Wanting to explore more of the picturesque region around Rio de Janeiro, I asked the Travel Office to book a private tour of Sítio Roberto Burle Marx, a UNESCO World Heritage site that’s considered one of the world’s greatest gardens. Along the way, my traveling companion and I visited some of Rio’s spectacular wild beaches and toured the islands of Lagoa da Tijuca, a lagoon just west of town.

Sítio Roberto Burle Marx

About an hour from the city center, Sítio Roberto Burle Marx comprises around 100 acres of tropical plants and the home and studio of Roberto Burle Marx, a Brazilian landscape architect born in 1909. After attending art school in Rio, Burle Marx spent much of his time traveling throughout Brazil, collecting and studying plants. In the 1930s, he began his career in landscape design, and by the 1950s, he was one of the most famous landscape artists in the world. Today, his legacy lives on in gardens and parks around the world, most notably the Copacabana promenade, whose swirling black and white stones have become an emblem of the city.