Rodoviaria (Rio de Janeiro)

The "Rodoviaria" or main bus station in Rio is where all coaches depart from that go to destinations outside of the city. 

If you're spending time traveling around Brazil it's worth familiarising yourself with the bus station as you will be going through it on more than one occasion. The bus station is split into two floors and two halves, with the coaches in the middle. The ground floor front entrance is on Avenida Francisco Bicalho, where the standard buses and free taxi rank are. Free in this case meaning any taxi can pick up here. The rear ground floor entrance is on Rua Equador where the executive Real Auto onibus stop and the Novo Rio Taxi rank are located. See picture below. The prices at this taxi rank are the benchmark prices and you get a printed ticket displaying the fare from the booth. You run a (small) risk of being ripped off by the guys on the other side. The rest of the ground floor is taken up by the coach stands. The 1st storey is where you buy the tickets from. It also has shops, restaurants, pharmacies, waiting areas and everything else you would expect to find in a large bus station. 

There are half hourly coaches to São Paulo operated by various carriers. There are frequent buses to major cities close to Rio and within Rio state. The rest of Brazil's megalopolises have at least a daily service.

As a general rule the more operators on a given route the better the service quality. At the very minimum you'll get reclining seats; in journey movies; picture windows; air conditioning and toilets. Make sure you take a blanket or some extra clothing as Brazilians like their coaches seriously air conditioned. Unless you are traveling peak period you won't need to book in advance. Just buy the ticket when you check the departure time.

A selection of destinations and journey times (in hours) are listed below. You can also find more details at the coach station's web site www.novorio.com.br