On the tourist trail in Rio

As our time in Rio was short we decided to spend one day on an organised tour which covered most of the major tourist attractions. We spent 150 real each (a budget blowing 50 pounds) to go to see "Christ the redeemer", Santa Teressa, the tiled Selaron steps and sugar loaf mountain (or rather Rio from sugar loaf mountain) over the course of an afternoon. Entry to Christ and the sugar loaf comes to around 75 real and this was covered in the price so the other 75 went on a tour guide and the minibus which drove us around all day.

Whether this expense was necessary or not is debatable as the bus service in Rio (once you get the hang of it) is excellent and at a set price of 3 real a trip, not particularly expensive. I doubt you could cover all 4 things in 1 day on public transport though.

The biggest problem with deciding to do a tour is that you only get a set period of time at each of the places and both sugar loaf and Christ are susceptible to being ruined by cloud.