Urca Hill is the shorter hill right before Sugar Loaf Mountain in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Urca Hill is 220 meters (726 feet) above sea level while Sugar Loaf is 396 meters (1,306 feet) high.
Although Urca Hill has approximately half of the height of Sugar Loaf, it actually permits the visitor to already have great views of Rio de Janeiro. In fact, the main site you see from Sugar Loaf that can not be seen from Urca Hill is Copacabana Beach. Apart from that, you have very similar views.
The vast majority of tourists get to Urca Hill by taking the cable car (gondola) up. From Urca Hill, they board another cable car that take them to Sugar Loaf. There is no direct cable car to Sugar Loaf — you always need to reach Urca Hill summit first. The only way to skip Urca Hill on the way up is by rock-climbing Sugar Loaf. (All rock-climbers take the cable car down to at least to Urca Hill — rappelling Sugar Loaf is unusual).
Another option to get to Urca Hill is by hiking up a trail in the forest for about 25 minutes. Then, you can take a cable car to Sugar Loaf peak.
The bottom line is that most visitors visit first Urca Hill, then Sugar Loaf — both by cable cars.
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