Back in 2013, The New York Times named Rio de Janeiro as the #1 place to go!!! Brazil was the site for the 2014 World Cup and Rio de Janeiro was picked for the 2016 summer games, so the city was set to host two of the World’s most popular sporting events.
Here is a caption from the NY Times article: ” Fifty-three years after Brazil’s federal government decamped to BrasÃlia, and decades after São Paulo took over as the country’s business capital, Rio is staging a comeback. With the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Summer Olympics (plus an oil boom) providing the impetus, the tropical city perhaps most famous for its Carnival hedonism is on its way to becoming a more sophisticated cultural hub. In January, the Cidade das Artes, or City of the Arts, was inaugurated as the new home of the Brazilian Symphony Orchestra.
On March 23, Casa Daros — an outpost of the Zurich-based Daros Latinamerica Collection  — will open in a renovated 19th-century building with an exhibition of Colombian artists. March will also mark the opening of the Rio Museum of Art in Praça Mauá, a once decrepit port area now being revived. (The Santiago Calatrava-designed Museum of Tomorrow, also in the port area, is scheduled to follow in 2014.)
Shopping, a Rio obsession, got a boost in December when the luxe VillageMall opened; it will soon house the city’s first Gucci outlet and South America’s first Apple Store. Special events also dot the coming year’s calendar, including the Catholic Church’s World Youth Day in July, the biennial Rio Book Fair starting in late August, and September’s Rock in Rio. And, of course, there’s soccer: the finals of the Confederations Cup, considered a dress rehearsal for the World Cup, will be held in a completely overhauled Maracanã Stadium on June 30. —  Seth Kugel”
To check out the complete article and list of 46 places to travel to in 2013, go here: http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2013/01/10/travel/2013-places-to-go.html.
If you are looking to travel to Rio de Janeiro and have the time of your life, we recommend checking out our Rio de Janeiro Travel Packages.