Is Rio de Janeiro safe?

The crime that reaches visitors in Rio is fast and opportunistic. Thieves on bicycles lift phones out of hands along Avenida Atlântica in Copacabana and on the Aterro do Flamengo cycle path, and the whole thing takes about 2 seconds. On packed summer Sundays, groups sometimes sweep the hot sand between Arpoador and Posto 8 in what Cariocas call an arrastão. Take R$100 to the beach, roughly US$20 at this week's rate of 5.0165 reais to the dollar, and leave the passport in the hostel locker. If someone demands your phone in Copacabana, hand it over, because robbers in Rio are often armed. We think the shootouts that fill headlines are a poor guide for a visitor, because most of them happen in Zona Norte communities such as Complexo do Alemão and Maré, far from the Zona Sul beaches. Navigation is the one exception: Waze and Google Maps have routed drivers into favelas, so check the route with your Uber driver before you leave Galeão airport.

After dark, the map of Rio changes street by street. Ipanema and Leblon stay busy until about 11pm along Rua Visconde de Pirajá and Rua Dias Ferreira, with the smell of grilled picanha drifting off the boteco pavements, and our editors rate those two streets the easiest night walk in the city. Copacabana is a harder call: keep to the building side of Avenida Atlântica and stay off the dark sand, where the surf noise covers footsteps. Centro empties after 7pm on weekdays and feels deserted on Sundays, so see Valongo Wharf and the Rio de Janeiro Cathedral before 4pm. Lapa on a Friday is loud with samba drums under the Arcos, and it is also where pickpockets and the spiked drink known as Boa noite, Cinderela tend to turn up. Skip the walk down from Santa Teresa at night. Order a car from the bar door, which might cost R$30 to R$40 to Ipanema.

MetrôRio is the safest way to cross town alone by day. Lines 1 and 4 link Centro, Copacabana, Ipanema and Barra da Tijuca, the carriages are air-conditioned to a chill that stings after the 80% humidity outside, and a pink-marked women-only car runs at weekday rush hours, roughly 6am to 9am and 5pm to 8pm. For a match at Maracanã Stadium, ride Line 2 in with the crowd and leave with it. We'd skip the hike up to Christ the Redeemer from Parque Lage if you're going alone: muggings have been reported for years on that trail through Tijuca National Park, and the Trem do Corcovado from Cosme Velho makes the same climb in about 20 minutes. Yesterday afternoon read 26.2°C with a feels-like of 30.7°C, so carry a litre of water on any Tijuca path.

Solo travel in Rio gets safer once you have company, and the city makes company easy to find. A small-group Viator tour of 8 to 12 people is, in our view, the right way to see Santa Teresa or the Santa Marta favela, and many are priced per person, so you'll usually pay no single supplement. Dinner needs no table for two: kilo restaurants across Ipanema weigh your plate at the till, and the counter at Bar Urca sells ice-cold chope and salty bolinhos de bacalhau to eat on the sea wall facing Guanabara Bay. Hostels with private rooms cluster around Rua Barão da Torre in Ipanema and in Botafogo, and their rooftop caipirinha nights might be the quickest route to a dinner group. We would not fly to Rio without a policy that covers theft and medical evacuation, and World Nomads sells one to solo travelers. Dial 190 for the Polícia Militar, 192 for a SAMU ambulance and 193 for the fire service. For a theft report in English, go to DEAT, the tourist police station on Avenida Afrânio de Melo Franco in Leblon.