Beautiful city with everything
Written: Feb 27 '06
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Product Rating:
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Pros: beautiful city, beautiful people
Cons: there are poor people so be careful of crime.
The Bottom Line: I would definitely recommend going to Rio and Brazil in general. Its a beautiful country with much to offer. The people are beautiful and the culture is rich
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| cybermaven's Full Review: Rio de Janeiro |
I decided to go to Rio from Dec 27 to Jan 15. Rio is famous for Carnivale but its also known for New Years where they have fireworks on copacabana beach which I had the opportunity to see.
Language - first off my biggest difficulty was the language barrier. Not many people speak english so make sure you brush up on your portuguese.
The weather - Rio is basically warm all year round compared. Dec/Jan is considered summer time so it was very hot which is great for spending your time outdoors like the beach. The only problems I found with the weather is it can be quite humid on occasion and if you are truly unlucky it can rain, and rain it did when I went; for a week straight right starting on New Years day.
The beach - Most of the established beaches are quite big and can accomodate a lot of people(i.e. Copacabana, Ipenama). There is a good amount of sand and space to layout (as long as its not packed with people) which can happen quite often. The water on Copacabana and Ipanema beach is fine but I have experienced cleaner. I would say since these beaches are highly developed with hotels, condos, restaurants, etc this pollutes the beach. Of course the most famous aspect is just seeing the people and their interesting outfits on the beach. Wow. In general the beaches have everything you need. You can rent chairs and umbrellas, buy food, there is a large sidewalk for walking, a bike lane, and across the street the restaurants and hotels/condos await you.
places to stay - Looks like you have two ways of going, you can either stay at a hotel or rent a condo. I tried both and they both have their positive and negatives. Hotels have more service but at a condo you have more control of what you want. Hotels can be difficult to deal with if you decide to bring guests into your place meanwhile a condo allows you more freedoms.
Restaurants - The restaurants right on the beach seem to be the most expensive. Every place I ate basically gave you a lot of food. They like to feed you there. I found the food great but the only thing I did not like was it seemed like everything had too much salt on it. If you are on a budget going a few blocks away from the beach you can find some cheap all you can eat churrascarias.
Places to go/things to do: Well when you think of Rio you think of the beach so thats what most people go and do. There are other activities though like museums, sugarloaf mountain, the statue of christ, boat rides to islands, and of course going to different cities. And if you the shopping type - besides the street markets there are malls with plenty of things to buy. For the braver human there is hang gliding, scuba diving, etc.
Crime - You tend to hear stories of crime but I think if you are just careful you should be fine. Unfortunately there are poor people ranging from very young to very old looking to survive. Usually the stories you hear are young kids stealing stuff so just be aware of your surroundings and you should be fine. So that means don't get extremely drunk and start wandering through the streets alone at 3 am.
Adult activities - another "famous" aspect to Brazil. There is a famous club called help on the beach of Copacabana where you can witness the interaction of mostly foreign men and local women.
- Gay community - There also seems to a strong gay community in Rio. There is a section of the beach on Ipenama with a rainbow flag and there are the clubs, Le Boys and Le Girls which further proves Rio has something for everyone.
New Years in Brazil - What can I say? It was a great experience. I was on the beach with another 2 million people watching the fireworks. Its definitely worth the trip to experience that.
Recommended:
Yes
Best Suited For: Singles
Best Time to Travel Here: Mar - May
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Epinions.com ID:
cybermaven
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Reviews written: 37
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