Rio cruise terminal taxi to sugar loaf

[mustafabalcony]

Hi

Is it easy to get a taxi at Rio de Janeiro cruise terminal and does anyone have an idea of the taxi prices in Rio, please?

We want to go to the sugar loaf cable car and would like to go as early as possible, alone, rather than on an organized excursion.

Thanks for any responses.

Hazel

[sultan_sfo]

Lots and lots of taxis. But 2 kinds. There is a booth at the terminal where one can pre-negotiate a price and pay (even in US$) and they call the cab. Then one only has to tip. (We used this option for a trip from the Cruise Terminal to the Cathedral because we wanted to be sure we got back). Or one can walk outside the cruise terminal and there is a whole line of cabs. They can go by meter but we have (inside Rio itself) preferred to negotiate a fixed price rather than have it go by meter. We were never sure whether they would just keep going round and round and run up the meter (that many cabs even try to do in San Francisco, CA). The booth one costs about twice as much (as true metered cost) and may be quite expensive if you ask them to wait for you to bring you back. The negotiated cost for the metered one will be about 50% more than the "true" metered cost. Either option for 2 persons will be cheaper than the ship excursion if one wants to go only to Sugar Loaf.

 

As an example, we were just ambling along Copacabana, and came across a big sign giving all sorts of tour and right there was the cab stand. That cab (metered) driver could speak English and he asked us where we wanted to go. We said Sugar Loaf. He said he would take us for 15 Reals and drop us there. But he said it would 80 Reals if he waited 1-hour and brought us back. But he assured us there were plenty of cabs at Sugar Loaf. So we agreed to 15 Reals. So we spent about an hour and half at Sugar Loaf and as soon as we came out of that rail, we were approached about cabs. Before we entered the cab, we asked again how much (cab was metered) -- told us 20 Reals. This guy could not speak much English. We said OK. In each case we tipped a little extra.

 

Hi

Is it easy to get a taxi at Rio de Janeiro cruise terminal and does anyone have an idea of the taxi prices in Rio, please?

We want to go to the sugar loaf cable car and would like to go as early as possible, alone, rather than on an organized excursion.

Thanks for any responses.

Hazel

[owl61]

Hazel,

I have lived in Rio for the past 5 years. I don't have a car so I take taxis all the time. There is a raft of info on this subject in the Rio forum of www.tripadvisor.com.

Generally speaking, cabs in Rio are safe, easy to hail, and still relatively inexpensive. Believe it or not, I have found them to be honest compared to most big city cabbies (including Barcelona and Madrid). Of course, there is the occasional bad apple, but even if they do cheat it's usually for no more than a few bucks. I don't believe that the occasional bad apple justifies paying twice the meter fare for a prepaid "radio" cab at either the ship or airport terminal to go anywhere.

A regular metered cab to Sugarloaf from the pier should cost about R$ 15-20. No need to negotiate. You can try to confirm this by asking the driver before entering the cab. As you are from Spain the language should not present that big a hurdle. If he speaks zero English or cannot otherwise comprehend your words try " mas o menos cuanto volley o pasayo a Sugarloaf cone el reloach ? " ( phonetically "more or less what's the cost of a metered ride to Sugarloaf ? "). Fingers can do the rest. Tipping is not customary. Just round up the fare to the next highest R$. They can charge R$ 1 for each large suitcase. There are 2 meter price categories which are visible on the meter. Number 1 is for daytime. Number 2 is about 15% higher. It is used after 9pm and on Sundays, holidays and in the entire month of December.

You are absolutely right that you do not need to purchase an excursion to visit Sugarloaf. Or Corcovado for that matter. I'd even recommend sharing a cab up Corcovado if you are with a 2 or 3 friends. You can negotiate a taxi tour with one of the regulars parked near the train station ticket booth. It shoudl cost about R$ 125 for a 3 hour tour payable at the end. You can avoid lines at the cog train station ticket booth and it will cost you less as the train ticket is now about R$ 38. A new local ordinance prohibits cabs form driving all the way to the summit, but they will drop you off about a km from the summit and wait for you. You can either pay an absurd R$13 for a minibus ride the remaining kn or walk it in less than 15 minutes.