Rio de Janeiro Half-Day Walking Tour

Badge of ExcellenceRio de Janeiro, Brazil

4 hours
Pickup offered
Mobile ticket
Offered in: English

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Overview

Walk through Old Rio on this afternoon sightseeing tour with a local guide. During this half-day outing, wind through the narrow lanes and baroque-style buildings while your guide fills you in on the history and legends of the area. Visit sites like the Metropolitan Cathedral, Carioca Square and the Imperial Palace. Round-trip transportation from Rio hotels is included.

Get a feel for the best of Rio on a walking tour
Navigate the narrow streets and appreciate the historic Architecture around Rio de Janeiro
Discover Rio's famous sites including Sao Bento Monastery and the Imperial Palace
Roundtrip transfers from Rio de Janeiro hotels included

What's Included

Walking tour of Rio de Janeiro
Hotel pickup and drop off to Most Hotels in São Conrado, Leblon, Ipanema and Copacabana

Gratuities
Food and drinks

Meeting and Pickup

Pickup points

Select a pickup point

Start time

01:00 PM

Pickup details

Roundtrip transfer available from most hotels located in Rio's South Zone. Please stay at the hotel lobby 10 minutes before pick up time.

What To Expect

After pickup from your Rio hotel, follow your local guide on this engrossing tour of Old Rio.

Visit the Rio's most impressive church, Nossa Senhora de Cadelária, as well as the ornate São Bento Monastery to view its paintings and gilt carvings. Stop by Praça XV do Novembro, where Brazil's emperors were crowned in the 1800s and many other important historical events took place. View the Portuguese-style Paço Imperial (Imperial Palace), built for Brazil's rulers as a home and workplace in the 1700s. Enjoy engaging commentary from your local guide while you walk, and feel free to ask any questions about the history or culture of Brazil.

Continue your tour with a stroll down Uruguaiana Street, which takes you to the Metropolitan Cathedral and Carioca Square. Your tour concludes here, and you are free to explore the area on your own or enjoy a ride back to your hotel.

Church of Our Lady of the Candelaria

10 minutes • Admission Ticket Free

Sao Bento Monastery

10 minutes • Admission Ticket Free

Maua Square (Pass By)

Museu do Amanha (Pass By)

Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil - CCBB Rio de Janeiro (Pass By)

Praca Quinze de Novembro (Pass By)

Paco Imperial (Pass By)

Mercado Popular da Uruguaiana (Pass By)

Tiradentes Palace (Pass By)

Confeitaria Colombo

20 minutes • Admission Ticket Free

The Metropolitan Cathedral of Saint Sebastian

10 minutes • Admission Ticket Free

Additional Info

Confirmation will be received at time of booking
Not wheelchair accessible
Stroller accessible
Not recommended for travelers with back problems

No heart problems or other serious medical conditions
Travelers should have a moderate physical fitness level
This tour/activity will have a maximum of 35 travelers

Cancellation Policy

You can cancel up to 24 hours in advance of the experience for a full refund.

For a full refund, you must cancel at least 24 hours before the experience’s start time.
If you cancel less than 24 hours before the experience’s start time, the amount you paid will not be refunded.
Any changes made less than 24 hours before the experience’s start time will not be accepted.

Cut-off times are based on the experience’s local time.
This experience requires good weather. If it’s canceled due to poor weather, you’ll be offered a different date or a full refund.
This experience requires a minimum number of travelers. If it’s canceled because the minimum isn’t met, you’ll be offered a different date/experience or a full refund.

Traveler Photos

Reviews

4.5

72 reviews

Total review count and overall rating based on Viator and Tripadvisor reviews

Reviews by Viator travelers.

We perform checks on reviews

Showing 1-10 of 72 reviews

Don’t miss a beat

Jose_R, Jul 2023

The walking tour gave us some really good highlights of the city. What I really enjoyed most was the fact that we were able to stroll on our own time without being too hurried with the agenda. Our guide was able to get us a shuttle ride around the museum of tomorrow which was very nice. Also, the highlight of this tour was the library of old books that she took us to. I didn’t know such a library existed and I was happy that we were taken there.

Melanie is extremely...

Yibing_X, Jun 2023

Melanie is extremely friendly and easy going, very smoothly transitioning from Spanish to English to take care of multiple customers. Great experience!

Discovering downtown Rio

Maria_P, Jun 2023

our tour guide was absolutely wonderful. She was very knowledgeable and took us to interesting places. I am not very good at names, but I believe her name was Malenia. I would recommend this tour.

Nice but need more walking and less driving

Julia_T, Nov 2022

Not a lot of walking, traffic was bad. Recommending more time to walk, browse more streets; give 10 mins of free time.

Response from Host, Nov 2022

Dear Customer. Thank you for the review. this probably happened as there was heavy traffic this day. usually, it is the opposite. Thanks.

A must for your trip to Rio de Janerio

Ravi_H, Jun 2022

On this tour your will visit several churches along with other places of interest. Melanie was an excellent tour ambassador for, Rio de Janerio! She shared history of the city and allowed us time to make our way through the sites. I recommend, shopping at the local market near Rio Cathedral and taking in linch at places less touristy as the line ups are shorter and the snacks and meals overall throughout Rio are of European standard. I recommend doing this tour on your first or second day of your visit as it provided you with an understanding of the cities layout and identifies places you may which to spend more time exploring. I woupd recommend asking your tour guide to share tips and make recommendations for things of interest to you. Webdid and Melanie was aboe to offer suggestions that saved us money and make the local experience in Brazil meaningful.

Lovely tour

Helen_A, May 2022

Lovely tour to meet our exact taste... We were the only people on the tour so the guide amended it to meet our interests and it was delightful, seeing and hearing about the origins of Rio, small backstreet life so as to understand real Rio life... Highly recommended

Response from Host, Jun 2022

Dear Helen good morning Thank you for your feedback and review kind regards

An excellent introduction to the city

Tarek_A, May 2022

A nice tour that takes you thorough the most important landmarks in downtown Rio in a reasonable and good pace. Our tour guide Melanie was honestly such a sweetheart and we enjoyed our time with her a lot.

Response from Host, May 2022

Dear Tarek_A thank you for your feedback Please count with us in future bookings as we provide tours/transfers in more than 26 cities in Brazil. kind regards

Rio City walk

Chamila_N, May 2022

Great tour. Melani was a great tour guide. We'll experienced, knowledgeable and pleasant. Street Art in Lapa and Selatom steps are so attractive.

Response from Host, May 2022

Dear Chamila_N thank you for your feedback Please count with us in future bookings as we provide tours/transfers in more than 26 cities in Brazil. kind regards

RJ Walking tour

Dilip_P, Nov 2019

JB did a very good job of explaining all the historic sites during the walking tour of old Rio. It was a great experience and highly recommend to anyone.

Excellent way to see Rio on foot

Fiona B, Mar 2019

JB was an enthusiastic and informative guide giving a great introduction to the many wonderful sites of Rio. There were only 3 on our tour and we were picked up promptly by bus from our hotel and dropped off .

Bad tour guide.

Explore68580170859, Dec 2018

Only us 2 in the tour. The tour guide is constently busy texting on his phone and rushing us to get the tour over with. At one point he even comment that he is a man of the clock meaning he is intested only to make all check list that need to visit and get us over with.

Another great tour. It was not a...

JEROME M, Feb 2018

Another great tour. It was not a hard walk. Good pace and lots to see on this tour. Worth taking this one.

JB was a great tour guide- very...

Purnima B, Aug 2017

JB was a great tour guide- very energetic and well- informed. He gave us a good introduction to Rio downtown and we enjoyed walking around that area. Worth- taking

It turned out to be a private tour...

Jean-Claude B, Jun 2017

It turned out to be a private tour ! Therefore our guide could be flexible and adapt the program to avoid the places we had already visited the day before. Jean-Baptiste proved to be a great guide because he knows Rio, loves the city and makes you love it too. We discovered places we would not have thought of visiting. The walking experience is definitely the best way to discover a city and its people.

JB was knowledgeable, spoke English...

Nicholas C, Sep 2016

JB was knowledgeable, spoke English well and is obviously very passionate about his city. WE got a view of the Museum of Tomorrow from the Benedictine monastery that normally you would not see so got a cracking photograph. Excellent value for money, as got lots of info about getting about Rio in general, Tip -- if you are meeting at a hotel but not resident there then go into reception --- he will look for you there not outside.

A pretty relaxed meander round the...

ROGER T, Aug 2016

A pretty relaxed meander round the downtown area of Rio which I probably would not have seen otherwise. Quirky guide who looked after us well.

Despite a bad start, Juan Bautista...

Rick_C, May 2016

Despite a bad start, Juan Bautista provided an interesting walking tour from the Sao Bento monastery to the Metropolitan Cathedral in Rio. His passion for the history and architecture of Rio was obvious. The tour was quite expensive and I would recommend a tour arranged locally, instead, especially since we spent 30 minutes in a tea shop albeit beautiful, but at the expense of seeing more. As it is, the tour ended one block short of seeing the Teatro Municipal and the Catedral Metropolitana. Fortunately, we were able to continue the walking tour on our own a couple of days later for just the cost of the metro. The tour started badly as the bus went to the wrong hotel at the wrong time and left without us a group of four. We had to take a taxi to catch the group one other person at the monastery. A big problem with arranging tours thru third parties is the communications gap/delay. Between Viator, the local tour company and the tour guide, there were three different stories.

This was one of my best tours booked...

BusyM, Feb 2016

This was one of my best tours booked on the Rio trip. It was highly personalized since I was the only one on the tour. The guide was very friendly, warm and knowledgeable and well planed. I had an amazing experience with JB. I wanted to book him for another tour, but he wasn't available. It was a pleasant surprise. Thank you JB! You are the best.

There is generally not a lot of...

Christopher L, Feb 2016

There is generally not a lot of history in Rio to be seen. I would re-title this tour the Old historic churches tour. Very underwhelming.

A good afternoon and a great way to...

Catherine L G, Feb 2016

A good afternoon and a great way to see parts of Rio you would not normally visit. Good too having a local guide who knows the area, gives lots of history and background and shields you from pick pockets. Thanks JB.

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