Grande Rio (Greater Rio) is a region of the state of Rio de Janeiro including its eponymous capital and 19 other surrounding cities. It borders on the Costa Verde region to the west, the Médio Paraíba and Serrana regions to the north, and the Lakes Region to the east.
Regions
Grande Rio is generally divided into three main sub-regions according to the origin of each one:
- Rio de Janeiro (the state capital), which is in turn divided into Central Zone, South Zone, North Zone and West Zone, and concentrates half of the population of the metropolis.
- Baixada Fluminense (Rio Lowlands), the peripheral area that was occupied mainly along the suburban railway lines, located north of the capital and south of the mountain range called Serra do Mar, and formed by the municipalities of Guapimirim, Magé, Duque de Caxias, São João de Meriti, Belford Roxo, Nilópolis, Mesquita, Nova Iguaçu, Queimados, Japeri, Paracambi, Seropédica and Itaguaí.
- Grande Niterói (Greater Niterói), the area of the metropolitan axis that has expanded across the Guanabara Bay, especially after the construction of the Rio-Niterói Bridge, constituted by the municipalities of Niterói, São Gonçalo, Itaboraí, Tanguá, Rio Bonito and Maricá.
Cities
Other destinations
- 🌍 Paquetá Island (an insular neighborhood of Rio de Janeiro in the Guanabara Bay; the ferries to Paquetá depart from Praça XV, in downtown)
- 🌍 Copacabana (an internationally famous neighborhood in the South Zone of the capital city)
- 🌍 Madureira (a major neighborhood of the North Zone of Rio de Janeiro)
- 🌍 Bangu (a major neighborhood of the West Zone of Rio de Janeiro)
- 🌍 Campo Grande (the most important neighborhood of the West Zone of Rio de Janeiro)
- 🌍 Barra da Tijuca (an upper-class, coastal neighborhood of the West Zone of Rio de Janeiro)
- 🌍 Santa Cruz (the westernmost neighborhood of the municipality of Rio de Janeiro)
Understand
"Grande Rio" (Greater Rio) is an informal way of referring to the aglomeração metropolitana do Rio de Janeiro (metropolitan agglomeration of Rio de Janeiro). It is the second most populous metropolitan area in Brazil, and is also among the 20 most populous metro areas in the world. The metropolitan agglomeration of Rio de Janeiro is composed of the municipalities that are linked to each other and to the core, are directly connected to the central region of the municipality of Rio de Janeiro by urban public transport lines, are reached by the urban expansion axes of the metropolis, and have their centers close enough to the capital's Central Zone, making daily commuting possible for people who live in these municipalities and work in the metropolitan nucleus. The municipalities of Duque de Caxias, São João de Meriti, Belford Roxo, Nilópolis, Mesquita, Nova Iguaçu, Queimados, Japeri, Paracambi, Seropédica, Itaguaí, Magé, Guapimirim, Niterói, São Gonçalo, Itaboraí, Maricá, Tanguá and Rio Bonito share such features and fit these criteria, and therefore, along with Rio de Janeiro, are the 20 municipalities that constitute the metropolis of Rio de Janeiro.
Get in
By plane
The two major airports are Galeão - Antônio Carlos Jobim International Airport (GIG IATA). (International and domestic flights) and Santos Dumont Airport (SDU IATA). (Only domestic flights).
By bus
The main long-distance bus station (served by buses coming from or going to cities outside the metropolitan area of Rio de Janeiro) is Rodoviária Novo Rio. (or simply "Rodoviária do Rio").
Get around
Since the Central Zone is the metropolitan core and, as such, polarizes the entire metro area of Rio de Janeiro, it is served by a large number of urban lines of buses, vans, trains, subways and ferries to the neighborhoods of the South, North and West zones of the municipality of Rio, as well as to the surrounding municipalities of Guapimirim, Magé, Duque de Caxias, São João de Meriti, Belford Roxo, Nilópolis, Mesquita, Nova Iguaçu, Queimados, Japeri, Paracambi, Seropédica, Itaguaí, Niterói, São Gonçalo, Itaboraí, Tanguá, Maricá and Rio Bonito. Therefore, the whole metropolitan agglomeration of Rio de Janeiro works in practice as a single city, with most neighborhoods of all its municipalities being connected to downtown by several means of public transport.
One must keep in mind that the metropolitan agglomeration of Rio de Janeiro (Grande Rio) is the most integrated metropolitan area in Brazil, due to the size of the urban public transport system in the region, the distance between the peripheral areas and the metropolitan core, the high level of urban expansion of the nucleus and the consequent conurbation within this area, among other factors. Therefore, if a visitor is staying in a given municipality in Grande Rio, he/she can easily visit places located in any other municipalities in this metropolitan area, especially if he/she is staying in the Central Zone of the capital, which is relatively close to any points in Grande Rio, and from where lines of urban public transport depart directly to all municipalities of this metropolitan agglomeration.