Copacabana Beach

First-time visitors to Rio de Janeiro should probably take an organised tour all day, to see Corcovado Mountain with its Christ The Redeemer statue, and Sugarloaf Mountain, Selarón Steps, Maracana Stadium, and the Sambadrome. Others might head straight to the four-kilometre-long Copacabana Beach, justifiably rated one of the world’s best, with absolutely clean, pale yellow sand and, from daybreak on, a magnet for the fit and healthy, sports people and sun worshippers.