Rio de Janeiro, Brazil — Towns & Travel Guide

What is Rio de Janeiro known for?

Rio de Janeiro is known for its beaches, its Carnival, and the scenery of mountains rising straight from the sea. The pull is the coast. As a state on Brazil's South Atlantic shore, it wraps around the city of Rio de Janeiro, its capital and Brazil's second-largest city, and takes in the celebrated Carioca Landscapes between the Mountain and the Sea, listed as UNESCO World Heritage.

Warm water and a laid-back beach culture define it.

Where is Rio de Janeiro?

Rio de Janeiro is a coastal state on the South Atlantic shore of Brazil. Mountains and the sea define it together. The land rises abruptly from the water, so steep green peaks stand close behind the beaches, the pattern honoured in the Carioca Landscapes between the Mountain and the Sea, a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Green slopes rise behind nearly every beach along the shore. Few coasts fold together so tightly. The state curls around its capital, the city of Rio de Janeiro, which sits on the ocean-facing coast as Brazil's second-largest city.

Its whole seaward side is open to the ocean. Beyond the capital, the shoreline runs on in bays and headlands along the South Atlantic, backed by forested hills that climb inland toward the interior of Brazil. This is tropical, ocean-exposed country.

Warm currents wash along the whole seaboard. The meeting of mountain and sea gives the state of Rio de Janeiro its defining shape along Brazil's Atlantic coast, beaches below and forested peaks above. The Atlantic sets the state's whole character, its coast, climate, and light alike.

What is Rio de Janeiro like?

Culture in Rio de Janeiro leans toward the beach and the street. The state's laid-back coastal life sets the tone, and its Carnival is the loudest expression of it, an annual outpouring of music and parade centred on the capital city. In Rio de Janeiro, the ocean is always close at hand.

Beach and street run together here. Life here bends around the shore, the warm water, and the long habit of taking the day outdoors along the South Atlantic. The state wears its coastal identity openly, in its beaches, its music, and its easy pace by the water.

That outdoor spirit is bound up with the landscape itself. The Carioca Landscapes between the Mountain and the Sea, listed as UNESCO World Heritage, capture the setting that shapes local life, with peaks, forest, and beach pressed close together. People live between the two.

The rhythm of sea, sun, and Carnival runs through daily life. Portuguese is the shared language, as across Brazil, yet the coastal, sun-facing culture of Rio de Janeiro gives the state a character of its own, distinct from the inland heart of the country and from the business tempo of São Paulo.

What is the history of Rio de Janeiro?

Rio de Janeiro was established in its modern form as a state in 1889. Its name came first from the city. The capital, the city of Rio de Janeiro, gave the surrounding state its identity, and the two have carried the name together ever since along the South Atlantic coast.

The state's story is a coastal one, tied to the sea, the port city, and the mountains that rise behind them.

What is the climate of Rio de Janeiro?

Rio de Janeiro has a warm tropical climate, softened along the coast by the South Atlantic. Heat holds year-round. Instead of cold winters, the state runs through a warmer, wetter season and a milder, drier one, with sea breezes tempering the humidity on the shore around the capital.

The ocean shapes it all. Away from the water, the forested hills feel a touch cooler, but the whole state stays firmly tropical.

How do you get to Rio de Janeiro?

Most visitors reach Rio de Janeiro through its capital city, the main point of arrival on the coast. Flights and roads funnel into the city of Rio de Janeiro, from which the rest of the state's shoreline opens up along the South Atlantic. The coast does the guiding.

From the capital, travellers spread out to the beaches and coastal towns that line the state, rarely straying far from the sea.