Real Gabinete Portugues de Leitura

The experience

The Royal Portuguese Reading Room, opened in 1887, is a Neo-Manueline library in central Rio built to house Portuguese literature. Its ornate limestone facade recalls Lisbon's Jeronimos Monastery, while the reading hall rises three storeys of carved jacaranda shelving beneath a red, white and blue stained-glass skylight and an iron chandelier. It holds roughly 350,000 volumes, including rare works.

Step into one of the most beautiful libraries on earth, a jewel-box of carved wood and stained glass.

What a membership adds.

Everything above is free: the name, the photo, the rating, the exact spot. What members get is the part you can't Google: the sourced insider tip for this place (what to order, when to go, what to skip), every day of your trips unlocked in full with the insider tip on every researched stop, and the concierge at full strength, answering with your own insider tips, no daily meter.