All products featured on Condé Nast Traveler are independently selected by our editors. However, when you buy something through our retail links, we may earn an affiliate commission.
“Do you hear that?” We halt to a stop on our e-bikes as our guide, Stefano listens intently to the sounds of Rio’s rainforest for one particular note. Listen, cycle, listen, cycle. His excitement is infectious and my husband and I are both listening harder and pedaling faster, just as deeply invested in the chase.
“It’s there, look!” We're squinting, scanning the thick, tropical canopy when we finally see it: a flash of orange, the bright bill of a toucan, owner of the distinct call (not quite unlike a croaking frog) that we’ve been tracking. Upon closer inspection, we spot two of them, and Stefano smiles at us, explaining that toucans generally travel in pairs.
My husband, Alex, and I traveled to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil to celebrate our honeymoon exactly one year after our wedding in Mexico City. When planning our itinerary, I was determined to squeeze the most out of our five days in the Marvelous City. Neither of us are generally lie-on-the-beach-with-a-cocktail types of travelers—relaxing for us usually involves a physical activity rooted in nature, a forced digital detox as both of our jobs require us to spend a lot of our time online.
We split our days in Rio between the verdant hills of Santa Teresa and Ipanema’s iconic stretch of sand. When searching Airbnb for nature-based activities in each place, I came across Stefano’s electric bike tours of the Tijuca National Park rainforest.
“My goal is to make you fall in love with the city I fell in love with. I want you to discover every beautiful corner of Rio in an experience totally immersed in nature,” he wrote in the description. His profile also touted that he was the first guide to bring e-bike tours to Rio, and that he had a five-star rating on Airbnb. I actually found myself tearing up as I scrolled through his reviews, one after the other fervidly detailing the experience as the highlight of their trip.
Stefano offers two versions of the tour: one that lasts five hours, and one that lasts three. The amount of ground covered depends on the group: how fast they pedal, how often they want to stop, and so on. We opted for the three-hour tour and effortlessly covered a whopping 19 miles—a feat I didn’t quite believe until Stefano showed us a 3D map that plotted our journey.
A major appeal of the e-bike tour is that it enables people not only to cover a lot of ground through the rainforest, but also to see extraordinary views similar to—and often better than—the views at the more popular and crowded vistas. The forest routes Stefano guided us through were blissfully empty, including the 2016 Olympic cycling route, filled only with the hum of birds and bugs, and the occasional croak of the toucans.
There is no place like Rio—that much is clear from any viewpoint. A city perched between a rainforest and a beach feels like something I made up in my dreams. There are many places to take in the city’s mind blowing vistas, like hiking to the iconic Christ the Redeemer statue that lords over the city, or by taking a cable car up to Sugarloaf Mountain. But those platforms can get quite crowded, which tends to sap that special feeling of breathing in and connecting to a new place, and to the people who live there.
It rained the first three days of our trip, so much so that Stefano kindly advised us to postpone our tour to a sunnier day. So when the rain finally cleared and we arrived at the meeting point—his home in Santa Teresa—we were bursting with energy. Stefano not only matched our excitement, but kicked it up a gear as he gave us a quick tutorial and before tour.
Our route weaved through hilly Santa Teresa as we made our way toward the Tijuca National Park rainforest. We stopped frequently to take in views of the city, while Stefano thoughtfully answered our questions about the city and gave us food recommendations (like Cultivar for the neighborhood’s best pao de queijo and açaí). As we made our way to the forest paths, we encountered monkeys with solemn stares, and passed by a python Stefano described as “quite lazy.”
As we rode around and stopped at lookouts, Stefano took photos and videos of us—on his camera, on our phones, and with my film camera. Alex and I generally shy away from photos together, but Stefano insisted, and I am so grateful he captured these moments on our honeymoon, looking sweaty and dorky in our helmets, but most of all—incredibly happy.
We were fortunate to have many incredible experiences on our trip, like the surf lesson at Macumba, unbelievable meals at Aprazível and Oteque, devouring bags of pao de quejo while sipping “stupid-cold” beer (as the Cariocas call it) by the beach. But when we tell people about our honeymoon, the thing we find ourselves raving about is the bike tour, our guide Stefano, and the pair of toucans.
