Downtown Shopping (Self Guided), Rio de Janeiro

Bargains galore, colorful clothes and vibrant markets and stalls are just some of the delights awaiting those on a shopping tour of downtown Rio de Janeiro. Head for the Saara District of the city center, where you can purchase just about anything, including clothes and cosmetics. Browse the shops and market stalls lining the busy jumble of streets and explore the large indoor market at Uruguaiana.

The principle shopping arteries are Rua da Alfandega, Rua Uruguaina and Rua Buenos Aires. Here you can enjoy fantastic bargains for clothing and shoes offered by the many merchants and small stores. In Saara, you will come across lots of designer labels from some of the world's biggest fashion brands. However, most are fake. Among the most popular imitation items here are Brazilian football shirts. Brazilians are passionate about soccer, known as football in the country, but the shirts of their national team are prohibitively expensive for most people.

While you are in the neighborhood, shop for Rio de Janeiro beach essentials of bikinis, tightfitting swimming trunks and Haviana flip-flops. And if you are looking for a flamboyant carnival costume, Saara is the place to come. Downtown is also about luxury shopping, and more upscale goods and clothes are on sale in the stores around Rua Goncalves Dias.

Image Courtesy of Flickr and Luiz Fernando Reis.

How it works: A discovery walk features a route using which you can explore a popular city neighborhood on your own. This walk, along with other self-guided walks in over 1,500 cities, can be found on the app "GPSmyCity: Walks in 1K+ Cities" which can be downloaded from Apple App Store or Google Play Store to your mobile phone or tablet. The app's built-in GPS navigation functions allow following this walk route with ease. The app works both online and offline, so no data plan is needed when traveling abroad.

Download The GPSmyCity App

Create Your Own Self-Guided Walks in Rio de Janeiro

Guide Name: Downtown Shopping
Guide Location: Brazil » Rio de Janeiro
Guide Type: Self-guided Walking Tour (Discovery)
Travel Distance: 2.4 Km or 1.5 Miles
Author: naomi

Walking Tours in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Create Your Own Walk in Rio de Janeiro

Creating your own self-guided walk in Rio de Janeiro is easy and fun. Choose the city attractions that you want to see and a walk route map will be created just for you. You can even set your hotel as the start point of the walk.

Rio de Janeiro Beach Walk

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Tour Duration: 2 Hour(s)
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Rio de Janeiro Introduction Walking Tour

Rio de Janeiro is the capital city of the state of Rio de Janeiro. It was founded in 1565 by the Portuguese. It was the capital of the State of Brazil of the Portuguese Empire from 1763 until 1822.

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Tour Duration: 3 Hour(s)
Travel Distance: 4.0 Km or 2.5 Miles

Rio's Top Religious Sites

Due to the legacy of the Portuguese in language, religion, and law, Rio de Janeiro has had a rich and influential Catholic tradition. Until the mid-20th century almost all Brazilians were – at least nominally – Catholic, and today the country’s religious sites, both classic and modern, impress with their skill, creativity and devotion.

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Tour Duration: 2 Hour(s)
Travel Distance: 3.0 Km or 1.9 Miles

Useful Travel Guides for Planning Your Trip

16 Uniquely Brazilian Souvenirs to Bring Home from Rio de Janeiro

Other than the sun, passion and football, for which Brazil is renowned and which cannot be fitted into one's luggage, picking a memorable gift from Rio is a tough job. And this is not because of the lack of suitable things to choose from, but because of their abundance. Indeed, there're...