A word of caution: Double-check the location of places you are visiting - it could have a bearing on your personal security.

Taxis

There are yellow taxis everywhere, which you can hail at any point on the road. The drivers are quite erratic and constantly swerve from lane to lane, having no time for their indicators and blatantly disregarding red lights, so it is quite an entertaining experience getting from one place to another. Typical fares tend to be around 10-25 Reals, obviously depending on the length of your journey. Cabs from the airport to Copacabana/Ipanema are about 35-40 Reals and from the Rodavaria (the main bus station, to the north of Rio) to Copacabana/Ipanema about 20 to 25 Reals.

Traffic Lights

Be careful when crossing junctions when walking - you could find yourself in a near-miss situation with a taxi or other vehicle - they don't seem to give pedestrians the right of way, often skidding round people in the road.

Buses

While there are loads of taxis on the road, there are even more buses. Hundreds of them seem to be flying past all the time wildly competing for space with the taxis and any other vehicles unfortunate enough to be caught in between.

The buses are clearly marked on the front where they are going to and are quite a bit cheaper than cabs.They appear to stop anywhere if you hail clearly enough. It should be about 1.8 Reals for one journey (no matter how far it ends up being). You don't pay the driver, but instead a person just behind the driver sitting at a little desk operating a turnstile to let you through into the seated area of the bus.

Again, a ride is quite an experience as the buses hurtle and rattle along, with the driver appearing to be trying to make the windows fall out and doors fall off with the bounces in the road is all good fun.

The Metro has two lines with the main one running from Copacabana up through Botafogo and Flemengo and into the central area and then on towards the north end of the city. To go in one direction was about 2 Reals and you can buy a combined Metro and bus ticket or a multi journey ticket.