It’s a great warm-up for the biggest party on earth in three weeks, Carnival in Rio de Janeiro: visit a samba school in Rio. This way travelers in Rio can already get a taste of carnival by checking out the preparations of the big samba schools that will participate in the competition. You can watch them just weeks before the real parade. An awesome experience.
All the major samba schools have set days for experiencing their rehearsals for the big parade during carnival in Rio de Janeiro, which already had begun last year. Most of the rehearsals take place in the weekend, but some of them are on weekdays. You get to see the best samba drummers and dancers. It’s the perfect way to experience the energy and emotion of carnival in Rio de Janeiro, without making it to the official parade.
Visit a Samba School in Rio: Mangueira or Salgueiro
The samba schools, community clubs originated from the poorer parts of the city, are from different neighborhoods. Some of them are located on the outskirts of Rio, others in the Center. Depending on the distance of the rehearsal location you can visit them yourself by taxi, or go on an organized tour. While it’s a 20-minute taxi ride to famous samba school Mangueira, to get to rival Grande Rio in suburb Duque de Caxias it will take you easily 45 minutes up to an hour. Some locations are in favelas and you might feel safer going there with a tour. If you plan to visit one of the rehearsals ask a local at your hotel, hostel or host of your apartment to help you out.
To visit a samba school in Rio by yourself, it is best to go to the two most popular ones: Mangueira, the champion of last year, and it’s rival Salgueiro, located a couple of hundred meters from Mangueira. São Clemente is also easy to visit by yourself, since it is located in the city center. Just a piece of advice: don’t start wandering around in the neighborhoods. There is nothing there, just enter the building and order a taxi when you want to leave.
The real deal: join us and participate in the Carnival parade in Rio
Visiting a rehearsal is great, but how cool would it be if you could walk in the actual carnival parade in Rio yourself? We have good news for you: you can! We have arranged costumes and made it possible for you to participated in the parade on Friday 21st. Join our group for this once in a lifetime experience. You can find more information about how to join the carnival parade in Rio here.
São Clemente
Mangueira
If you are looking for other events in Rio de Janeiro, check our weekly event page that we update every Monday.