Rio de Janeiro

Rio's Tom Jobim International Airport (GIG) is 25km from Ipanema. Check into your hotel in the Zona Sul (South Zone) and walk immediately to Arpoador — the rocky promontory at the eastern end of Ipanema Beach where surfers meet at dusk and the sunset crowd gathers to applaud as the sun touches the horizon between the Two Brothers mountains (Dois Irmãos). The Ipanema sunset applause is one of Rio's most beloved rituals — strangers clap together as the sun drops behind the peaks, the music plays on the beach, and the Atlantic turns gold. The Ipanema beach vendors sell fresh coconuts, beer, and mate tea. Dinner in Ipanema at Zuka or Garcia & Rodrigues for first-night Brazilian food: feijoada (black bean stew with pork), churrasco, and a caipirinha in the warm Rio night.

Christ the Redeemer (Cristo Redentor) on the summit of Corcovado (710m) is the world's most famous statue — 38 meters of soapstone and concrete with arms spread 28 meters wide, inaugurated in 1931 and named one of the New Seven Wonders of the World. Go early (open from 8am) before the cloud builds around the summit, which typically happens by 11am. The cog railway (Trem do Corcovado) through the Tijuca Forest to the summit is one of the most beautiful urban train journeys in the world — 15 minutes through tropical forest with monkeys and toucans visible from the windows. The summit view — 360 degrees encompassing the entire city, Guanabara Bay, Sugarloaf, the beaches, and the Atlantic — is extraordinary. The Tijuca Forest itself (the world's largest urban forest, 32 square kilometers of Atlantic Rainforest within the city) is worth a separate afternoon walk.

Sugarloaf Mountain (Pão de Açúcar, 396m) rises from the end of the Urca peninsula into Guanabara Bay, connected to Pão de Açúcar by a cable car in two stages via the Morro da Urca. The view from Sugarloaf's summit encompasses the entire Guanabara Bay (30km wide, the world's largest bay by volume), Rio's most spectacular neighborhoods, and Christ the Redeemer on the opposite mountain. Go at sunset for the finest light. The Urca neighborhood at the mountain's base is one of Rio's most charming and safest neighborhoods — a cluster of colonial-era homes on the bay, with excellent cafés and the Escola de Samba do Clube Guanabarino. A Guanabara Bay boat tour from Praia XV passes the colonial churches and financial district before reaching Niterói and the Oscar Niemeyer Contemporary Art Museum — a stunning concrete disc on a cliff above the bay designed by Brazil's greatest architect.

Santa Teresa, on a hill above the city center connected by an old bonde (tram), is Rio's most charming and bohemian neighborhood: a hillside of 19th-century colonial mansions converted to artist studios, boutique hotels, and restaurants, with the best views over the Lapa district and the bay. The Lapa Arches (Arcos da Lapa) — an 18th-century aqueduct repurposed as a bonde viaduct — are Rio's most distinctive architectural monument and the symbol of the city's nightlife district. The Selaron Steps (Escadaria Selaron), a 215-step staircase covered in ceramic tiles from 60 countries by Chilean artist Jorge Selaron (1941-2013), connects Lapa to Santa Teresa and is one of Rio's most beloved and most photographed locations. Friday and Saturday nights in Lapa are Rio at its most alive — live samba at Carioca da Gema or Pedra do Sal for authentic samba in a working-class neighborhood tradition.

The Sambadrome (Marquês de Sapucaí) is the purpose-built parade avenue where the Carnival parade takes place each February. Tours are available year-round and the scale of the structure — 700 meters of permanent tiered stands flanking a 13-meter-wide avenue designed by Oscar Niemeyer — gives a sense of the Carnival's epic ambition. The Museu do Carnaval inside provides context for the samba schools (the associations that spend the entire year preparing their themed parade). The Museum of Image and Sound on Ipanema's beachfront has an extraordinary collection of bossa nova recordings, photographs, and memorabilia — the entire trajectory from Joao Gilberto's first recordings to Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil is documented here. Evening: the Aterro do Flamengo park facing Guanabara Bay for a picnic at dusk, followed by live music at a Lapa bar.

Búzios is a fishing village-turned-resort on a peninsula 150km east of Rio — put on the international map when Brigitte Bardot spent three weeks here in 1964. The peninsula has 23 beaches of various exposure and character: Geriba and Ferradurinha face the open Atlantic for surfing, while Orla Bardot and João Fernandes are calm and turquoise on the sheltered eastern shore. The village of Rua das Pedras (Stone Street) is lined with boutiques, restaurants, and bars in a pedestrian promenade that comes alive after sunset. The schooner boat trip around the peninsula visits 6-8 beaches with snorkeling stops — the best way to see the coastline. Catch the bus or hire a driver from Rio for the 2-hour journey and return the same evening.

Rio Airport (GIG) is 25km from Ipanema, best reached by taxi or Uber. A final morning on Ipanema Beach — the most beautiful urban beach in the world, framed by the Dois Irmãos mountains at one end and Arpoador at the other, with the Atlantic surf and the entire cast of Carioca life playing out in front of you. A walk from Posto 9 (the famous meeting point in Ipanema, where the city's creative class has always gathered) to the Feira Hippie de Ipanema (Sunday handicraft market, 9am-5pm on Praça General Osorio) for last-minute Brazilian shopping: hammocks, leather sandals, tropical prints, and Havaianas. Take home a bottle of Leblon cachaça, the finest artisanal caipirinha spirit, and the specific memory of Rio at its most beautiful.