If it wasn’t for the annual Carnival event in Brazil, Rio de Janeiro might have been fourth or fifth on my list of cities to visit. However, as exciting and spectacular as this single event looks, even without it there seems to be an energy associated with Rio de Janeiro that is hard to overlook when planning out vacation destinations.

Likewise, as you may have noticed from a few of my previous posts, I am a big fan of soccer and Brazil is going to be hosting the 2014 World Cup. That means that if I plan my Rio de Janeiro vacation for that year, I will have to take five months off to catch both Carnival, which happens in February, and the World Cup, which will be taking place from June 12 to July 13. If I can find a way to pull that off, it might just be the best vacation of my life. Period.