Tickets and places to see the Samba Schools´Parade in Rio

Tickets and places to see the Parade in Rio

There are two ways of being in the sambadrome: 

1) you can buy tickets to watch the parade, and choose beetween the three main options: the bleachers, the track chairs or friezes, or the camarote, a kind of balcony box; 

2) you buy a costume of a Samba School (see tomorrow´s post).

In the bleachers you stay along with people, and generally you´ll have to stay standing during the parade of each school; they are the less expensive option, and you´ll stay away from the parade. But it´s not bad if you want to have a global view of the show. 

The most popular bleachers, located at the concentration. Generally this sector is dedicated to people from the comunities of the Samba Schools. 

The track chairs (cadeiras de pista) are more expensive but you have a place marked and a good space to stay. You can be very close to the parade and watch the details: costumes, makeups, people dancing the samba. The photos in those posts about Rio´s parade (today, yesterday and tomorrow´s posts) are from my experiece at a track chair. 

And, the most expensive option of all, the camarote, where generally you have open bar and food, DJs beetween one samba school and the other, and maybe the rich and famous. This is also the only option to avoid rain, if it is a rainny carnival....who knows.

Also, ticket´s prices may vary accordingly to the position where you are in the sambadrome. Places in the middle are generally the most expensive, as they are closer to where the bateria makes a stop on its march (but not on playing), know as the recuo da bateria. 

The end of the Sambadrome, close to the Apoteose Square (Praça da Apoteose) is generally the less expensive, but when a Samba School really rocks the sambadrome, it is where the party gets thrilling. But it depends on your luck.

The beggining of the Sambadrome, also known as concentração - concentration - is interesting because it is where the samba schools make their warm up before parading. Before they begin the parade, you can see the school arriving with all its components, while the singers play their most famous songs from previous carnivals, trying to put heat and emotion in the street they are about to fullfil with colors. 

Tickets can be bought in the following sites, and most of them demands you go to some hotel or tourist place in Rio, during carnival, to retrieve them:

http://www.carnivalticketrio.com/

I bought mine in http://www.rio-carnival.net/, and I had no problem or issue. It is already in english and has some other explanations about the party and how to get there.

Another option is buying alongside a tour package to Rio in Carnival. 

What I must add is, if you want to go to Rio in Carnival, you must start thinking of preparing the trip in july the year before. It may be the difference between going or not, because of prices and there´s the risk of everything being sold out, from tickets to hotel rooms.