Sunday is always a little different. Also in Rio de Janeiro. As a general rule, it is quite common in Brazil to spend time with the family at home or hang out in a bar on Sunday afternoon. Since stores are closed on Sundays (except for shopping malls) and most streets are not frequented that much Sunday is not the best day to take a walking tour as described in this posting. The walking tour through the Grande Tijuca area should be taken any day during the week or on Saturdays, but not on a Sunday.

However, that does not mean that on Sunday the Grande Tijuca area is asleep. To the contrary: people meet a lot in specific places (mostly bars) to have fun. Bands are playing, beer is running. However, since it is not always recommended to walk through empty streets on a Sunday afternoon looking for a nice place to hang out, here are some indications what to do in Grande Tijuca on a Sunday afternoon. And once you chose your location: get a taxi (or similar car services) which is the best and also the fastest transportation on Sunday. Busses are going as well but very few and you better reach your location directly instead of straying through empty streets.

Vila Isabel

Vila Isabel has quite a few bars and many of them open on Sunday afternoon as well. On Boulevard 28 de Setembro a few bars are open on Sunday. They play music and people hang out there to have a drink.

The most crowded place in Vila Isabel on a Sunday afternoon, however, is at Rua Torres Homem 201: the Vilarejo bar and other 3-4 bars next to it are concentrating the Sunday party crowd in Vila Isabel. There are more people than chairs on that day so people will also hang out on the streets around the bars (which are mostly open-air anyways). That spot of Rua Torres Homem is the place to go in Vila Isabel on a Sunday afternoon. You will find drinks, food, music and lots of people sitting and standing or running around.

Tijuca

Being a large neighborhood, also Tijuca has a lot of bars that open up on Sundays. The following are recommendations of some nice locations that a lot of people go to. Besides those, there are of course many more places in Tijuca also on a Sunday afternoon.

Praça Varnhagen has a massive concentration of bars and people go there mostly every day of the week. On the weekends it is the biggest party area in all Grande Tijuca. Also on Sunday afternoon people hang out at Praça Varnhagen. Most bars are open-air and there is literally space for hundreds of people. There is music, food and a crowd of 20-40 years old.

Praça Saens Pena also has a few options on a Sunday afternoon, although they are mostly snack bars in the streets around and between the square and Shopping Tijuca. Every here and then, however, there are markets on Praça Saens Pena on Sunday afternoon with food, drinks, clothes, jewelry, stuff, live music and lots of people. To find out about them go to your favorite social network and search for “feira saens pena tijuca”.

And then you have a few bars in Rua Uruguai that are occupying the large pavements and attracting lots of people on Sunday afternoon as well. The highest concentration will be at Alquimia Choperia (Rua Uruguai 162) plus its neighboring bars. Here, you can sit outside in a large crowd of people, drink and enjoy the day.

Grajaú

On Sundays, Praça Edmundo Rego in Grajaú is closed for cars and so people hit the streets to walk around, kids are playing, very often there is a market on the square, bands are playing right on the square or in the bar next to it: Restaurante Vitorino. Don´t get confused by the name, this place is not really a restaurant but an open-air bar (plus food) and especially on Sundays a lot of people hang out inside and in front of it drinking, celebrating the bands playing and having a good time (age range mostly from 20-40).

And just around the corner, you have Buteco dus Deuses (Rua Grajaú 247), another small open-air bar where beer is also running on a Sunday afternoon to gently delight the crowd.