Half-Day Tours
In general, I offer half-day tours. If you would like a full-day one,
you can combine two half-day tours to make it a full day Rio de Janeiro private tour.
1st Half-Day Tour
The top two attractions
Christ the Redeemer Statue & Sugar Loaf
On a well-organized private tour, you can visit both Christ the Redeemer statue and Sugar Loaf in half-day.
Ideal private tour for those who don’t want to go through the hassle of figuring out how to visit the two major attractions themselves.
Combine this half-day with another one and make it a full day, or book one half-day per day (highly recommended).
2nd Half-Day Tour
the Old rio
Downtown/Lapa
Downtown Rio has some interesting attractions such as Selaron steps, Colombo Café, Lapa Arches, street art, and more! For a smoother and safer experience, visit downtown on a private guided tour.
Ideal private tour for those who want to see some highlights of the old Rio.
Combine this half-day with another one and make it a full day, or book one half-day per day (highly recommended).
3rd Half-Day Tour
Rio off the beaten TRACK
My Rio: non-touristy sites worth-seeing
See a side of Rio de Janeiro that most tourists don’t see. My Rio is a personal collection of my favorite neighborhoods, overlooks, parks, streets, squares, and hidden secrets that even some locals have never heard of.
Ideal private tour for those who want to see a non-touristy Rio de Janeiro.
Combine this half-day with another one and make it a full day, or book one half-day per day (highly recommended).
Half-day vs. Full-day Tours
There are many advantages in taking half-day Rio de Janeiro private tours opposed to full-day ones. That doesn’t mean, though, that a full-day tour isn’t a good option. There are several variables that make half-day tours more ideal for certain people while full-day tours might be more suitable for other people or for certain occasions. Briefly, it will depend on your age and age of your children (if you are bringing them to Rio), your endurance, your time zone, the facilities of your hotel, the length of your stay in Rio de Janeiro and other variables. Read though the content below to understand the pro’s of a half-day sightseeing tour.
Half-day tours are less tiring
A half-day private tour is completed in approximately half the time of a full-day one. That means that you will be half tired compared to a full day tour. If you are visiting Rio de Janeiro in summer (December 21st – March 20th), you might get some pretty hot and humid days. That’s when half-day tours may be preferable over full-day one. However, it also depends on how you usually stand the heat.
Half-day tours are flexible weather-wise
In Rio de Janeiro the weather can change in a few hours. But of course, it can also remain the same the whole day. When you book a few half-day tours, your tour guide has more flexibility to adapt the tour according to the weather. In other words, he can advance or postpone some guided tours to make it more suitable with the weather of the day. On the other hand, if you book only one full-day tour, there is hardly any flexibility. If the weather is great the whole day, great. But if the weather is poor the whole day (rare), or even part of the day, the attractions scheduled for that day need to be visited anyway, regardless of the weather conditions.
Half-day tours leave you with free half-days
When you book a half-day sightseeing tour, you still have half-day to enjoy Rio de Janeiro as you wish. You can go shopping, stand up paddling, jogging, lounge on the beach, or you can use the hotel facilities such as swimming pool, sauna, or gym. Or you can just chill out at the rooftop bar and take in the views of Rio.
How about a swim in the waters of Copacabana or Ipanema? Many front-beach hotels have their own lounge beach chairs and umbrellas as well as a member of their staff right on the beach.
Bear in mind that the overwhelming majority of hotels in Rio de Janeiro overlooking the beach have two 3-lane avenues separating them from the beach. So, the hotels themselves are not on the beach, but you can still enjoy the facilities some of them provide on the sands of some beaches.
The bottom line is if the weather is good you can enjoy half day sightseeing and half just as your wish, with no schedule. After all, you are on vacation.