- About Rio de Janeiro
- Arriving Rio
- Vistor Information
- Rio's Neighborhoods at a Glance
- Getting Around Rio
- Fast Facts: Rio de Janeiro

Geography has played a huge part in Rio 's development; the city has squeezed into any available space between mountain and ocean. Rio is traditionally divided into three zones: North (Zona Norte), Center (Centro), and South (Zona Sul).  

ZONA NORTE Largest and least interesting from a visitor's perspective, the Zona Norte stretches from a few blocks north of Avenida Presidente Vargas all i he way to the city limits. With only a few bright exceptions-the Maracana Nradium, the Quinta da Boa Vista gardens, and Galeao Airport -the region is 1 dull swath of port, residential high-rise, industrial suburb, and favela. After dark, it is not the sort of place one should wander unaccompanied.

CENTRO Rio 's Centro neighborhood, the oldest part of the city, is where you'll find most of the city's notable churches, squares, monuments, and museums, as well as the modern office towers where Rio 's white-collar elite earn their daily bread. Roughly speaking, Centro stretches from the Sao Bento Monastery in the north to the seaside Monument to the Dead of World War II in the south, and from Praca XV on the waterfront east to the Sambodromo (near Praca XI). On weekends, particularly Sundays, this area becomes very deserted, and a little too spooky to warrant a visit.

ZONA SUL Just to the south of Centro lies the fun and slightly bohemian hilltop neighborhood of Santa Teresa, and then one after the other the neigh­ borhoods of Gloria, Catete, and Flamengo. These last three were the fashion­able sections of the city around the start of the 20th century, located as they were on flat ground by the edge of Guanabara Bay . Other neighborhoods in this sec­ tion of the city include Botafogo and Urea (nestled beneath the Sugarloaf), and in the narrow valley behind Flamengo the two residential neighborhoods of Laranjeiras and Cosme Velho. Though not actually in downtown, all of these neighborhoods fall within the category of greater Centro. Today they're all still pleasant and walkable-Botafogo is more commercial, while Catete and Fla­ mengo contain a number of historic buildings-but their bloom faded in the 1920s when engineers finally succeeded in cutting a tunnel through the moun­ tainside to Copacabana.

THE BEACHES Then, as now, the big attraction was the ocean. Where Cen­ tro and Flamengo sit on Guanabara Bay , Zona Sul neighborhoods such as Copacabana, Ipanema, Sao Conrado, and Barra de Tijuca face the open Atlantic . The waves are bigger, the water cleaner, and the beaches more inviting. First to be developed, Copacabana officially covers only the lower two-thirds of the beach. The northern most third (the bit closest to Urca, furthest from Ipanema) is known as Leme. That said, it's impossible to tell where Leme ends and Copa begins. Taking a 90-degree turn around a low headland, one comes to Ipanema. Like Copacabana, Ipanema is a modern neighborhood, consisting almost exclusively of high-rise apartments from the '60s and '70s. Here, too, the same stretch of beach is considered to be two neighborhoods: Ipanema sits next to Copacabana, while the area at the far end of the beach is known as Leblon. Again, the two ends of the beach are nearly indistinguishable, though Leblon has a few more restaurants. Behind Ipanema there's a lagoon, the Lagoa Rodrigo de Freitas, which is circled by a pleasant 8.5km (5%4-mile) walking/cycling trail. At its north end, farthest from the beach, stand the two quiet residential neighbor­ hoods of Lagoa and Jardim Bot"anico, the latter named for the extensive botan­ical gardens around which the area grew up.

At the far end of Ipanema stands a tall sheer double pointed rock called the Pedra Dois Irm"aos (Two Brothers Rock). The road carries on, winding around the cliff face to reach the tiny enclave of Sao Conrado. One of the bet­ ter surfing beaches, this is also where the hang gliders like to land after swoop­ ing down from the 830m (2,700-ft) Pedra de G3vea.

At night, the wide beaches are dark and mostly deserted; if you're in the mood for a moonlit stroll, stick to the brightly lit and police-patrolled pedestrian walk­way that parallels the beach.

BEYOND THE BEACHES Beyond Sao Conrado the road goes up on stilts to sneak beneath the cliffs until reaching Barra da Tijuca. More like Miami Beach than Rio , Barra-as it's usually called-is a land of big streets, big malls, big cars, big condominium towers, and little intrinsic interest.