The vans are the quick, unromantic way up Corcovado, and the only vehicles of any kind allowed on the road to the monument. They are run by Paineiras Corcovado, the park’s authorised operator, and they leave from the Copacabana seafront, from beside Largo do Machado metro station, and from the Paineiras Visitor Centre inside the park.
The ticket is a return with entry included. This page explains the boarding points, what the ticket does and does not give you, and how to tell the official vans from the offers that are not.
Christ the Redeemer van tickets
Christ the Redeemer Ticket with Van from Copacabana
Best for: Staying in Copacabana or Leme
- About 3 hours, there and back
- Non-refundable
What’s included and more details
What’s included
- The official park van from Praça do Lido, Copacabana, and back
- Entry to the monument
- A stop at the Paineiras Visitor Centre
- Confirmation
- Within 48 hours of booking
- Bring
- Passport or ID card
- Not included
- A guide, food and drink
- The partner ticket is for the Copacabana boarding point. Largo do Machado and Paineiras departures are sold by the van operator at those stops
- No guide and no food are included
- It cannot be refunded, so buy it once you have seen the forecast. The cancellable alternative is the train ticket
How the van trip to Christ the Redeemer works
Be at your boarding point 15 minutes early
Praça do Lido sits between Avenida Atlântica and Avenida Nossa Senhora de Copacabana, and between Rua Belfort Roxo and Rua Ronald de Carvalho, about 10 minutes on foot from Cardeal Arcoverde metro. The Largo do Machado stop is in front of the Igreja Matriz de Nossa Senhora da Glória on the square, at exit A of the metro station. Show the ticket on your phone, with photo ID.
Ride up through the park
The van climbs into Tijuca National Park and makes no stops along the way except the one at Paineiras. It is the same forest the train passes through, seen from the road.
Pause at the Paineiras Visitor Centre
The old Hotel Paineiras, 15 minutes below the summit, is now the park’s visitor centre, with a restaurant, snack bars, a shop and an exhibition on the forest. Passengers arriving by taxi join here.
Stay as long as you like
Your time at the top is your own, within opening hours. When you are ready, queue for a van down.
Return to where you started
The ticket takes you back to the boarding point you left from and nowhere else. If you boarded at Praça do Lido, that is where you get off.
Official vans, private vans and tour vans
This is where visitors get caught out, because three different things are sold as “a van to Christ the Redeemer”.
The official vans
Paineiras Corcovado’s vans are, in the operator’s own words, the only transport authorised to reach the monument by the national park road. They run between fixed boarding points and the summit, and they do not pick up anywhere else.
Private transfers and taxis
A hotel car, a taxi or an app car can take you as far as the Paineiras Visitor Centre and no further. You then buy an official van ticket there for the last stretch. It works, and it suits a family that wants door-to-door transport, but you are paying for two rides, and there is no parking for a driver to wait.
Tour vans
Guided tours collect you from your hotel in their own vehicle, drive to Paineiras, and move the group onto the park’s van, with entry handled by the guide. That is what you are buying on the tours that go up “by van”.
Read the inclusions closely, though. Some listings under a similar name are for a guide only, with transport and tickets left to you. The ones we have checked are on our tours page.
Insider tips
Use the van as your plan B
Train and van tickets are sold separately, and the vans have three boarding points to the railway’s one. When the train has nothing left for your morning, this is the first place to look.
Eat at Paineiras, not at the top
The visitor centre has a proper restaurant as well as snack bars, and every van stops there. Time lunch around it.
Coming by metro? Choose Largo do Machado
It is a couple of minutes from exit A to the van, against about ten at Copacabana, and the same square has the buses to the train station if you change your mind.
Accessibility on the official vans
GetYourGuide lists the van ticket as wheelchair accessible. The operator’s own pages say nothing about the vehicles either way, covering only the reduced fare for disabled visitors resident in Brazil, so ask before you book if the vehicle matters to you.
At the top, the conditions are the same for everyone. While the escalators are being replaced, the last stretch to the statue is about 80 stone steps, with stair-climbing equipment for wheelchair users that is not used in the rain. See the overview page for the detail.