Accesses and facilities at Sugar Loaf (Rio de Janeiro) for visitors in a wheelchair or with walking difficulties
These are the obstacles you will find when visiting Sugar Loaf:
At the ticket office at street level
There are about 30 steps leading to the ticket office and the cable car boarding area. Those in a wheelchair can take two special elevators to avoid the steps. Someone from the staff will turn on the elevator and fit you and your wheelchair in. There are no wheelchairs available for renting at the ticket office.
At Urca Hill (the hill half way to Sugar Loaf)
There are no steps when you get off the cable car at Urca Hill. Turn left, and you will see the vistas a few steps farther. Come back to the point where you turned left, and turn right instead, and you can take a one-minute path through a little forest that ends up at the cable car boarding area (where you can take the second cable car). This is the shortest and easiest route available to get to the second cable car—ideal for the disabled and those in wheelchairs. Most tourists, though, as they disembark at Urca Hill, take a left, see the views, and walk along the safety bars around the overlook until they reach a food court. After the food court and about 30 steps down, you will find the cable car boarding area (to Sugar Loaf)—the same point you can reach with the shortcut through the little forest.
At Sugar Loaf
There are about ten steps down to the two main overlooks. Those in a wheelchair—and only those in a wheelchair—can take two special elevators to avoid the steps. A staff member will turn on the elevator and fit you and your wheelchair in.
To learn how to visit Sugar Loaf in Rio de Janeiro, get a copy of Sugar Loaf: the definitive guidebook to visiting the Rio de Janeiro’s most famous hill.