My Reading Life

July 2026

We flew 24 hours to get here, which is a lot considering we were really just heading south within the Americas— but I’m glad we built in a longer vacation to recover from the journey, because Rio deserves the recovered version of you, not the jet-lagged one.

The landing alone sets the tone. The plane flies close enough to the mountains that you can make them out in real detail, and then the sea opens up right after— it’s an entrance, not just an arrival. Rio welcomes you before you’ve even collected your luggage.

Copacabana: The People’s Beach

People often talk about Copacabana and Ipanema in the same breath, but I have to say it— Copa is so much livelier. It hasn’t been bought up by big conglomerates the way a lot of famous beaches have; it’s very much a people’s beach, colorful and unpolished in the best way. The vendors deserve a special mention here— the sheer talent involved in holding the maximum number of items possible in two hands is genuinely impressive. The flip side is that the solicitation is constant, so if that kind of thing bugs you, factor it in.

July turned out to be perfect beach weather— relaxing, sunny, though the water itself is cold. I finished two entire books just sitting there. I’d been warned about keeping an eye on my belongings, and we took the normal precautions (didn’t leave our belongings unattended), but it never came close to the constant, low-grade vigilance I’ve had to maintain in some European countries. People are warm and welcoming, though almost nobody speaks English, so keep Google Translate open and ready.

At night, Copacabana transforms completely. Open air food and drink spots line the entire beach, music plays, and people just break into spontaneous dance. The whole stretch stays well-lit through the night, and this is also where impromptu football and volleyball games happen— except nobody plays it straight. Instead of hitting the ball with your hands like regular volleyball, Rio has invented its own versions using feet, chest, head— anything but hands. It’s also, notably, a site of protest; we caught the tail end of demonstrations against the city’s crackdown on unlicensed beachfront vendors, which felt like a good reminder that this beach is genuinely a public, contested space and not just a postcard.

If you keep walking toward the Ipanema side, the energy dials down— the restaurants get quieter, more peaceful. We spent several evenings at a favorite spot there, sipping coffee, watching the sea, and people-watching (we saw a couple get engaged on the beach, which felt like a nice thing to witness by accident). Even here the vendors don’t fully leave you alone, and for some reason every single one of them is selling Mentos. What’s up with all the Mentos!?

One of these young Mentos vendors tried a rather bold approach on us— he told me I looked like Shakira and that my husband looked like Leonardo DiCaprio. Lol! We didn’t buy any Mentos, but we were amused enough to hand him some Brazilian money anyway! 🙂  A rascal, but a charming one.

Everybody Can Be Brazilian

Rio also seems to contain every kind of person imaginable— basically anyone can pass as Brazilian. Another vendor spent a solid few minutes trying to guess our nationality, working his way down the entire list of South American countries he could think of before giving up. We’d separately heard a story about someone in Rio asking a colleague of my husband’s— who happens to be of Indian origin— for directions, in Portuguese, fully convinced he was a local.

Up High: Sugarloaf and Christ the Redeemer

Rio’s whole appeal is the juxtaposition— mountains, sea, and city all sitting on top of each other— and the best way to appreciate that is to go up. Sugarloaf is completely worth it— not because the mountain itself is anything special, but because the views from up there are breathtaking, and the cable cars run frequently enough that it doesn’t eat your whole day.

The rooftop restaurant up there was a pleasant surprise too— great location, great views, and the food actually held up.

Christ the Redeemer also delivers on the views, though the space itself is more cramped, and it’s crowded with tourists even on a weekday. Worth doing, just don’t expect a peaceful moment up there.

Wandering the City: Santa Teresa and Downtown

You could genuinely spend your entire trip on Copacabana beach and not feel shortchanged, but some pockets of the city are worth pulling yourself away for.

Santa Teresa is quaint and charming— the famous stairs are a bit overrated and overrun with tourists, but we spent a lovely afternoon just wandering the neighborhood’s quieter streets and stopping at its cafes.

Brazilians are clearly serious about graffiti— it’s everywhere, on regular streets, on shop shutters, and Santa Teresa in particular has some genuinely great pieces.

Downtown, we made a point of visiting the busy, historic Confeitaria Colombo— the food is just okay, but the decor is reason enough to go; it’s wonderfully artsy and clearly steeped in history.

Downtown also has the Real Gabinete Português de Leitura, the Royal Portuguese Reading Room— an actual working library that holds the largest collection of Portuguese literature outside of Portugal and looks like it was built for a fantasy film, three stories of dark wood shelving under a stained-glass skylight. Worth the detour even if you’re not going in to read anything!

The Municipal Theatre is an imposing presence in the middle of downtown (we admired it from outside— didn’t go in), and the modern cathedral, with its Mayan-pyramid-inspired design, is worth a quick look too.

Flavors, Flora, and the Acai Regret

Food in Brazil is genuinely great and relatively inexpensive. Dishes built around heart of palm were a highlight for me, and being vegetarian, I even managed to track down some Michelin-starred vegan restaurants along the way.

A special mention for the Moscow Mule here— in Brazil it comes topped with ginger foam, and it is so good. A colleague had told me to look out for it before the trip, and I was so glad we did— we had our first one right at the top of Sugarloaf Mountain, which might be the best possible setting for it.

But the real regret of this trip is not starting on acai cups from day one. They’re everywhere, and the layering— fruit, acai, granola, repeat— is just so good.

We also carved out time for the Jardim Botânico. We found acai and cocoa trees growing in the wild(ish), the cannonball tree— a genuinely strange, cannon-shaped fruit that turns out to be everywhere once you know to look for it, giant Amazonian water lilies, and a few different species of monkey that are common across Brazil.

Where We Stayed, and a Small Health Detour

We stayed at the Hilton, which, being the tallest building around, has probably the most spectacular views of the beach and surrounding area in the city.

Staff were friendly and accommodating, the food was good, though the infrastructure felt a little dated for what you’d expect from a five-star property. Overall, a pleasant stay for the things that mattered most to us.

I also had an unplanned brush with local medicine— I developed allergies mid-flight on the way to Rio, severe enough that I needed to see a local doctor in the first few days. The medicine worked well and I was able to enjoy the rest of the trip despite the bump. We hadn’t taken travel insurance, but it wasn’t over the top expensive considering it was concierge service.

Getting around the city was easy throughout— Uber is cheap and widely available. Avianca, our airline, was frustrating to deal with online but very accommodating in person; our first flight got delayed and they rearranged our itinerary so we didn’t have to wait long.

Football, Naturally

No trip to Rio is complete without football, and we caught both Argentina versus England and, later, the final— Spain versus Argentina.

Football is genuinely in the blood here, and the atmosphere was electric even with Brazil out of the tournament— I can only imagine what it would have felt like if they’d still been playing.

To conclude, Rio isn’t a city you tick off a list— it’s one you sink into, ideally with a book on the sand, an acai cup in hand, and zero plans for the evening beyond walking a little further down the beach to see what’s happening next.