Sugarloaf Mountain
Two cable cars in succession up to three hundred and ninety-six metres, above the mouth of the bay.
Duration
2 hrs 30 min – 4 hrs
Difficulty
●●○○○
Best time
Two hours before sunset
Open
Every day
Entry price
102 BRL
Sugarloaf is a granite and quartz monolith of three hundred and ninety-six metres, at the mouth of Guanabara bay. Its name is said to come from the shape of the conical moulds refined sugar was cast in during colonial times.
The cable car has run since 1912 and goes in two stages: first Morro da Urca, at two hundred and twenty metres, then the summit. The first stop is the better one for sunset, because you get both the city lighting up and Corcovado opposite.
Getting there
Lower station at Praia Vermelha, in the Urca district. Bus from Copacabana, fifteen minutes, or a taxi.
What the price covers
general ticket: both cable car sections, Urca and Sugarloaf, and the whole park. 89 R$ for residents of Rio state.
What to bring
- Walking shoes
- Headlamp
Rules on site
The sunset queue forms two hours ahead and the last cable car down is earlier than you would think: check the time on the way up. A free trail climbs to the first hill, but it is not one to do after dark.
Checked on 29 August 2026 at Parque Bondinho Pão de Açúcar — tickets
Other places in Rio de Janeiro
- Christ the RedeemerThirty-eight metres of concrete with its arms open, seven hundred metres above the bay.
- Copacabana and IpanemaFour kilometres of sand and the most copied pavement mosaic in the world.
- Selarón StepsTwo hundred and fifteen steps covered in two thousand tiles from sixty countries.
- Botanical GardenAn avenue of thirty-metre imperial palms, and marmosets in the branches.