When researching for our trip I spent a lot of time trying to budget for different locations around the world. Cost of living varies dramatically between each country that we are visiting, however, we still try to set an average daily budget of $75.00 USD. We know if we stay around this amount that we can visit all of the locations we hope to. In this post I am going to break down all of our expenses and answer the question, how much does it cost to travel in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil?
*Disclaimer: We are attempting to travel more on the budget side of things so obviously costs can vary dramatically. You can easily spend significantly more or less than what we did depending on your preferences.
Rio de Janeiro
We spent 5 nights and 6 days in Brazil. We spent all 5 nights in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil which is different from all the other countries we visited in South America. Because we spent all of our time in one city, our expenses look a little different for Brazil.
Our total daily costs of traveling in Brazil for 6 days and 5 nights was $426.21 for an average of $71.10 USD per day.
Accommodations – $167.85 USD / $33.57 USD per night
We found accommodations to be very affordable in Rio de Janeiro. We were able to get a 1 bedroom, 1 bathroom apartment with a full kitchen and a washing machine in the Copacabana neighborhood for just over $33 USD per night. Copacabana is known as a safe, tourist friendly area with a ton of restaurants and bars as well as the famous Copacabana beach right nearby. We really enjoyed staying in this area (it was my second time staying there) and would definitely recommend it to others looking to stay in Rio.
How to Spend 5 Days in Rio de Janeiro
Transportation – $48.63 USD
We spent a little more on transportation while in Rio de Janeiro primarily because the city is massive. Uber is very popular so we often opted for Uber rides (roughly $3-$5 to get from one end of the city to the other) for most of our transportation. The most expensive ride was our Uber to the airport when we left which cost about $12 USD.
Meals – $88.16 USD
For meals we spent $88.16 USD in total for 6 days of eating. We opted to cook most of our meals, especially breakfast and lunch, while in Rio to save money. Most of our dining cost came from the $50 we spent visiting an authentic Brazilian steakhouse! We had been to a few in the US and had to try one while in Rio!
Otherwise street food was very affordable and can be found all around the beaches. You can get small Acai bowls for about $1 USD per bowl, and Caipirinhas along the beach for anywhere from $1.50 to $3.00 USD depending on where you go.
Groceries – $39.07 USD
Since we opted to cook most of our meals in Brazil we spent about $39 USD on groceries. Groceries overall were very affordable and no individual item stood out as being unusually expensive. We also found a snack store right by our apartment that sold small size candy bars, chip bags, crackers, etc. for $0.20 – $1.00 per item.
Excursions – $61.87 USD
Excursions were a bigger expense for us while in Rio de Janeiro because we opted to visit the famous Christ the Redeemer statue as well as watch the sunset at Sugarloaf Mountain. Christ the Redeemer tickets cost us about $7 each, the only complicated piece was transportation there (included in the transportation section above).
- For the way there we chose to take an Uber to the main van entry point. Access to the top (where the statue is) is regulated so you can’t take an Uber all the way up. However, your entrance ticket covers the cost of your van transportation from this entry point and back.
- However, after we were finished visiting we found it impossible to find an Uber to take us down so we ended up paying 15 Reais, or $3.60, for a shuttle down to the bottom of the mountain. Once down at the bottom we had no problem finding a cheap Uber to take us back to Copacabana.
Our next excursion was Sugarloaf Mountain which we HIGHLY recommend for sunset. Sugarloaf faces back towards the city of Rio and has one of the best, if not the best, sunsets we have ever seen. Visiting Sugarloaf was definitely one of the highlights of our time in Rio! The entrance tickets for Sugarloaf Mountain are more expensive than Christ the Redeemer. They come in at about 99 Reais, or $23 USD per person. This includes two cable car rides to get to the top.
- You can buy a cheaper ticket if you hike up the first mountain (about 45 minutes or so) and then take the second cable car to the top. But it also means you have to hike back down in the dark after sunset which we didn’t want to do. If you’re going during the day hiking is definitely a cheaper option!
If you’re curious what it looks like at sunset check out this post!
Miscellaneous – $20.63 USD
Our miscellaneous expenses were made up of two things. First, I had to get a haircut which cost about $16 USD. The haircut alone was only about $9 USD but I needed a shave as well which added a few more dollars to the bill. I also needed a pair of flip flops because our arrival in Rio meant we were done with the true winter in South America. So I found a pair for about 16 Reais, or $4 USD, on the street which worked perfectly.
Overall
Overall we found both the accommodations and food to be very inexpensive in Brazil! We were able to find a nice place to stay in a very good location without spending too much. Food was also reasonable everywhere that we went and drinks, especially the local Caipirinhas, are very cheap!
We spent most of the money on transportation because the city of Rio de Janeiro is so large and visiting both Christ the Redeemer and Sugarloaf Mountain. They were two places that we knew we wanted to visit even with the steep ticket prices.
Excursions, aside from those two, were pretty affordable. One of the benefits of Rio de Janeiro is that it has a ton of free things to do. Spending time at both Copacabana and Ipanema beach, visiting the Escadaria Selaron (the bright tiled stairs in Lapa) and watching the sunset at Arpoador are all free!
