Tour Guide in Rio - Rio de Janeiro Private Tour Guide

Why spending more by hiring a tour guide in Rio rather than exploring Rio de Janeiro on your own?

Rio Buses versus a tour guide in Rio

It not so difficult to understand why hiring a tour guide in Rio de Janeiro it is much easier than exploring the city on a public bus. First, at most bus stops in Rio you will find ONLY a plaque with a bus sign painted on it to indicate that that is a bus stop. There is no information about the busses that stop there. No number, no itinerary, no schedule!

If you are not hiring a tour guide in Rio, then the most usual way to get information on busses is by asking Cariocas (Natives of Rio) how to get where you want to go. However, if you do not speak Portuguese and since most Brazilians do not speak even basic English you can already conclude that you may have a hard time to guide yourself in Rio.

Although you may carry a travel guide as a source of information on how to tour in Rio de Janeiro, it will not inform you all the bus connections neither which bus to take to every place you want to go in Rio.

Another reason why it is better to hire a tour guide in Rio versus taking a bus is that most buses in Rio de Janeiro have no air-conditioned. Since the average temperature during summer in Rio is around 30 Celsius (roughly 90 Fahrenheit) you can imagine that you may sweat a bit, to say the least.

It is understandable that you cannot afford a private tour guide in Rio if you are on a tight budget and staying in a hostel. In this case, stick to your Rio de Janeiro Travel Guide and get a Rio bus schedule at the Tourist Information Desk at the international airport upon your arrival. Or get it at the Tourist Information Office at Rua Princesa Isabel 183 or at Avenida Atlantica across Hilário de Gouveia street, close to Copacabana Palace.

Rio Taxis versus a tour guide in Rio

Why hire a tour guide in Rio if there are plenty of taxis in the city? One thing is true, there are more taxis than clients in Rio de Janeiro. Rio taxi drivers complaint that there are too many taxis on the streets. It is unlike that you will have problems in catching a taxi even on a Friday or on a Saturday night neither during rush-hour.

Taking a taxi instead of hiring a tour guide in Rio to go for dinner at a restaurant a few miles from your hotel is one thing. You don’t actually need guiding services for that and any taxi will do since the ride is short and all you need from the driver is to take you to the right address. However, hiring a taxi for a few hours to tour you is Rio is different.

First of all, unless a taxi driver has received formal education on guiding in Rio de Janeiro he is not a tour guide. In Rio, a taxi driver and a tour guide are two different professions although they may look similar from an outsider. Keep reading and understand the differences.

The main task of a taxi driver is to drive you from point A to point B taking the shortest route (hopefully). In Rio de Janeiro, a taxi driver can take you from, for example, your hotel to Corcovado and from Corcovado to Sugar Loaf. Since most taxi drivers are not tour guides and do not speak even basic English or Spanish, all you are paying for is the ride itself, i.e. the transportation service. On the other hand, when you hire a tour guide in Rio you pay, of course, more than what you pay for a taxi ride but you get way much more value for you money, and mostly important, more value for your vacation time.

A reputable, knowledgeable and experienced tour guide in Rio can also drive you from point A to point B. However, the driving alone can already offer a comparative advantage because a professional tour guide in Rio will drive much slower than most drivers. Why? Because he knows that you want to see things on the way, e.g. the stores, the people, the signs, the landscape, the details…briefly, sightseeing.

Your tour guide will offer you a journey, not only a ride. He will not necessarily take the shortest route, he will combine the shortest with the safest, the least congested and the most interesting, i.e. the route with more attractions along the way. And more, a tour guide in Rio knows by heart the places to stop for tourists to take photos. Nothing is more frustrating than have passed an object or a person you wanted to take a photo of and you can’t go back.

Besides the things you will see with your own eyes your well-travelled tour guide in Rio will enrich the journey talking about the local culture, the economy, business, stock market (Petrobras, Embraer, Vale do Rio Doce, etc.), other destinations in Brazil and in Latin America, the political system, Brazilian celebrities such as Pelé, history and many other interesting subjects offering you an entertaining time. Or he may not even talk much, but rather answer your questions about Rio de Janeiro and give you valuable tips for the rest of your stay. The chances of you being bored during such an enlightening ride are low.

That’s not all. A tour guide in Rio can also be helpful at the tourist attraction you are going to visit. Firstly, tour guides in Rio have free entrance at tourist spots. He can get in at no cost and guide you inside Corcovado, Sugar Loaf, Maracana, Botanical Garden and at many other sites making your visit faster and hassle-free.

By now you must already be convinced of the value of a tour guide in Rio. There is just one more thing. A professional tour guide in Rio will drive you on a roomy, comfortable, air-conditioned and well-maintained minivan. Bear in mind that many taxis in Rio de Janeiro are small with no back-seatbelts to hold you while the taxi driver trains for Formula One. Briefly, a taxi driver can offer you a ride, a licensed and formally trained tour guide in Rio can offer you an unforgettable experience.

Rio on foot versus a tour guide in Rio

Do you think do you need a tour guide in Rio, a city that is 12 times the size of Paris? You bet! Most tourist highlights in Rio are not at walking distances from each other: Corcovado is not at walking distance from Sugar Loaf, which is not at walking distance from Maracana Soccer Stadium, which is not at walking distance from the Rio de Janeiro Botanical Garden, which is not at walking distance from the Sambadrome (Carnival Parade Avenue), which is not at walking distance from São Conrado beach (where hangliders land), which is not at walking distance from the Rio de Janeiro Metropolitan Cathedral!

You will need transportation to visit most sites and that’s one of the reasons a tour guide in Rio can be of great value. However, you can explore on foot the most popular beach neighborhoods in Rio: Copacabana, Ipanema and Leblon.

Rio Subway versus a tour guide in Rio

Your tour guide in Rio can even take the subway with you from one station to the next just to give you a feeling of it, but if you are thinking that you can visit Rio de Janeiro by subway as easy as you do in Paris, London or New York prepare for frustration in guiding yourself in Rio using this type of transportation. Although Rio de Janeiro subway is safe, clean and reliable there are very few stations (if compared to the cities mentioned) and only two lines! But that is not even the problem. The problem is that the stations are not close to many tourist attractions. There is no subway station at walking distance from the following sites: Corcovado (Christ), Sugar Loaf, Samba City, Leblon viewpoint, Leblon beach, São Conrado beach, Lagoa Rodrigo de Freitas (Rio’s lagoon), Churrascaria Porcão (one of Rio’s best steakhouses) and others.

I hope you have understood the message: you can get by without a tour guide in Rio, but you are much better off with one!

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