PUC-Rio
Brazil's top-ranked private university sits on a former coffee farm at the very edge of Tijuca National Forest.
Coming soon on iOS — be first to walk Rio de Janeiro offline.
The Gávea campus occupies what was once a working coffee estate — the grounds slope right up against Tijuca National Forest, with the Botanical Gardens and Leblon beach both reachable on foot. Founded by Jesuits in 1941, it now draws exchange students from Harvard, Berkeley, and Brown, giving it an unusually international feel for a campus walk-through.
What to look for
- A creek with three bridges crossing it, threading through the campus
- The forested edge of Tijuca National Forest visible from the grounds
- The former coffee-farm terrain underlying the campus layout
Several city bus lines stop here; the Botanical Gardens and Leblon beach are within walking distance, making it easy to pair with both.
PUC-Rio is one of 29 sights worth the detour in Rio de Janeiro, all bundled offline in Voyage GO — download the Rio de Janeiro pack and it sits on your map with no signal, filling your travel passport the moment you walk past.
More to see in Rio de Janeiro
- Christ the RedeemerArms stretched 28 metres wide at the summit of a 700-metre mountain, face turned east to meet the sunrise every morning.
- Maracanã StadiumOn 16 July 1950, 210,850 people packed this bowl to watch Uruguay beat Brazil 2–1 — the largest crowd ever recorded at a football match, and that record still stands.
- Museu NacionalOne fire in 2018 erased 200 years of collecting — 20 million objects, Brazil's oldest scientific institution, mostly gone overnight.
- Estádio Nilton Santos (Engenhão)The stadium that blew six times its construction budget and then hosted an Olympics.
- Arquivo Nacional (Brazilian National Archives)Brazil's paper memory since 1838 — founded as the Imperial Public Archives before the republic even existed.
- Rio–Niterói BridgeEight kilometres of concrete over open water, built so a bay full of ships and two city skylines could coexist.