Arriving to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Check out:
Map of Rio de Janeiro
Map of Multimodal Transportation in Rio de Janeiro Roads, ports, airports. Notice that some links are clickeable.
Conditions of federal roads in Amazonas. Up to date info. Click on the name of the road to read details about it.
The BR-116, or Rodovia Presidente Dutra, is the most important Brazilian highway, as it connects the two most important Brazilian cities, Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo. Commercial exploration of this road was chartered to a private company called Nova Dutra; this means that via Dutra is expected to be in good conditions, with good signalization and services (emegency phones, ambulances) all along; expect to pay more tolls, though. Visit the Nova Dutra web site for information such as maps, driving conditions, tolls, tourist attractions and more.
Other important road is BR-101, which goes all along the Brazilian eastern coast. This road is an option to go to the city of São Paulo, via the coastal cities of Rio (Angra dos Reis, Parati) and São Paulo (Ubatuba, Santos); the road is known as Rio-Santos. To the north, the road goes on to Vitória, Bahia and as far as Natal.

Buses: the main bus station in the city of Rio de Janeiro is
Rodoviária Novo Rio
Address: Av. Francisco Bicalho, 1 - Santo Cristo
Tel.: (21) 2291.5151
There are buses for most States in Brazil and a few South American countries; visit the section on Transportation for more details. Some important bus operators:
Viação 1001 from the city of Rio to São Paulo and many other cities in the State of Rio
Útil and Viação Cometa from the city of Rio to Belo Horizonte and many other cities in the States of Rio and Minas Gerais
Itapemirim from Rio to São Paulo, Vitória, Salvador, Curitiba and several other capitals
Águia Branca from Rio to Vitória, Salvador
São Geraldo from Rio to Recife and other cities in the Northeast
Nossa Senhora da Penha from Rio to Curitiba, Recife and other cities in the South and Northeast

Most important airports in Rio de Janeiro:
In the city of Rio: International Airport Galeao Antonio Carlos Jobim, formerly Airport of Galeão. Flights to several countries and all Brazilian States; the main gateway into Brazil. About 20 km away from Copacabana; there are many taxis, but also shuttle services to the main spots in Rio, including the other airport, Santos Dumont.
In the city of Rio: Aeroporto Santos Dumont As of December 2004, after a fire destroyed a good part of the instalations, this airport only operates flights to and from the city of São Paulo. More central than Tom Jobim, this airport is a few kilometers away from Copacabana.
There are also smallers airports in Campos and Macaé; the airport of Macaé is used mostly by helicopters who transport workers to the off-shore platforms.

Ports: there are four major ports in Rio, in Niterói, Sepetiba, Rio and Angra dos Reis; visit Portos do Rio for more details.
Ports are used mostly for cargoes; few passenger arrive in Rio by ships; many of these come in large vessels for the New Year´s Eve celebration in Copacabana.