When you first arrive in Rio de Janeiro, think of the journey from the airport to your hotel as a brief spell of purgatory, where you pay minor dues for entry into what harried Americans will consider heaven. If you've traveled overnight, your tongue can be thick and your eyes bleary, and the initial sights and smells that welcome you are unpromising. By the time you reach Avenida Atlântica, flanked on one side by white beach and azure sea, and on the other by the pleasure-palace hotels that testify to the city's eternal lure, your heart will leap with expectation. Now you're truly in Rio, where the 10 million wicked angels and shimmering devils known as Cariocas dwell.

While in Rio, prepare to have your senses engaged and your inhibitions lowered. You'll be seduced by a host of images: the joyous bustle of vendors at Sunday's Hippie Fair; the tipsy babble of a sidewalk café as latecomers sip their last glass of wine under the stars; the blanket of lights beneath Sugarloaf. Borrow the Carioca spirit for your stay; you may find yourself reluctant to give it back.

During the day, Rio life focuses on the beaches, the most active of which remains Copacabana. To sense the Carioca spirit, spend a day on Copacabana Beach and walk from Copa's Avenida Atlântica, with its sidewalk cafés, high-rise hotels, and deluxe apartment buildings, to Ipanema, whose beach life is both more restrained and more seductive. The western extension, Leblon, is an affluent, intimate community flush with good, small restaurants and bars. The more distant southern beaches, beginning with São Conrado and extending past the Barra to Grumari, become richer in natural beauty and increasingly isolated.

Although Rio is more than 400 years old, it is in every respect a modern city. Most of the city's historic structures have fallen victim to the wrecking ball, leaving only a handful that can be visited by tourists. What's left is found in and around the downtown area in churches and other buildings scattered about the city center. Organized tours, both walking and in sightseeing buses, are highly recommended. The scattered nature of these sights, plus the sometimes undesirable nature of their surroundings, makes individual sightseeing problematic. If you are not on an organized tour, the best approach to visiting the historic sights is the subway, which seems to be mostly finished. The bus is another viable means of transportation - and better, perhaps, as above ground you can familiarize yourself with Rio's different neighborhoods.

The tourist in Rio is advised to be discreet and aware.