Lapa pub crawl, cachaça and samba.

A Lapa pub crawl is a night of Rio compressed into a few hours on foot. You meet your guide on Avenida Mem de Sá in the old bohemian district, start with Brazil's own spirit at a cachaça bar, toast with a caipirinha beneath the white arches of the colonial aqueduct, climb the tiled Selarón steps, and spend the rest of the night in bars with live concerts.

The crawl runs 4 hours with a guide fluent in English, Spanish and Portuguese. It is built for people who want the energy of Lapa without the guesswork: which doors to walk through, which bar plays samba tonight, how to order, and when to move on. The group gives you company from the first glass.

It suits a first night in Rio especially well. You learn the layout of Lapa, taste the drinks that define the city's bars and hear live music in rooms full of cariocas, all with someone who knows the streets. By the end of the night the district feels familiar, and you know where you would happily return on your own.

The night starts with Brazil's national spirit. At the first bar, at least 4 cachaças are poured for tasting, alongside a cocktail, some free time and a short class in that opening hour. Across the evening, 5 cachaças and 1 caipirinha are included in the price.

Cachaça is a protected Brazilian name. Under Decree 12.709 of 2025, Brazil's current rules on drinks, the name belongs to cane spirit made in the country at 38 to 48 percent alcohol, and the agriculture ministry's cachaça yearbook grades the aged kinds by how long they rest in wood. A tasting puts clear and aged styles side by side, which is the quickest way to find the one you like.

The pours in a tasting are small, and the point is flavour rather than quantity. Go slowly, ask about each bottle and keep water close. The bar's shelves of bottles are part of the show, and a guide who knows them turns a row of labels into a short story about the country.

Brazilian law forbids selling alcohol to children and adolescents, defining an adolescent as anyone up to 18 years old. Carry photo ID, and follow the UK government's advice to keep a copy of your passport and another photo ID with you while you are out.

Pacing makes the night. Eat a proper dinner beforehand, match each drink with water, and remember that Brazil's 2025 beverage decree allows a bottled caipirinha to be as strong as 36 percent alcohol. The included tastings are small, and anything extra is your own choice.

Official advice is clear about drinks. British advice flags drink risks in Brazil, methanol in spirit-based drinks and spiking, and its answer is to buy your own glass and never lose sight of it. On a crawl the guide is the first person to tell if anyone in the group feels suddenly unwell.