See Christ the Redeemer, Sugarloaf Mountain, and the Selar\u00f3n Steps with a private guide, moving through Rio’s landmarks and the neighbourhoods around them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":26663,"parent":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false},"quiz-persona":[],"class_list":["post-26640","moment","type-moment","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":{"featured_item":false,"hero_image":26662,"page_sections":[{"acf_fc_layout":"text_image_block","title":"","copy":"Rio de Janeiro carries its history across its own skyline, a colossal statue on a mountain, a granite peak rising straight from the bay, a staircase built one tile at a time by a single obsessive artist. A private guide connects these landmarks into a single day, moving between the city's most recognized sights and the neighborhoods that surround them.","image":26664},{"acf_fc_layout":"text_image_block","title":"What You See","copy":"Christ the Redeemer stands 30 meters tall atop Mount Corcovado, its arms spanning 28 meters over the city below. Built between 1922 and 1931 and funded almost entirely by donations from Brazil's Catholic community, the statue was a genuinely international effort, designed by Brazilian engineer Heitor da Silva Costa, its head and hands modeled in France by sculptor Paul Landowski, its face carved by Romanian sculptor Gheorghe Leonida. In 2007, it was named one of the New Seven Wonders of the World.\r\n\r\nSugarloaf Mountain rises 396 meters from the mouth of Guanabara Bay, a granite monolith more than 600 million years old. The cable car that carries visitors to its summit opened in 1912, the third aerial tramway ever built, climbing in two stages via Morro da Urca. From the top, the view takes in Copacabana, Flamengo Park, and Christ the Redeemer across the city.","image":26665},{"acf_fc_layout":"text_image_block","title":"What You Experience","copy":"The Escadaria Selar\u00f3n winds between Lapa and Santa Teresa, 215 steps covered in more than 2,000 mosaic tiles gathered from over 60 countries. Chilean-born artist Jorge Selar\u00f3n began the work in 1990, renovating the steps outside his own front door, and continued adding and replacing tiles for 23 years, calling it a living, changing piece of art. Around 300 tiles depict a pregnant African woman, his signature, the meaning left deliberately unexplained.\r\n\r\nAbove the steps, Santa Teresa unfolds across cobblestone streets and 19th-century mansions, reached by the Bondinho tram, running since 1877 and the oldest continuous electric tramway in Latin America. Largo do Guimar\u00e3es sits at the neighborhood's heart, its galleries and bars a legacy of the artists and musicians who settled here through the mid-20th century.","image":26666},{"acf_fc_layout":"text_image_block","title":"Why Private Access Matters","copy":"A private guide moves between these landmarks at whatever pace the day calls for, more time at the summit if the light is good, a longer walk through Santa Teresa's side streets if the mood favors it. Timing matters too, arriving at Christ the Redeemer or Sugarloaf ahead of the crowds changes the experience of both. The guide's own knowledge threads the sights together, the sugar trade that gave Sugarloaf its name, the story behind Selar\u00f3n's tiles, the history of an aqueduct now carrying a century-old tram.","image":26667},{"acf_fc_layout":"text_image_block","title":"Commonly Asked Questions","copy":"