From the city center to the suburbs, here’s a brief description of Rio’s beaches:
Flamengo: A giant area of 100 hectares of land reclaimed from the sea, Parque do Flamengo was designed by Burle Marx and opened in 1965 on the Flamengo, Gloria and Catete waterfront. The park is well landscaped with gardens and football fields. The beach is not overly wide, nor beautiful, but offers views of Pao de Acucar and Corcovado. As it faces the bay, the sea is dirty. The area is police-patrolled, but not recommended at night. High-class Cariocas would not be caught dead here.
Botafogo: The beach, on a deeply curved bay with a stunning view of Sugarloaf, is white and wide and beautiful. The calm waters of the bay, dotted with boats anchored at the nearby marina, are polluted. Cariocas sunbathe and play soccer here, but only the fool-hardy swim. Not safe at night.
Praia Vermelha: On the other side of Botafogo, in the exclusive suburb of Urca, lies the small, pebbly beach of Praia Vermelha. Dwarfed by Sugarloaf behind, and by Morro de Leme to the west, the setting is breath-taking. A nice, safe area to walk around after a jaunt up Sugarloaf, but not a hot-bed of Carioca activity.
Copacabana: The famed beach where music and laughter is always in fashion; indeed everything can still be found in Copacabana. With skyscapers fronting the deeply curved horse-shoe beach, and mountains all around, it’s an awesome landscape. The beach is wide, the surf usually relatively calm, and the action on the beach, and on the boardwalk behind, intense. Copacabana seethes with an energy all its own - this is Rio, and not all of Rio is for the faint-hearted. In front of the famed gringo disco Help! there’s an artist’s market at night, while at the beach-side kiosks transvestites set up sound systems and put on a show. Restaurants and bars of all description line the inland side of Avenida Atlantica - many with patios, none with bargains. Copacabana, both the day and night, must be seen.
Ipanema: Now we’re getting into the areas where most of the Cariocas you will want to meet hang out. Crossing from Copa to Ipanema behind Arpoadora rocky outcropping which shelters a good surf spot, and is the best place in the city to watch the sunsetthe change in atmos-phere is remarkable. Ipanema is a wide, beautiful beach, filled with relaxed, beautiful people. Posto 9 is a particular hangout for the young and hard-bodied, but they’re not overly easy to meet. Much soccer and fute-volei being played, and endless things to look at.
Leblon: Separated from Ipanema by a canal passing through Jardim de Allah, which attempts to drain the inland Lagoa, Leblon is the beach in front of the wealthy suburb of the same name. Currently being rebuilt in places to counter-attack ocean erosion, Leblon, with a gorgeous view of the Dois Irmoes mountain, is not quite as wide, nor as hip, nor as crowded as Ipanema, but it is a beautiful place to relax.
Sao Conrado: Past Leblon the coast becomes rocky, then the wealthy suburb of Sao Conrado fills a little bay with classy hotels, restaurants, and nightclubs, and a protected, safe, beautiful beach - although the sea here is polluted, and swimming is not recommended. Sao Conrado is a great place to watch hang-gliders settling back to earth after having jumped off the table-topped mountain Pedra da Gavea, behind.
Barra da Tijuca: Twenty years ago Barra was just a giant sandbar, populated only by innumerable birds - much like Ipanema and Leblon were in the 1940’s. Now the area is growing at breathtaking speed in every direction - residentially, commercially, culturally - and is a magnet for Rio’s nouveaux riche. The beach is 20 km long, wide, white, clean, and beautiful, and boats Rio’s best surf. A meeting point known as Pepe, alongside a statue of the late, famous, world-champion hang-glider of that name, and in front of fashionable disco Belas Artes, is the place to see and be seen. The bodies here are hard, the people beautiful. Barra is the favourite beach of Rio’s high-class, of which there are many.
Prainha: Past Barra the development peters out along the coast of wild, unpopulated sand, then in a little bay Prainha appears - backed by rain-forested mountains the scenery is breath-taking, and the waves are the best in the Rio vicinity for surfing. Boogie boarders and body-surfers abound, but weak swimmers should not enter the water. The beach is full of long-haired, tanned beach bunnies sunning themselves, awaiting their surfer-hero to return from the war of the waves and whisk them off into the sunset.
Praia de Grumari: Over a slight rise from Prainha, and all told about 30 km from Copacabana, Grumari is a beautiful, unpopulated beach backed by forested mountains. The surf is good, but not as intense as Prainha. A relaxed place of untouched beauty, Grumari feels like the north-east.
Of Course there are many more beaches in Rio considering the whole state is made up of costal shores. These are the beaches around the Metropolitan area only.
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