praia de fora is occasionally used by celebrities visiting rio d janeiro and hiding from the public eye, such as tom cruise and katie holmes famously did in 2009 when vacationing with their daughter suri.                  

many buses going through ipanema and copacabana reach urca (the destination is easily seen on the front of the bus), but stop about 200 meters away from the actual beach.

bus number 512 runs along avenida portugal and stops at the forte do são joão, entrance to the praia de fora beach.