Grande Tijuca, the integration of several neighborhoods like Tijuca, Vila Isabel, Grajaú and others (read here my posting about Grande Tijuca) is a perfect area to spend a day walking through different neighborhoods of Zona Norte (the northern part of Rio de Janeiro), visiting local places, historical architecture, having lunch, açaí, hanging out in cafés or spending the whole night in one of the countless bars of the region. There are also a few spots with a number of street bars that are incredibly crowded especially on the weekends, including Sunday afternoon.

What follows now is a suggested walking tour that brings you to some of the most interesting places in the Grande Tijuca area. It includes five of the seven bairros of Grande Tijuca being Maracanã, Vila Isabel, Grajaú, Andaraí, and Tijuca. The remaining two (Praça da Bandeira and Alto de Boa Vista) are not included since the first one is not too special while the second one is too high in the mountains to be included into the walking tour. Start and end point of the walking tour is in front of two different metro stations (Maracanã and Saens Pena). You can of course also take taxis at any moment or use your favorite transportation app. You will see taxi spots every few hundred meters on this tour and besides that, they are always passing by as well.

Arriving at the starting point: Maracanã

This walking tour starts right at the Maracanã soccer stadium. The best public transportation to get here is the metro. Busses are available as well if you prefer (but they take much longer due to traffic). Wherever you are hosted, look up the closest metro station and make your way Maracanã were you get off. Once you left the Maracanã metro station you will see the stadium right in front of you. And the Mangueira comunidade (low-income residential area) right behind the metro station. Once you reached the big ramp at the exit of the metro station you can go straight towards the stadium or take another 2 minutes and walk to the backside exit of the station (to do so turn left on the ramp and walk through the station again just until to see Mangueira. It is not recommended to go down to Mangueira if you do not have someone showing you around (friends, local guides etc). But it is recommended just to take a look onto Mangueira from the metro station. Mangueira is a large and famous low-income residential area (also known as comunidade or favela) where the equally famous Mangueira samba school is located. One of its founders who has also lived a large part of his life in Mangueira is Cartola (Angenor de Oliveira) one of Brazil´s best-known samba singers and songwriters.

On the ramp, at the main entrance/exit of the metro station, you will see the State University UERJ on your right and the Maracanã stadium on the left. The first spot to walk to from is the stadium and then the tour continues just behind the university.

When you walk down the ramp to the Marcanã stadium feel free to take a walk around the whole complex. You will see quite a few people walking or doing exercises here. The Maracanã area became a huge open-air gym after the FIFA World Cup renovations. The official entrance to the stadium is on the opposite side of the building. The touristic visiting entrance is on the left side (looking from your perspective coming down the ramp).

Once you finished your time at Maracanã stadium head on to the backside of the university where Vila Isabel is starting.

Vila Isabel

Vila Isabel, this lovely traditional carioca neighborhood has a lot of commerce and food for you to enjoy. Mostly on its main avenue, Boulevard 28 de Setembro. In the very beginning of that street, you will see the statue of Noel Rosa sitting on a table having a drink. Noel Rosa (as mentioned in this article) is one of the famous samba artists from Vila Isabel.

Walk down Boulevard 28 on the right side of the street (because that is where you will have a few interesting places further down the street). The first few hundred meters of Boulevard 28 have little commerce and some hospitals, some office buildings and a handful of stores. But after 5 minutes once you passed Nossa Senhora de Lourdes church you will see more and more stores and food places. During the week, this is a crowded avenue and you will enjoy that. Just keep on walking down Boulevard 28 until Praça Barão de Drumond (locally known by its former name Praça Sete). On your way to that round square, you will pass a great açaí place on the corner of Boulevard 28/Rua Souza Franco. There are also a few nice restaurants where you can have food or go the traditional Empório Lamego bakery to have a snack (B28/Rua Silva Pinto).

Just a few meters after the bakery and a few meters before Praça Sete you have the Unidos de Vila Isabel samba school plus a small fanstore right at the entrance. Depending on the time of the year the samba school offers a number of events at night. And especially in January and February, there are live rehearsals on Boulevard 28 once a week at night.

If on your way down Boulevard 28 you become curious how the square and parallel streets to B28 are like, just take a look. This whole area is easy going for walking around. Also passing in front of Morro dos Macacos, the local favela in the backside of the samba school (Rua Torres Homem) is just a normal thing people do every day (but again: do not enter low-income areas on the hills without a local guide). There might be days when tension is high at Morro dos Macacos. In that case, you will see lots of police in front of it which means you should avoid that street and go back to the main avenue (Boulevard 28).

At Praça Sete turn left (no matter which street) and go down for two hundred meters until you reach Vila Isabel’s shopping mall, today known as Shopping Boulevard (in the past: Shopping Iguatemi). If you like to, take a walk through the shopping mall. It is in fact just a shopping mall but is has a bathroom and very good air-conditioning. Both could be interesting arguments on a walking tour, especially on a hot carioca summer day.

The tour then continues, passing the shopping mall, going down Rua Barão de São Francisco and then turn right into Rua Maxwell. Now you have reached Andaraí.

Andaraí

Andaraí is a small bairro that you will basically cross for a few hundred meters on this walking tour until you reach beautiful Grajaú. Andaraí is mostly residential and has no special spot you need to visit. However, there is a very nice açaí place I will refer to in a minute.

First, go down Rua Maxwell into the direction of Grajaú and when it becomes Rua Barão de Mesquita you just keep on walking. The first street on the left (Rua Ferreira Pontes) is where you find Vendinha Mineira, on the left side. A small cute place where people are selling natural açaí, fresh tapiócas, and more right through the window of their house. The place opens only Monday-Friday. If the window is closed, just ring the bell. You can also find the opening hours on Facebook.

Going further down Barão de Mesquita you will reach Largo do Verdun, the commercial heart of Grajaú.

Grajaú

Largo do Verdun is, although very small, the principal commercial center of Grajaú. On the left side, you will see the very well known traditional Padaria Verdun. Traditional because of its age. Just that. It has a small restaurant as well. If you really want to grab some food, however, I would recommend restaurant Família Canedo instead, just a hundred meters before Largo do Verdun.

After Largo do Verdun head on and make your way to Praça Edmundo Rego taking any street going there. As you can see on the map that part of Grajaú which is a very calm and beautiful residential area is set up as a well-planned region. At Praça Edmundo Rego you can sit down, relax, have a cake at Padaria Caprichosa or a drink in a bar.

To explore the area take Avenida Engenheiro Richard or Avenida Júlio Furtado (both cross Edmundo Rego square) or any other of the smaller parallel and crossing streets. The whole area is of a residential style and the architecture of many houses is quite impressive.

At the end of Av Engenheiro Richard, you can go up for 10 minutes to get to the Grajaú State Park. A very small green area from where you can see all over the place.

After that, go and head for Tijuca, your final stage on this walking tour.

Tijuca

In Grajaú, take Rua Uberaba until Andaraí Federal Hospital. Take any of the streets on your left to Rua Barão de Mesquita and go down until you get to Rua Uruguai. There, you turn right into Rua Uruguai and simply walk down this main street until Rua Conde de Bonfim.

You will realize how urbanization is different here since you are in Tijuca now, a large upper-middle-class area. Rua Conde de Bonfim is Tijuca´s main avenue and you walk it down until you reach Praça Saens Pena. The street (Conde de Bonfim) is quite big and usually crowded, especially the closer you get to Saens Pena.

On Saens Pena you can have an açaí at Sabór do Árabe (or any other place around), sit in a café, have food in a restaurant and more. There are quite a few places around the square. Also, you can go to Shopping Tijuca to cool down (air-condition) or use the bathrooms.

This is where the walking tour ends. You can now take the metro at Saens Pena and go back to wherever you are staying. After this walking tour you will sleep well I suppose!

Do you want to continue walking? Then go further down Avenida Heitor Beltrão or Rua Haddock Lobo until metro station São Francisco Xavier or Afonso Pena.

Alternatively, go to Praça Varnhagen (behind Shopping Tijuca) where you find more than 10 bars one next to the other (many of them open-air) and where lots of people will be drinking already once you arrived.