We had an amazing experience with Manu. It was a two-day tour (on non-consecutive days), and we saw…read morealmost everything Rio has to offer: Christ the Redeemer and Sugarloaf Mountain, Santa Teresa, the favelas, the Selarón Steps, the old town, Tijuca National Park, Ipanema and Leblon, and much more. Each tour lasted nearly nine hours, yet the time flew by. Manu arranged a private car and was fully at our disposal throughout the tours.

Manu is a an amazing guide!! We had a wonderful experience in Rio seeing sights on and off the…read morebeaten path. He is entertaining, knowledgeable and fun and knows where to get the best food!

This is one of the best food tours I have ever done and I do one in every city I travel to that has…read morethat option. You will not be hungry. The wide range if food and the Rio history go together well. Save your appetite. You start in a food market and end the day with a full course meal. All I can say is: awesome.

We did this tour the day we arrived in Rio for the Olympics in August! It was a true highlight of…read moreour trip and the organizers could not have been more helpful! They even offered to store our bags for us while we went on the tour since we were coming straight from the airport. It's a great way to get an introduction to Brazil, its food, the city of Rio, and the culture! If you are lucky you will also have some other great folks on your tour with you that you will meet up with again later on in your trip! Cannot recommend this enough! Worth every penny!!

I took two great tours with Be A Local when I was visiting Rio. I found the agency through Green…read moreToad Tours, which works with Be A Local to provide Rio sightseeing. Both of my tours were in January 2019. First I joined the Complete Rio City Tour, which lasted about 7 hours and included visits to: - Christ the Redeemer - Santa Teresa - Steps - Municipal Cathedral - Sugarloaf Mountain and Cable car Everything was included except water and snacks. Fernando was our guide, and he did a great job with an informative and humorous commentary. Aside from as few sexist remarks, it was very well done. Just please stop talking about women's "purity" Fernando, that's a sexist social construction. Two days later, I took the Favela Tour, which lasted about 5 hours. The tour visits the Rocinha Favela and includes: - Art gallery - Short "samba" drumming and kids dancing - Bakery - Artisan jewellery stand - Community Centre Tipping and purchases are not included. While it felt oddly voyeuristic to visit a favela, and was the closes to dark tourism I've ever been, I am glad I went. It was raining a bit but this wasn't a problem. If anything, it made the weather more bearable. I happened to have Fernando again and he was on the spot with a lot of his insightful political commentary. Only problem was that he only talked about men in the favelas. We had to ask about women's quality of life to get Fernando to include info about women. That's something the company should work into its script. Altogether these tours helped me get to know Rio. I'm glad I took them, and would recommend them. They were a fair value for the price and Fernando was quite a pleasant guide. Happy travels!

While in brasil, I found this great company for day trips…read more I did the citytour (5hrs) and favela trip. The citytour involved seeing the major highlights of rio in one day and the favela tour was a walk down the hill in one of the favela. What I liked: - small group (we were with 3 on citytrip and 5 on favela trip) - even though rio is not a safe city, I felt save at all time with our guide - the company does tours but also supports the local community - good price quality - focus on the young at heart (as tours involve some exercise in walking) - knowledgeable guides - pick up and drop off at hostel reception

Guilherme was so helpful and we did not even take his tour this time. Long story, I had been…read moresearching for private tour guides and this company caught my eye! Gui reached out via WhatsApp and was very generous with his recommendations and sharing insights for visiting Rio during a rainy few days. Perfect English, flexible with ideas/plans, and patient with my tourist questions. We will definitely reach out when we are in town and the sun is shining again. Thanks Giu!

My best friend and I were fortunate enough to encounter Gui & Rafa. If you're coming to Rio, you…read moremust have Gui as your tour guide!! They made our trip the best trip we've ever had. With a personally curated tour to fit our wants and needs, Gui was exceptional. 10/10 stars!

I went to Rocinha for the second time and decided to take a tour with Ailton. It is a great way to…read moreengage with locals, and get to know a bit about its history. I chose the Panoramico Tour but there are three types for you to choose from and pay online on the website. To get there you have a few options. You can take the subway, line 4 towards Jardim Oceanico and stop at the Sao Conrado/Rocinha station. Go on to exit A/Rocinha. Ailton met me there and the tour started right away. We had lunch at a restaurant in Rocinha as well that was very good. Simple good brazilian food :) definitely recommend taking the tours.

I go to Brazil often on business. It can sometimes be difficult to get around especially if your…read morePortuguese is terrible like mine. I finally found Rio Cultural Secrets in Rio to help guide clients through the city going to and from appointments for business and also to squeeze in some fun. Alan and his partner Fabio were fantastic. They were prompt, professional and really knew the city. We always felt safe, as they always appeared exactly when we needed them. In addition, as we went to our business meetings, they told us about the city, it's history and people. A special highlight was to visit favela Vidigal near Rio. It was a special honor to visit there and see the talent of the street artists, and meet the people little bars and snack shops. We went to Helena's bar and thrift store. She made us a nice drink and visited with us. It was a lovely place curated with found objects which she cleverly decorates and uses through her decor. Go there- so wonderful. We can't thank them enough and will always call Rio Cultural Secrets for every trip to Rio and look forward to seeing Alan and Fabio soon!

Bernard is an excellent and thoughtful guide, fluent in several languages, knowledgeable of…read morehistory, culture and all the lovely neighborhoods of Rio. We enjoyed a marvelous half day tour with him and when weather altered the course of our plan, he adapted beautifully and took us to places we loved to see. He was careful of our safety, had a nice new vehicle, fair price, was prompt and charming. I highly recommend Bernard for a custom tour of Rio. Our visit was 11/2/18.

My daughter and I took the Tijuca forest small group tour, it was one of the best tours we have…read moredone over the last 10 years of traveling. Our tour was 3 participants, the tour guide Luiza, and our driver (I believe his name was Rafael). Luiza was full of knowledge about the rainforest and Rio. Both were looking for wildlife for us to see. luckily we saw a sloth, toucans, bees, spider. I was the slow poke, and slowed our group down but they were all very patient. The views in the rainforest are amazing. Well worth the money, and you won't be disappointed with this tour, especially if you get Luiza and Rafael.

Is it possible to give this company more than 5 stars because they deserve it! We first read about…read morethem online on a Google search. We reached out to them and had the pleasure of exchanging emails with Anna who was more than helpful in answering our 1000 questions. They provided all the information we needed to be ready for our hike. We decided to go with the Tijuca Forest Adventure Full-Day Hike. When the day came, we met Tito who was our guide for the day. We couldn't have been any luckier! I would have not chosen another person to lead us on this hike. Tito did an amazing job through out the hike with encouraging us and being super supportive. We never felt unsafe because he made us feel completely comfortable and you could tell he loved doing this. The hike itself was not the easiest, but we did not give up and all the spots we stopped at were worth it. He took us on different trails so that we could see the most we could. Tito was also very knowledge and did a great job giving us a little history lesson on Brazil. The sites we stopped at were beautiful and you really get to experience the beauty of nature in the Tijuca rainforest. Tito also recommend some spots to check out while in Rio and they were spot on. I cannot wait to return and book another adventure with them! If you want a great guide who will take you on the best hike of your life, Jungle Me is the place for it.