommend!!!! I have no complaints, just good things to say about this trip. Thank you Luiz and Marcos!!
Very good from the time you're picked up until you're taken back to the hotel. Karla, our guide, the best. Very friendly and above all a connoisseur of the city, its history and its people. Absolutely recommended.
Super nice tour, was all very well explained by Polyglot Guide Yan which was highly praised by all customers, the quality of the Grayline is praiseworthy, everything very organized and punctual! The price is totally worth the Tour!
<p>Das Schiff musste seine Anliegezeiten in Rio aendern. Die Agentur, die diesen Ausflug buchte, war sehr hilfsbereit und hat meine Freundin und mich sehr gut an zwei Tagen untergebracht.<br/> Danke,<br/> Renate Cretan.</p>
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