Rio de Janeiro Travel Information

The Airports
Rio is serviced by two major airports, one is Santos Dumont (SDU) located in the Center of the city, it only has domestic flights. The other one is called Galeão (GIG) (or Tom Jobim) and is both an International and an domestic Airport, it is located quit a bit North of the city center. How to get to there and back I have described in my To and From the Airports section, there you can find all you need about that. Unfortunately lately there has been lots of problems with the airports being in a state of complete chaos, this because of strikes, overbooked flights and coordination problems. The result: Cancelled flights and delays making arriving and leaving Rio by plane a mess, nowadays (this was written in July 2007) you are adviced to do your check in for iInternational flights three hours (!) before departure. This is a fact all over Brazil and although promises has been made it seems like the problems remain.

The Bus Station
The long distance bus system is very functional, in compensation for the almost non existing Brazilian railroads, the buses are good and fairly frequent. There are quite a few bus stations (or Rodoviárias as they are called in Portuguese) in Rio de Janeiro, luckily almost all destinations of interest depart from the Inter State Bus Station Novo Rio. Actually, if you jump into a cab and just say Rodoviária (prenounced Hoddoviaria) the cabbie most certainly take you to Novo Rio. I have described getting there and back in To and from the Bus Station .

Cheap Airfares
Having a section called Rio de Janeiro Travel Information without describing the best way to get airline tickets is worthless, so here it is: Airline Tickets . There it´s described in detail the best way to get your plane tickets. In general can be said that up until a few years ago it was almost impossible to make good deals on buying domestic flights. A few new budget airline companies has changed all this and nowadays you can actually get airfares in Rio that are cheaper than the bus tickets. Going to more remote or less trafficed destinations is still pretty pricey. Buying International airline tickets is neither cheap or expensive.

Long Distance Buses
The last part I will describe to you is about Long Distance Buses and how to get tickets the best way. Like I mentioned earlier they are really good, nothing like the buses with miniature seats you have in Asia. Distances can be painfully long but comfort and many pit stops makes the journey more pleasant. By daytime you will also have the oppurtunity to take in the very changing landscape of Brazil.

That should be all the Rio de Janeiro travel information you need!

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