1. Je bent vrij

Fietsen geeft je een gevoel van vrijheid. Je voelt de wind in je haar, je ruikt de frisse geur van de oceaan, je hoort de vogels fluiten, en dat alles op je gemak. Het is nooit hetzelfde, maar wel altijd mooi. Je gaat van de populaire en toeristische zuidelijke zone en de stranden naar de achterstraten van onbekendere wijken als Botafogo en Flamengo, tot aan het oude historische centrum. En tussendoor kun je genieten van de geweldige uitzichten over de Baai van Guanabara. En het mooie is, je kan stoppen waar je maar wil, de uitzichten in je opnemen en de foto’s schieten om het allemaal later nog eens terug te kijken.

2. Je bent actief

Going around by bike is good for your health. If everybody would bike a bit more often, millions would be saved on health care and especially Brazilians would have less problems with overweight like they have nowadays. With every kilometer you bike, you will burn some necessary calories, because taking care of food and drinks (read: alcohol) is a difficult task during a vacation. And afterwards you won’t feel as bad if you drop down at the beach with an ice cold beer or a delicious caipirinha.

3. Je ervaart

Rio de Janeiro is a chaotic city and you can feel the adrenaline by biking through the thousands of people that are in a rush to go somewhere. You will get to places you wouldn’t go if it wasn’t for the bike and you will experience things you would have missed otherwise. And though it is quite adventurous, it is also quite safe since Rio de Janeiro has over 400 kilometer of bike lanes in the city. A perfect infrastructure for the perfect bike experience.

You smell, see, experience and feel. Some carioca (somebody that lives and was born in Rio de Janeiro) will yell at you because you are in his way, but on the other hand you will get to know how this same carioca moves and lives in his city.

4. Je voelt je beter

The feeling going on a new trip, without knowing where you’re going to end up, is one of the things that make biking in Rio de Janeiro so special. Within a few hours you will get to know Rio de Janeiro, while before you had no clue where to go, what to do and how the city looked like.

If you go around by foot, you see all the details, but you can only cover small distances. If go around by car or van, you won’t get that much details, but you can cover a lot of the city. Biking is the perfect combination. You get the details and you can cover lots of ground.  It gives a great feeling to figure out a city, especially right at the start of your trip. This will help you in the rest of the days in Cidade Maravilhosa.

5. Je bent milieubewust

Biking in Rio de Janeiro gets more popular every day, so that’s good news for the beautiful nature that the city inhabits. The city is stuck with cars and people in Rio de Janeiro on average spend more than two hours of their day in traffic jams. It should be on every visitors list to go around in a city in an environmental way. Biking, obviously, fits the description. Make the world a better place, and start biking! Brazilians are not really used yet to biking, the cycle culture in Rio doesn’t go much further than ride along the beaches. But slowly this is changing. And the more people get on the bike, the more people get the idea to start cycling.

6. Fietsen in Rio de Janeiro geeft plezier!

Dit is iets wat al wel duidelijk was na alle redenen die ik hiervoor heb genoemd. Maar fietsen in Rio de Janeiro is leuk! Er is geen betere manier om de stad te ontdekken dan op de fiets. Ondanks dat veel mensen het nog niet weten, is Rio enorm fietsvriendelijk. Je ontmoet nieuwe mensen, komt op nieuwe plekken en ziet de stad op een compleet andere manier, iets wat je zou hebben gemist als je niet op de fiets was gestapt.

Boek hier je fietstour in Rio de Janeiro!