UCityGuides.com Travel News Blog » Rio de Janeiro

THE WORLD’S 10 MOST HAUNTING AND FAMOUS CEMETERIES

UCityGuides.com Editor — Mon, 01 Nov 2010 18:07:27 +0000

Halloween/All Saints’ Day/All Souls’ Day Special:
From celebrity resting places to historical and monumental burial grounds, to haunted graveyards, these are THE 10 MOST HAUNTING AND FAMOUS CEMETERIES IN THE WORLD

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RIO DE JANEIRO FOR A GAY VALENTINE’S: GAY PARTIES IN FEBRUARY

UCityGuides.com Editor — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 15:42:31 +0000

February is the month of romance and whether you have a special someone on Valentine’s Day or are looking for one, there will be a special event for you in or around the 14th of the month all over the world. With the northern hemisphere still feeling the cold of winter, it’s tempting to go somewhere warm still feeling the heat of summer. For gay travelers the choice should be Rio de Janeiro, which is throwing major gay parties in mid-February. On the 13th it will be the “R:evolution Party” at 11PM in , while on the 16th it’s the Original Brazilian Pool Party at 4PM at Clube Internacional de Regatas. You can get complete party details through the website (www.revolutionparty.com.br), which includes ticket information.
A recommended hotel for this time of the year is Rio 180, gay-friendly accommodation with stunning views of the city. It includes a romantic pool area, although Ipanema beach is just a short ride away. Get complete hotel information here: Rio 180.

-See the complete Rio de Janeiro city guide.
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THE 10 TRAVEL DESTINATIONS FOR THE NEXT DECADE

UCityGuides.com Editor — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 18:20:14 +0000

The last decade has brought some radical changes to the travel industry. From low-cost airlines, to last-minute online booking, to the large number of stylish hostels, to the boutique and design hotel concept. There were even new destinations, with Eastern Europe (particularly Prague and Budapest) becoming one of the most popular city breaks in the world. Even the city break concept is new, with travels now escaping to somewhere else on a long weekend, or on a business trip, and not waiting for a longer summer vacation to go somewhere.
As one decade closes and another one begins, it’s time to wonder how and where we’ll be traveling ten years from now. What can already be predicted is that during the 2000-teens decade, some cities will stand out more than others. They will either host the world’s major events, or will unveil brand-new projects that will capture the attention of the world’s media and travelers.
At UCityGuides.com we’ve taken a look at the calendar and took our insider knowledge of the world’s top cultural cities, and came up with a list of the cities that will most grab the attention of the travel industry. From New York‘s new World Trade Center and Freedom Tower, to a cleaned up Rio de Janeiro for the Olympics, to the emergence of Lisbon as a cultural hotspot, to the rejuvenation of Seville, we give you a preview of what you’ll be excited about visiting in the near future. You’ll discover that some old destinations are new again, and that some often-overlooked cities will no longer be a secret.
For complete details, take a look at the full list of the 10 City Breaks for the Next Decade.

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THE TOP 10 MOST BEAUTIFUL CAFÉS IN THE WORLD

UCityGuides.com Editor — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 08:58:10 +0000

When European cafés became the preferred hangouts of their city’s intellectuals in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, they turned into cultural institutions with ornate, palatial interiors. Many if not most of them remain open today, although the main visitors are now tourists guided by their guidebooks. Those cafés are now essentially museums where coffee and pastries are served at high prices, while others have been turned into full-blown restaurants, and a few still attempt to keep their cultural heritage alive by hosting literary and other cultural events.
The biggest café cities are Paris, Vienna, Venice, and Budapest, where café interiors are at their most sumptuous, but you’ll find some extraordinarily beautiful cafés throughout Europe and even in the big cities of the Americas that emulated the grandiosity of the Old World.
At UCityGuides we’re always looking for what’s new and extraordinary, but also love to spend some time in what the past has done best. So after countless coffees, pastries, calories, and overpriced drinks, we bring you the list of the ten most beautiful cafés in the world: THE WORLD’S 10 MOST BEAUTIFUL CAFÉS

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THE WORLD’S 10 MOST BEAUTIFUL CITIES

UCityGuides.com Editor — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 10:02:47 +0000

Whether stunningly sited or blending extraordinary architecture with magnificent scenery, the world’s most beautiful cities are captivating. While globalization has stripped many great metropolises of their aesthetic authenticity and bought much of their soul, there are still many cities that remain true to themselves, clinging to their cultural, architectural, and natural heritage.
UCityGuides.com has made a list of the 10 cities that have best managed to survive through time as exceptional places filled with remarkable beauty, soul, and distinctive natural scenery, and while beauty lies in the eye of the beholder, you’ll agree that these are indeed the most beautiful cities on the planet:

TOP 10 MOST BEAUTIFUL CITIES IN THE WORLD

THE WORLD’S 7 BEST URBAN BEACHES

UCityGuides.com Editor — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 09:42:53 +0000

It’s June! That means summer! That means beach! That means urban pleasures in the sun, and in some lucky metropolises, urban beaches! No, we’re not talking about those seasonal man-made beaches increasingly common in European cities located far away from the coast. We’re talking about shores created by nature, facing real oceans, and with the cities that rose around them being the only human creations. Inspired by our 7 Urban Wonders of the World vote, we’ve now selected the world’s seven best urban beaches where you can get that tan not far from fantastic restaurants and exciting nightlife. No, you don’t need to go to an island resort or a coastal town to enjoy some of the world’s best sand and the sea because that is often found not far from a major urban airport. So this summer pack your havaianas and head to:

Tel Aviv beach

Ipanema, Rio de Janeiro
Not only is Rio de Janeiro blessed with some of the world’s most dramatically gorgeous scenery, it also offers some of the most beautiful beaches together with urban pleasures. While Copacabana may be the most famous of all its beaches, and Leblon an increasingly attractive beach and neighborhood for sunseekers, it is in Ipanema that you’ll find the best of the city. Its golden sands are filled with flawlessly-sculpted bodies playing sports, jogging, or getting wet in the Atlantic, and that’s just the beginning of a day and night of posing and partying. Cross the avenue and you’ll find some of Rio’s best restaurants, or simply enjoy an açai juice or caipirinha at a cafe. Sitting on the sand or from a cafe table, take some time to admire the majestic peaks in the distance, the body-conscious strollers on the wave-patterned boardwalk, and soak up the sensual atmosphere all around.

Tel Aviv
Tayelet (“Promenade” in Hebrew) is Tel Aviv’s sandy Mediterranean coastline lined with beach cafes and hotels. Often the site of parties and beautiful sunsets, it’s the city’s most irresistible area, the place everyone flocks to after a stroll down the trendy Sheinkin Street. After a day under the Mediterranean sun, the bronzed bodies clean themselves up under the freshwater showers and move on to Tel Aviv Port, a sleek seafront promenade that is a hot nighttime destination. It is actually an attractive spot at any time of the day, from brunch to evening jazz performance, especially on Shabbat.

Miami Beach, Miami
In no other city in the world is the beach the main attraction. In Miami, it is the reason it receives so many tourists, curious about experiencing its parade of steroids, silicone, and sand-and-sun worshipers. When you finally take a break from that, the many cafes in the Art Deco District are another distraction, although the year-round heat will soon take you back to the ocean and eye candy. Miami is the ultimate see-and-be-seen destination, and the people-watching continues beyond the beach. The flashy clubs are for a night before another day at the palm-studded beach, and the joys of a flamboyant urban resort life.

Barceloneta, Barcelona
An already exciting city can only get better with a beachfront. So when the Olympics came to Barcelona in 1992, its Mediterranean coastline got a makeover, and the result is Barceloneta Beach. Flashy hotels and restaurants have opened by this new sandy attraction, and it’s now a magnet for the city’s coolest crowds at any time of the day and night. That means you can work on your tan during the day, and later show it off at the clubs of any part of town. You can actually walk to the center of the city, strolling down a walkway lined with palm trees, cafes, and some exciting modern landmarks such as Frank Gehry’s 200-foot-long sculpture of a fish.

Venice Beach, Los Angeles
L.A.’s bohemian beach is packed with bodybuilders, tattooed bodies, and all kinds of eclectic groups in its golden sands full of palm trees. In between them are rollerbladers, green lawns, galleries, cafes, and surf shops on the must-stroll Ocean Front Walk facing the beach. Venice Beach is a paradise for people-watching and by far the most interesting beach in Los Angeles, and arguably the most beautiful. Observe the human and natural spectacles and you’ll have a picture of what Los Angeles is all about.

Bondi Beach, SYDNEY
Just as famous as Sydney’s Opera House are the city’s beaches, with waters always taken over by surfers and dolphins. Within minutes from the center of the city you’ll be stepping on golden sand, and the exact place to head to is Bondi Beach. It’s a crescent of sand faced by a variety of shops, often packed by sun and wave seekers. It’s a world-class surfing destination with a surprisingly relaxing atmosphere and a melting pot of crowds, from rich to poor, from young to old.

Tamariz, Lisbon
Take the train from Lisbon’s central Cais do Sodré station to the seaside town of Cascais and you’ll be taken on a waterfront ride through a number of urban beaches. Step off the train in Estoril, just after the city’s Tagus River becomes the Atlantic, and stay laying on Tamariz Beach. Facing it from across the road is Europe’s largest casino, while standing above the sand is a castle belonging to the royal family of Monaco. Those were built when this coast was a haven for exiled royalty and European nobility during World War II, and the place still retains a certain faded glamour. On the sand you’ll be competing for space with crowds from Lisbon, its suburbs, and tourists on the hottest days, and for a refreshing drink or a meal, there are a number of bars facing the ocean. On summer months, this beach is a summer club at night, with tanned bodies dancing and drinking the night away.

Ipaneama Beach, Rio de Janeiro

Tamariz Beach, Lisbon

Venice Beach, Los Angeles

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THE ARCHITOURIST REPORT: THE NITEROI CONTEMPORARY ART MUSEUM, RIO DE JANEIRO

UCityGuides.com Editor — Fri, 29 May 2009 14:51:19 +0000

In our previous Architourist Report we took you to Oscar Niemeyer’s Brasilia, the Brazilian capital that has been nominated for Urban Wonder of the World. For this report we’re still in the same country, and bring you an iconic landmark from the same architect, but this time in Rio de Janeiro. Technically it’s in the city of Niteroi, a suburb overlooking the Marvelous City from across the Guanabara Bay but that is the one true must-see modern marvel during a visit to Rio.

Take a ferry from downtown Rio de Janeiro, walk along the waterfront, and you’ll soon find this spaceship-looking building standing above a cliff. It seems to hover 16 meters high in the air, topped by a 50-meter cupola, and with the three floors of its interior accessed through a snaking red platform from which you slowly admire the surrounding bay and the Sugarloaf Mountain in the distance. It opened in 1996 and is the Niteroi Museum of Contemporary Art, showcasing temporary exhibitions of national artists (painting, sculpture, textiles, and more), although the main attraction is always the white retro-futurist building itself. Check out the museum’s website for what’s going on at the moment, and take a look at the photos below, taken exclusively for UCityGuides. In our next Architourist Report coming up soon, we’ll be in another country, in one of the world’s largest metropolis, and will be highlighting one of the most iconic modern landmarks that is now celebrating an anniversary…

RIO DE JANEIRO: THE CHIC AND THE SHOCK

UCityGuides.com Editor — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 19:28:54 +0000

TAKE YOUR PICK: STAY AT ONE OF THE WORLD’S MOST GLAMOROUS LANDMARK HOTELS OR IN A NOTORIOUS HILLSIDE SLUM

It has welcomed kings and queens, and famous celebrities from Orson Welles to Mick Jagger. It was one of the world’s most glamorous addresses in the first decades since it opened in 1923, and although it lost some of its appeal in the 1970s, it was brought back to life after a takeover by Orient-Express in the 1980s. Its architecture was inspired by the palace hotels of the French Riviera, but its location couldn’t be more Rio — the famous Copacabana Beach. Copacabana Palace remains a Rio de Janeiro landmark and one of the world’s greatest hotels.

Admire the city’s marvellous setting from the fantastic rooftop pool, and dine at the renowned Cipriani Restaurant where fine Italian cuisine is served in opulent surroundings. Just over a year ago a spa was added, now the city’s most sophisticated urban sanctuary which includes a fitness room and a hair salon in addition to the saunas and relaxation areas. Step outside and you’re standing on the calçadão, the famous wave-patterned pavements that take you to Ipanema and the hip Leblon neighborhood. If you prefer to lay on the Copacabana sands, the hotel can provide umbrellas, sun lounges, and security services for your belongings.

A completely different experience is staying in the city’s notorious favelas, the hillside slums. Who’d want to do that? Apparently there are many people. Ironically, the favelas are located in some of the city’s best sites, the hills offering the best city views towards the beaches. The Maze Inn opened in the middle of one of those poor neighborhoods in 2005, and the man with such an idea was a British journalist who turned into an artist with his own gallery, and who claims that the favela is one of the safest neighborhoods of the city. Constantly patrolled by men in black, things have gotten much calmer in the area, and you sense more of an authentic neighborhood life than any imminent danger. Inside the building are ten rooms and balconies offering city views towards the Sugar Loaf Mountain. On some nights, it hosts popular jazz parties which have attracted hundreds of guests from all over town. No, this is not the place for everyone, but it’s a side of Rio that some actually prefer over staying at Copacabana Palace. It’s only a matter of whether you’re in the mood for the chic or the shock.