Location and Access

The "Marvelous City" is the largest international tourist destination in Brazil, Latin America and the entire Southern Hemisphere, being the best known Brazilian city abroad. The capital of Rio de Janeiro is the second largest metropolis in Brazil (after Sao Paulo), the sixth largest in America and the thirty-fifth in the world.
Rio, which was once the capital of the State of Brazil (1621-1815), is one of the main economic, cultural and financial centers of the country, and is internationally known for its numerous cultural and landscape icons, such as the Pao de Açucar, Corcovado with the statue of Christo Redentor, the beaches of the neighborhoods of Copacabana, Ipanema and Barra da Tijuca (among others), Maracana Stadium, bohemian neighborhood of Lapa and its arches, Municipal Theater, Tijuca and Pedra Branca, Quinta da Boa Vista, the National Library, Paqueta Island, New Year's Eve in Copacabana, Carnival, Bossa Nova and Samba. So much that part of the city was designated Cultural Patrimony of the Humanity.

With the second largest GDP in the country and the 30th largest in the world, Rio is home to the two largest Brazilian companies - Petrobras and Vale - and the main oil and telephone companies in Brazil, as well as the largest conglomerate of media and communications companies in Brazil. Latin America, Grupo Globo. Contemplated by a large number of universities and institutes, it is the second largest research and development center in Brazil, standing out the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro.

Its coastline, with considerable changes, is 197 kilometers long, has several lagoons, such as Tijuca, Marapendi, Jacarepagua and Rodrigo de Freitas, and includes more than 100 islands.