36 Hours in Rio de Janeiro

Take an Uber (they are cheap in Brazil) to Largo da Prainha, a plaza blanketed in tables that has become perhaps Rio’s hottest hangout since the pandemic. It’s lively most evenings, but Friday is a full-on party. The plaza’s most popular spot lately is Bafo da Prainha, a barbecue joint with D.J.s playing on the balcony from 5 p.m. The food, however, is arguably better — and the view indisputably so — at Casa Porto, a restaurant overlooking the plaza with a rotating, hearty menu starring pork, ribs, hefty grilled chicken thighs and lots of Brazilian sides. Try the house-made mamata, a very sugary, cold mixture of cachaça (Brazil’s famed sugarcane liquor), passion fruit and ginger. It gets full by 8 p.m. (dinner for two, about 90 reais).

A short walk away is Feira do Lavradio, a lively antiques and artisan fair held every Saturday down Rua do Lavradio. There are vinyl records, candles, pottery, handmade jewelry and clothes in the two Carioca styles: laid-back and relaxed, or loud and colorful. If you like mining for treasure, head down Rua do Senado for its antique shops. Among the most refined, and the most expensive, is Espaço 51. The owner has an excellent eye for midcentury style and painstakingly repairs lamps and chairs in his workshop in the back.

To get to Santa Teresa, a picturesque, bohemian neighborhood on a hill, catch one of the iconic yellow street trams that provide a terrific tour on the way up. The tram passes over the famed Arches of Lapa, an 18th-century aqueduct that is a symbol of Rio. The tram leaves every 30 minutes from the downtown station (tickets available there, 20 reis), with the final ride at 4 p.m. on Saturdays. The trams seat just 16 people and can sell out on the weekends, so the earlier you ride, the better. Before you hop on, duck into the Metropolitan Cathedral of Rio, which is next to the downtown station. A Brutalist gem from 1976 designed as an homage to the Mayan temples, it features three stained-glass panels that stretch more than 200 feet from the floor to the roof.

The boteco is an institution in Rio. Often a hole-in-the-wall bar that spills onto the sidewalk with plastic tables and chairs, it offers fried snacks and what Cariocas call “stupidly” cold beer. The most basic are lovingly called pés-sujos, or “dirty feet,” the Brazilian equivalent of a dive bar. A movement to modernize the dirty foot with more refined food and drink has produced gourmet dives locals call “clean feet.” Just a year old, Chanchada, in the Botafogo neighborhood, is maybe Rio’s best. Try the torresmo, carne assada desfiada (roasted pulled beef), pastel de camarão (shrimp empanada) and berinjela à milanesa (breaded eggplant) sandwich. They also have great batidas —sweet, creamy alcoholic drinks made with coconut, passion fruit or ginger. And the chopp is indeed stupidly cold, great for a steamy night on the sidewalk (dinner for two, roughly 120 reais).

Reward yourself by relaxing at the famed Ipanema Beach. On Sundays it can feel as if the entire city is on the sand, but embrace it: The people-watching is superb. The beach offers a variety of scenes: Lifeguard post No. 7 is great for watching surfers; post No. 9 skews younger and gets packed; No. 10 is more family-friendly. (For an even more relaxed, local scene, Leme Beach is also excellent.) The vendors are also part of the show. Try the coalho cheese they sear on mini-charcoal grills and the too-sweet iced mate from kegs they carry on their shoulders. On Sundays, it’s particularly inviting to stroll or rent a bike here, as the road along the beach is closed to cars.