Activities in Rio de Janeiro Overview

Caminhos Language Centre offers more than just Portuguese classes: we are famous for our range of activities and for supporting good causes through our social programme, Mais Caminhos. Caminhos Language Centre offers three types of activities:

• Free activities in Rio de Janeiro
• Paid activities in Rio de Janeiro
• Volunteer activities in Rio de Janeiro

Learn More About Our Free Activities in Rio

Free Activities in Rio de Janeiro

As well as offering Portuguese classes Caminhos Language Centre offers the complete Rio de Janeiro experience. Every day we offer 100% free and fun activities in Rio de Janeiro for students to socialise and practise their developing Portuguese skills. We like to think of ourselves as ‘one big family’ and the wide-ranging activities and excursions we offer enable our students to get to know each other better.

Most of our activities in Rio de Janeiro are completely free. If there are transport or food costs involved details are always provided. We don’t try to squeeze extra money out of our students for extracurricular activities – we regard these activities as part of the Caminhos experience. Click on the activity icons in the weekly schedule above for more information on each individual activity.

Free Activities in Rio de Janeiro Explained

So book your Portuguese course now and participate in all these activities in Rio de Janeiro for free! For actual activity times check the Caminhos Activity Calendar.

Paid Activities in Rio de Janeiro

Brazilian Cooking Class

Learn how to cook the best Brazilian dishes with professional Brazilian chef Simone! Caminhos’ Cooking Class is one of the most fun and dynamic activities we have.

Simone a professional Carioca chef, invites you into her kitchen, where you will learn to make a series of traditional Brazilian appetisers; the famous Caipirinha – the traditional drink of Brazil and Moqueca – the delicious seafood dish from Bahia. She will teach you about Brazilian food and the history of certain dishes and where to purchase your ingredients from. This class is more than a cooking class – you will love having complete ‘hands on’ experience in cooking the dishes, learning about the history of the foods, practising your Portuguese and at the end, sitting down to a delicious meal. Simone gives all participants a recipe to take home and you are welcome to take photos during the class.

Educational Favela Tour in Rio de Janeiro

This is the best favela tour in Rio: we wanted to make sure all of our students have the opportunity to learn a bit about how a favela operates and provide them with some idea of what it’s like to live in a favela. We place a huge emphasis on this tour being ‘educational’, rather than ‘exploitative’. Edson is our tour guide and he will take you into the community of Dona Marta (the favela which Michael Jackson made famous when he filmed the music clip ‘They Don’t Really Care About Us.’). He will guide you through the community and explain many important things like how the residents receive their mail, how to buy and sell houses in the favela, how to make local announcements, how and why the favelas came about in the first place, and more. He will also take you to a few social projects we work closely with and you will get to meet the people and children Caminhos support.

Volunteer Day Activities in Rio de Janeiro

Caminhos In Action (C.I.A.)

Caminhos In Action is a day held once a month in which students can participate in different social projects, helping nearby communities and people in need. Each month we organise a C.I.A. day such as painting houses, street cleaning or helping to build houses and gardens in a local community. Around Christmas and Easter time we also provide special events for children who live in the communities we help.

Caminhos Community Time (Saturday)

Caminhos Community Time is a day when we take students into the nearby community of Caranguejo and spend some time with the children who live there. We help to clean up the area, read stories, play games and draw with the children, and provide them with food and drink. It is a day for showing these children in the community that we care. The community times are organised in cooperation with our partner organisation, Solar Meninos de Luz.

Caminhos Playtime (Wednesday)

Caminhos Playtime is a great opportunity for our language school students to connect with our Mais Caminhos children. Students can spend time with the children at the school every second Wednesday and participate in several fun games with them.

There is no need to apply in advance for these short-term volunteer opportunities. The only condition for participating is to study at the Caminhos Language Centre or be a former student. Once you are at the school you can ask for more information or sign up to the next volunteer opportunity at our front desk.