What should I pack for Rio de Janeiro?

The single most important packing decision for Rio de Janeiro has nothing to do with weather. Leave the expensive watch and noise-cancelling headphones you'd wear walking through Leblon. Copacabana and Ipanema are safer than their 1990s reputation, but visible wealth draws attention in neighborhoods where everyone walks in swimwear and R$30 Havaianas. Carry a slim cross-body bag with a zipper, not a backpack you can't monitor on Avenida Atlântica. Your phone goes in a R$15 waterproof pouch around your neck at Posto 9. Arrastões (group snatch-and-runs) still happen on the Copacabana stretch near Leme, and the real loss isn't the phone. It's the 200 photos from Sugarloaf you hadn't backed up.

Rio de Janeiro sits at 22°S, and the UV index hits 11+ even in winter. Pack 2 bottles of SPF 50 sunscreen from home. Brazilian pharmacies charge R$80-120 for what costs $12 at a US drugstore. Right now, late June, daytime temperatures hover around 17-25°C. That surprises people expecting permanent tropical heat. You'll want a light jacket for evenings in Lapa or up in Santa Teresa, where the breeze off the Tijuca hills drops things another 3-4°C after sunset. The wet heat arrives in December and stays through March, when days reach 35-40°C with humidity above 80%. Afternoon thunderstorms dump warm rain for 30 to 90 minutes almost daily that season. A packable rain jacket under 200g earns its suitcase space year-round.

Shoe choice matters more in Rio de Janeiro than most visitors expect. Santa Teresa's ladeiras are rough cobblestone that will twist an ankle in ballet flats. The Escadaria Selarón's 215 tiled steps between Lapa and Santa Teresa get slippery from foot traffic and morning condensation. Tijuca National Park, established in 1961, has exposed-root trails on the Pico da Tijuca path that need real tread. One pair of broken-in walking shoes with grip handles all of it. Flip-flops are for Ipanema, period. That said, the sand at Praia de Ipanema gets hot enough by 11 a.m. to sting bare feet on the 40-meter walk to the waterline. Havaianas at R$25-40 from any corner shop fix that.

Brazil uses Type N plugs with 3 round pins, a design found in no other country. Your US flat two-prong will not fit. Rio de Janeiro runs on 127V, close enough to North American 110V that laptop chargers and hair dryers work fine through an adapter. If you're continuing to São Paulo, note that some hotels there run 220V. Buy the adapter before you fly. Galeão Airport (GIG) shops charge R$50-60 for what Amazon sells at $8. Skip the beach towel from home. Between Posto 4 and Posto 12 along Ipanema, vendors sell cangas (thin cotton sarongs that serve as towel, blanket, and seat cover) for R$15-25. Mosquito repellent is another local buy. Any Drogasil pharmacy stocks OFF! with DEET for R$15-20, roughly half the US price.