"Beautiful, Famous Rio" Rio de Janeiro by glabah

The most famous feature in Rio de Janeiro, and perhaps South America, is the statue of Christ the Redeemer, standing on top of the Corcovado mountain.

Therefore, naturally, the most popular tourist railway in Rio de Janeiro is the incline railway that climbs the steep hill up to the top.

If you look at my Must See Activities, you will see what everyone else goes to Rio to see. But why do only what everyone else does?

Rio de Janeiro has another tourist railway - or actually streetcar line, that isn't as well known, but tourists do come to see it, and it does have a tourist system of sorts. This is the old Bonde Santa Tereza - the Santa Tereza Streetcar.

Regular service on the line is every 15 minutes in many places. I have heard several things about tourist service on the line. I do not, therefore, know much about regularly scheduled tourist service, but apparently at one time it was offered. Chartering a car to a group is apparently also offered.

As Rio de Janeiro has so many other tourist attractions that people have documented, I concentrated on the Bonde in my first Rio de Janeiro Travelogue.

In the background of this photo, you can see Rio's world famous statue of Christ the Redeemer at the summit of Corcovado. It is certainly one of Rio de Janeiro's Must See features. I have some photos of a trip on the incline railway up to Corcovado here as well.

Streetcar Shops / Oficina do Bonde

The streetcar shops cling to the side of a hill. Inside the shops is small museum of the streetcar lines, and one of the first cars used on the lines. There is also a gift shop where you can buy memorabilia of the line.

Bonde (streetcar) with Corcovado behind

not normally seen by the regular tourist are available in a few locations along the streetcar line. That little white thing in the background in this photo, on top of the hill? It is the famous Christ statue on top of Corcovado.

For more photos of the streetcar line, please see my Travelogue of the Bonde Santa Tereza (bonde = streetcar in Portuguese).

• Pros:Beautiful city, unique features
• Cons:It is a very dangerous city, and like any big city many people have an attitude problem.
• In a nutshell:It is a nice place to visit, but my tastes for big cities makes me not want to visit for more than two days or so.