Sugar Loaf Mountain

Tip: Visit Sugar Loaf late in the evening (after 5 pm) to beat any crowds at the cable car lines and stay till its dark to see beautiful lit views of the city, favelas and Copacabana beach!


I think this was a day when we took a train, a ferry, bus, taxi, and a cable car...did we miss anything ;). We took the metro in the morning to Centro (orange line), from here, after a 15min walk we took a ferry from Praca XV. It was a R$ 2.80 ticket per person, and fun 15 min ride to Niteroi, that looked like a really old part of Rio. 

We took a train again from the Centro station (orange line) to Botafogo (I think, can't remember exactly). Got off, took a bus, then a taxi to the 'base station'  at Urca. Cable car tickets were R$ 44 pp, and the lines weren't too bad. Cable car ride was brief and fun. The half way point to sugarloaf gives really views of the city too...but we headed up soon after taking a few good shots. The top is just AMAZING! You get views of the Guanabara Bay, Niteroi, the bridge connecting to it, SDU airport, Copacabana and of course Christ Redeemer! 

We were also lucky (barely) to catch the first few minutes of city lights from the top of the mountain. The last cable car leaves at 8pm so unlike us, if you are lucky and it doesn't rain like crazy, you will be able to capture beautiful pictures of the Bay and the city from the top.

Spellbound and almost soaking wet in the rain we ran to the cable car. There were only few others who had waited till the dark.  We took in one last bit of the city and started our descent. What a day, what a trip. We'll always remember it by the extremely friendly people, beautiful beaches, rich culture and the colorful favelas - Adios Rio, We loved every single day here...you are truly the City of God!