Buzios is a beach peninsula in Rio de Janeiro state, Brazil, famous for its string of coves and beaches and a favorite weekend escape from the capital, and a rental car is the easiest way to move between its many small beaches, since they are spread along a peninsula rather than concentrated in one walkable center. Buzios has no airport of its own, so most visitors fly into Rio de Janeiro, either Galeao International Airport (GIG) or the closer domestic Santos Dumont Airport (SDU), and pick up a rental car there before driving out to the coast, a trip of roughly two to two and a half hours depending on traffic leaving the city.
The most direct route out of Rio follows the Via Lagos, a tolled expressway that cuts travel time considerably compared with the older coastal road, passing through the Lagos region's lake country before reaching Buzios itself. Once on the peninsula, the town of Armacao dos Buzios sits centrally, with beaches like Geriba, Ferradura and Joao Fernandes each a short ten-to-twenty-minute drive apart along winding coastal lanes, making a car far more practical than relying on local transport to beach-hop through the day.
Driving is on the right throughout Brazil, and the drive out of Rio itself can involve heavy city traffic before opening onto the faster Via Lagos tolled sections, so budgeting extra time for the urban stretch is sensible. Roads within Buzios are generally paved but narrow in the older parts of town, with beach-access lanes sometimes unpaved or sandy near the water. Fuel stations are common in Rio and along the Via Lagos corridor but thin out on the peninsula's smaller side roads, so it is worth keeping the tank topped up once you arrive rather than assuming stations are close to every beach along this popular coastal escape.