This blog post is the third entry in a 10-part series on traveling to Rio de Janiero. Click here to view the previous article.

When traveling to Rio de Janiero from the US, or really from any location outside South America for that matter, pretty much your only option is to go by plane. As Rio is still a developing tourist destination, there are not many direct flights that go straight to the city, so I’d recommend booking your flight well in advance of your trip to ensure you get the best deal. A plane ticket will run you a good $2 – 3K during Rio’s summer (our winter), but you can find significantly better deals if you travel in the offseason instead. For example, my multi-destination plane ticket that went from DC to Rio, Rio to Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires to NY, was only $1,300 – significantly cheaper than Christmas-time prices I had researched a year prior. Rio’s winter really doesn’t start until July/August, and even then the country still offers relatively temperate weather. So in my opinion, early May was a great time to go. It wasn’t as crowded, prices were cheaper, and we still had relatively nice and warm weather (despite the few days of rain we experienced).

As for getting around in Rio, there are many different options.  From the airport, you can either hire a cab for $50 – $80, depending on where you’re going, or you can take a bus to your destination for 9R.  I, of course, opted for the less expensive bus option, and it was very simple – just as easy as taking a cab (and, hey, I kind of felt like a newfound local in the process!)  It didn’t take more than an hour to get to our hotel, so considering the 60 bucks we saved, the bus was well worth it.  Oh, and we met some backpacker Americans and we asked where they were going.  They responded, “no clue, how about you?”  Then when we told them where we were staying, they preceded to ask if they could crash on our floor.  Ha, solid, and never would have happened if we took a cab.

If you’d like to take the bus, once you grab your luggage and exit the airport doors, head to the info. counter, ask for a map, and ask them which bus to take to your final destination.  One thing you’ll quickly find in Rio is that people (well, most people) are so darn nice and friendly, and always willing to help out a traveler in need.  One thing to note about the busses in Rio, though – Unlike in the US, where busses have scheduled stops and timetables, in Rio they really don’t.  The bus driver simply stops when he’s flagged down from the outside, or when someone from the inside yells at him to stop, so you really have to be on your guard and pay attention to your map while riding.  I actually thought at one point in time that the man sitting next to me would punch me if I asked him one more time if we were almost to Ipanema.  But, like I said before, people in Rio are terribly nice – I’m sure the thought never even crossed his mind

The metro (Metrô Rio) is a great way to get around the city as well, and it goes many places, but I wouldn’t recommend taking the metro at night or by yourself, as it can be a bit dangerous.  Click here to see a full map (but beware, the site is in Portuguese!  At least they have a nice map.)  Additionally, right now the city is in the process of building another line that goes out to Barra (pronounced “Ba-ha”) in preparation for the Olympic Games, as this is where the Olympic village will be based.  The construction is set to be finished well before the Olympic Games commence, so this will drastically help improve Rio’s transportation system as well… for tourists anyway.