Inimitable, irresistible, idiosyncratic: Rio de Janeiro is one of South America’s most superlative inventions. It was supplanted by Brasilia as Brazil’s capital in 1960, surpassed by São Paulo as economic powerhouse around the same time. Yet Rio needs neither titles nor statistics to outshine both. Nature has been benevolent to this patch of the Atlantic coast, daubing it with rainforest, decorating it with dramatic hills and dropping a lagoon in the middle – surrounded by the continent’s most expensive real estate and finished off with the most beguiling stretches of urban beach on the planet – Ipanema, Copacabana, Arpoador and Leblon.
Rio captured the world’s notice in the Twenties, with the opening of the Copacabana Palace – but its golden age never quite ended. Hollywood, royalty and rock stars have continued to fly down to the city to lounge around the pool, ride up to Sugar Loaf, hop in a chopper to see the towering Christ statue, dance samba at Carnival, and pose and play on the golden strands. Stereotypes abound, but they’re pretty good ones – and if you want to dig deeper, the city has art, music and culinary scenes to rival any in the Americas.
