At Global Alliance, we take the “Worldwide” in our company name very seriously. We pride ourselves in offering premium limousine services to our clientele not only in our home base of Toronto but around the globe. Through our sophisticated network of trusted worldwide affiliates, Global Alliance can provide professional chauffeured services in hundreds of international cities. We will discuss many of the major worldwide destinations served via our affiliate network on this blog. Today, we visit the beautiful Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro.

Rio de Janeiro is Brazil’s second-largest city and metropolitan area, as well as the sixth-largest city and seventh-largest metro area in the Americas, with 12 million inhabitants in the larger metro region. Founded on Guanabara Bay on South America’s Atlantic coast by the Portuguese in 1565, Rio de Janeiro was a smaller colonial centre in the Iberian nation’s empire until the late 1600s, when it became a major port for exporting gold, sugar, and other raw products back to Portugal and around the world. Rio was home to Portugal’s exiled royal family and court during the Napoleonic era, making it the only European capital outside of Europe, and later became the capital of an independent Brazil (Brasilia, the country’s purpose-built modern centralized capital city, took over the title in 1960).

Rio de Janeiro spreads out across one of the most spectacular natural settings of any urban area anywhere in the world. Guanabara Bay is surrounded by coastal mountains and highlands, including the iconic Sugarloaf Mountain and Corcovado, whose summit is capped by the famous statue of Christ the Redeemer, voted among the New Seven Wonders of the World in an international poll at the turn of the millennium. Both of these emerald-sloped peaks overlook the Centro and the famed 4km stretch of Copacabana Beach, one of several popular balneario beaches in the city. The city is full of attractive parkland, including Tijuca Forest and Quinta da Boa Vista, in which the Imperial Palace still stands and houses the National Museum.

Rio is among the most culturally vibrant cities in the world, with a reputation as a year-long party. This is particularly the case during Carnaval, an annual festival of indulgent and colourful revelry in the lead-up to Lent. Rio’s Carnaval is renowned for its samba parades, featuring extensive drumming bands, costumed performers, and elaborate floats proceeding through purpose-built parade routes in downtown Rio. Another major entertainment event is Rock in Rio, a massive music festival which takes place every year alternately between Rio de Janeiro and Lisbon, Portugal, with occasional concerts in other cities; the next Rock in Rio to be held in Rio de Janeiro will be in 2017.

Rio de Janeiro is also a renowned sporting city. Brazil is famous for its flamboyant and skilled football culture, and many of its stars came up out of the city’s vast favelas and played for one of its seven football clubs, including its big four: Vasco de Gama, Botafogo, Fluminense, and Flamengo. The latter two clubs play their home matches at the Maracanã Stadium, one of the largest stadiums in the world when it was built and still one of the greatest stages in the world’s most popular sport, as host of two World Cup Finals in 1950 and 2014. Rio’s sports legacy will grow exponentially this year, as the city hosts the 2016 Summer Olympic Games, the first South American city to do so.

Please feel free to contact Global Alliance Worldwide Chauffeured Services for all of your transportation needs in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.