Christ the Redeemer, Selaron Steps and Tijuca Forest Tour Rio

Christ the Redeemer on Corcovado

Christ the Redeemer stands on the summit of Corcovado, about seven hundred metres above the city, with its arms spread thirty metres wide over Rio. Completed in 1931 from reinforced concrete covered in thousands of small soapstone tiles, the statue is about thirty metres tall on an eight-metre pedestal, and in 2007 it was voted one of the New Seven Wonders of the World. It is the image most people have of Rio before they ever arrive.

This tour gets you there early, which is the best time to visit Christ the Redeemer: the light is soft, the terraces are calmer and clouds are less likely to hide the view. Your Christ the Redeemer ticket is included, so you skip the hassle of buying it. From the platform you see Sugarloaf, Copacabana, the lagoon, the Maracanã and Guanabara Bay. Plan about an hour at the top.

Parque Lage at the foot of the Tijuca Forest

Parque Lage is one of the loveliest corners of Tijuca National Park. Set at the base of Corcovado in the Jardim Botânico neighbourhood, it was once a private estate; in the 1920s its mansion was rebuilt as an Italian-style palace around a courtyard with a rectangular pool. Today the palace houses a public school of visual arts, and the gardens are open to everyone.

With your guide you walk along shaded paths among palms, lakes and artificial grottoes, with the rainforest rising steeply behind and the statue of Christ visible on the peak above. It is the perfect place to understand how nature and the city sit side by side in Rio: monkeys and toucans can appear only metres from busy streets. Expect about forty-five minutes here, including time for photos in the courtyard.

Maracanã Stadium, Cinelândia and the Municipal Theatre

After a lunch stop, which is at your own expense, the tour heads north to the Maracanã Stadium. Opened in 1950 for the football World Cup, it once held crowds of almost two hundred thousand people and remains the spiritual heart of Brazilian football. We see it from the outside, with time for a photo at the main entrance.

Then we cross into the historic centre to Cinelândia, the square around which Rio's grandest early-twentieth-century buildings stand. The Municipal Theatre, opened in 1909, was inspired by the great opera houses of Paris, with a gilded dome, marble columns and a façade full of sculpture. Next to it stand the National Library and the Museum of Fine Arts. Your guide explains how this area was remodelled to look like a European capital when Rio was the seat of government.

Metropolitan Cathedral of Rio de Janeiro

Few buildings in Rio surprise visitors like the Metropolitan Cathedral of Saint Sebastian. Built between 1964 and 1976, it is a huge concrete cone about seventy-five metres high, inspired by Mayan pyramids rather than European churches. From outside it looks almost brutal, but inside the mood changes completely.

Four enormous stained-glass windows rise from the floor to the ceiling, each in a different colour, and meet in a glass cross at the top, filling the vast round interior with green, blue, red and yellow light. The cathedral can hold thousands of worshippers standing, yet it feels calm and quiet. This is the one stop on the tour where you go inside; allow about twenty minutes, dress respectfully and keep your voice low if a service is taking place.

Selarón Steps, Lapa and Santa Teresa

The tour ends with Rio's most colourful staircase. The Selarón Steps, also called the Lapa Steps, climb from the bohemian Lapa district up to Santa Teresa. From 1990 a Chilean-born artist who lived beside them began covering all two hundred and fifteen steps with tiles in the colours of the Brazilian flag, later adding pieces sent by travellers from all over the world. The steps carry his name today.

Take your time to climb, look for tiles from your own country and take the classic photo from the bottom. Nearby stand the white Lapa Arches, an eighteenth-century aqueduct that now carries the Santa Teresa tram. At the top, Santa Teresa is a hilltop neighbourhood of old mansions, artists' studios and narrow streets with views over the centre, a relaxed end to the day before your drop-off.