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The Real Gabinete is a public library—but not the kind you find every day. This neo-Gothic pile, erected by Rio’s dynamic 19th-century Portuguese community, holds 350,000 valuable volumes, impressively shelved in immense floor-to-ceiling bookcases. The rich, evocative interior calls up faraway times and places; the reading room’s iron chandelier and multicolored clerestory enchant visitors who are welcome to sit down and read as well. Only when you’re back on Rio’s bustling downtown streets will you realize just what an oasis the Gabinete is.

Imagine an entire jungle, summarized in a park. That’s the essence of the city’s incredible botanical garden, a 345-acre marvel (136 acres have been gardened and manicured to a fault) where visitors brush up against 10,000 plants of 1,500 separate species. Since 1908, it has served Rio as a sort of tropical guardian where the city’s greatest treasure—its nature—is gathered, studied, and even reproduced. It’s a must-do, rain or shine, and at certain seasons, sections like the orchidarium or the Queen Victoria water-lily pond really come into their own. Near the entrance, a stately alley of imperial palms has become the garden’s emblematic signature.

The sight of the little yellow streetcar rumbling across the top of the Lapa aqueduct’s arches, making its way uphill to the neighborhood known as Santa Teresa, is a city classic. An accident had it shut down for five years, and the new bondinho may lack some of its former authenticity (for one thing, there used to be more locals aboard); yet the tropicalized Lisbon flavor of the neighborhood’s streets is still in place. Visitors can access points of interest such as the Parque das Ruínas aboard the trolley, then wander the district’s streets on foot till they reach the famed Selarón stairs that go back down to Lapa.

Chef Pedro de Artagão went from fresh-faced promoter to celebrity chef at Irajá, where instead of trying to take things more haute, he gathered traditional—maybe even disdained—Brazilian ingredients and transformed them into something spectacular. The restaurant’s mansion setting requires guests to squeeze past the kitchen to the dining room, on a high-ceilinged loggia, framed by a vertical garden. Locals marvel at what Artagão does with once-lowly cassava, now stylishly presented as high-toned aipim (whole fried), farofa (fried meal), mash, or tapioca. Regulars and out-of-towners alike enjoy sampling ingredients from the Amazon, such as tucupi (manioc juice), jambu (a Brazilian guava), and tacacá (a spicy seafood, pepper, and jambu stew).

A mixed-use space for art, education, and history—inside a restored early-20th-century palace—the Museu de Arte do Rio (MAR) is a landmark in the city’s harbor zone. Walk from the top floor down, fifth to first, following an exhibition itinerary that touches on different elements that have left their mark on Rio’s rich history. At the end of the visit, go back upstairs for some refreshment at the excellent terrace restaurant that offers boffo views of Guanabara Bay. On the plaza out front, the Museu do Amanhã (Museum of Tomorrow), a science museum housed in a stunning building designed by architect Santiago Calatrava, can provide a visit that nicely pairs with your MAR expedition.

Rio lacks São Paulo’s strong Italian traditions. Perhaps that’s why some of Rio’s best pizza in fact comes from there—like Pizzaria Bráz, if you can judge by critics and mad-crazy crowds that pack into this spot on the Jardim Botânico district’s liveliest street. The pizzas start as a thin, wood-smoked dough and then are topped with mozzarella and a sauce made from a careful selection of tomatoes, and sometimes involve elaborate toppings that add up to capreses, the classic Braz, or even more daring recipes like those with wild-game cold cuts. Appetizers, too, keep ’em coming back (pão de linguiça, a divine sausage bread, for example); and you’re served a capital chopp at your table or even as you wait in line at the door.

Located in Santa Teresa, Aprazível is foodie heaven in a welcoming atmosphere. The name says it all—aprazível is Portuguese for pleasant or pleasurable—a meaning that becomes clear as soon as you take in its intensely orange, intensely Rio sunset views. The kitchen calls the food roots cuisine: moqueca (fish stew), hearts of palm, Amazon fishes, coconut rice, plus excellent steaks and chops. Naturally there are typically Rio desserts, as well as tropical drinks and artisanal beers. The Brazilians love it, and out-of-towners do too; if you add it all up, you’ve got the quintessential Carioca experience.

Here you’ll find all manner of steaks and chops, sides and beverages, but if you’re looking for the ultimate Brazilian cut, ask for a picanha ao braseiro, a two-person portion, seared on both sides in its own juices (let them know if you need it more well-done). It comes with fried potatoes (best served à portuguesa, i.e., round and crunchy), broccoli-rice salad and farofa (manioc meal) plus bananas and a (you guessed it) fried egg. It’s the kind of celebration that calls for free-flowing beer. Even when you’re satiated, leave room for dessert: fried plantain and sweet-cream ice. Look around to see the line is as long as when you arrived—now it all makes sense.

These ruins, rediscovered in 2011, reveal a fundamental part of Rio and Brazil history (and indeed that of humankind itself). On the unearthed stones, slavery left its mark; this site was South America’s largest slave port at which, between 1811 and 1831, it’s estimated that between a half-million to a million captured Africans were unloaded from ships and sold as slaves. Buried in 1843 to make way for a different wharf, this blot on history was hidden (at least for a time) but came to light once more as the neighborhood was being fixed up for the Olympics. It was named a World Heritage Site in 2017 and merits a visit, if only to recognize and atone for the tragedy it represents.

Rio’s Rubaiyat retains the essence of its São Paulo and Spanish predecessors, with its signature line of luxury steaks (all from the owners’ hacienda) with service to match and, in this case, surroundings worthy of a commemorative photo. The restaurant is part of the Jockey Club, from whose outdoor spaces you take in the horse races from right beside the turf, as if in a luxury box. You can also spot Cristo Redentor, high atop Corcovado, with just a slight turn to the left, following the curve of the racetrack.

One can’t help noticing Brazil’s stark social contrasts, especially visible in Rio thanks to rich neighborhoods that often sit cheek by jowl next to some of its poorest, the city’s famous favelas. High up in the favela called Tavares Bastos, visitors can take in an evening that includes some of the city’s best jazz, yet in a setting like few others: a boîte called The Maze. The owner, a British artist and longtime Rio resident, first decided to mount a First Fridays show in 2005, and those monthly events have become a citywide musical tradition. Those who journey up—aboard a minibus or in a taxi—will get breathtaking vistas to go with the great entertainment.

Since 2014 the last word in Rio for contemporary cuisine has been Lasai. Chef Rafael Costa e Silva cut his teeth in the kitchen at the Basque country’s famed Andoni Aduriz. At Rio’s Lasai, he presents two menus—Festival and Don’t Tell Me Tales—both of which aim to take diners on a culinary tour of Brazil via local ingredients and garden vegetables. You can order your own wine bottle, of course, but the proposed pairings are highly recommended. The warm-toned surroundings and multinational staff ease you into the restaurant’s vibe. For these reasons and more, Lasai—one of seven Michelin-starred restaurants in the city—merits your visit.

Oro enjoys the dual honor of receiving a Michelin star in a new phase of its history as well as during a new phase in the career of its chef, the famed Felipe Bronze. In this second version of Oro—the first iteration was a source of much delight—Bronze has added a twist to his notions of avant-garde cooking, using foreign textures and flavors in conjunction with local traditions. There are two tasting menus: Creativity, which features main courses, and Affectivity, which is just snacks and sweets, served without utensils. You may also want to go a little crazy when it comes to recommendations from the sommelier, who is none other than Bronze’s wife, Cecilia Aldaz, originally from Mendoza, Argentina, and a noted expert in the field.

Among all the odd-shaped mountains that adorn the Rio horizon, Sugarloaf (Pão de Açúcar in Portuguese) stands apart for its majesty and fortuitous placement. Sugarloaf is part of a single landmark along with sister peak Urca, to which it connects via a now-century-old cable car locals call the bondinho. When you reach the top of the rounded outcropping, 1,300 feet up, it’s hard to decide what to look at: You’ve got 360 degrees of Rio from on high. The recommended (and most sought-after) visiting hour is sunset. Yet there’s no hurry to descend before night falls. Seeing the lights come up in the cidade maravilhosa is well worth a tarry.

Ipanema—streets as well as beaches—might well be Rio’s most influential runway, a showcase for the signature looks both casual and elegant that turn up later in neighborhood boutiques. Some shops that started out small are big deals now and still maintain that Carioca touch, including Farm and its styles for young women; Osklen and Redley, for beachier looks; Melissa’s plastic sandals and other footwear; and, of course, Havaianas, Rio’s most recognizable brand. In Ipanema it’s all still there; Garcia D’Ávila Street is ground zero.