Enjoy your vacations
Written: Dec 11 '01
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Sensual and passionate as always, Rio welcomes you with arms wide open.
Cons: Do not act as a tourist.
The Bottom Line: Rio is a great city, lots of fun, food, and interesting people to meet. Hide your wallet and enjoy the sights...
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| abhorrent's Full Review: Rio de Janeiro |
The greatest cities in the world, don't only carry a name, they also carry a slogan: New York is the Big Apple, Paris is the City of Lights, Rome is the Eternal City, and Rio de Janeiro is the Wonderful City. Yes, Rio does indeed belong to the select international group of the world greatest cities. Why? Where else in the world can you find great beaches, a tremendous cultural life, high gastronomy, billions of shops and an exotic and interesting people, everything in the same place and at any time of the year? Where else in the world can you be dazzled by nature's beauty without having to drive off to out of city limits, and only by looking up or to your sides, you'll be able to see it all? Obviously other cities in the world might score higher in some other aspects, but on the other hand they might suck hard at some other too, so at the end, Rio wins. If there was an academy award for the world cities, Rio would easily win on best scenario, art direction, crew, (lack of) costumes (that would be clothing), screenplay and original song. This city is so intense that it can be a city for the radical souls, a city for the families, a cultural one, a crowd city, or anything else you can imagine. And the best is, Rio is more ready to receive its tourists than ever.
In the last 12 years, the area called South Zone has been completely reformed. Sidewalks reformed, streets repaved, and each borough has its own "image" and style now. Even the streetlights are different between neighborhoods. If we take the bars and pubs along the Copacabana beach seafront we'll see that they are now all standardized; in other areas you we'll find zillions of stands selling food from all over the world. The Leblon area is getting more cosmopolitan with time, with plenty of cool places to go and see. At the Barra, it feels like we're in Florida, many shoppings, a super cool beach, local celebrities, etc.
But what makes Rio such an exceptional place to spend you vacations (or holidays, or weekends, or who knows the next flight over, uh?) it's that the tourists are never intruders. The visitors only seem to share the local eternal vacation time of the population. Basically everything you do outdoors seems, taste, feels and looks like our best vacation memories. The locals might not even notice this, but to jog at 6:00AM by the beach it's just like being on vacation everyday, don't you think so? And how about grabbing a super cool beer right after work? That's got to be vacation, at least for me. Actually, on a sunny Sunday, other Brazilians cities seem to stop, but on Rio, it's vacation time. The truth is that in Rio everything is superlative - including the prejudice and false allegations from the biased, bad mood and annoying people. Obviously, Rio has its own problems; some in fact, pretty bad. But the general notion that all it takes to get mugged, robbed, or even killed, is only to step foot on Rio, it's really ridiculous. Sometimes it seems and sounds like as you get out of the plane, there would be a huge hailing of lost bullets in the air flying at you from gang fights nearby, and after that you would try to survive a gang mob inside Rio's tunnels, all that before checking in with your hotel. Don't forget that as you walk along the Lagoa, fishes would drop dead, one by one, flop, flop, flop. An finally if you ever make to the beach, the only place you would be able to bathe right, it would be in the oil ducts from the Brazilian oil company, all that if you can make it before they get you for good…. Let's face it: none of Rio problems were merely created by the media. They all exist and are hugely debated by the local and federal Brazilian authorities that are truly interested in cleaning their city reputation. But the plain truth is that these problems are really almost unnoticeable for the untrained eye and they do not affect to the tourists, in addition, Rio pleasures will pay off for any complications you might face during your visit, not that I'm saying you will, I for one, hadn't any.
Rio is probably the only exotic destination in the whole planet where the tourist doesn't need to be closed around a protective bubble, going to places and doing things in the exclusive company of some other tourists. On the contrary, the only tourist information anyone needs in Rio is that the City Rio bus, passes every half hour along the seashore and that it takes you to every single major sight. Did you write that down? Nice, now, the Pao de Acucar (Two mountains called sugar loaf that have a lift that take you all the way to their tops, where you, of course, will find many shops and thing to buy) , the Corcovado ( Christ's Statue, the Brazilian version of the Statue of Liberty, have a train that also takes you there, but you can hike instead if you prefer) and the Botanic Garden (very nice, diverse and beautiful) are all visited. What's left now is to read the events section in the papers to know what all the other rest of the Brazilian population is missing out. I would recommend reading (at least trying to, if know nothing about their Portuguese language) the Programa magazine that comes out every Friday with the Jornal do Brasil paper or the Rio Show also every Friday but in the O Globo paper.
If you really want to enjoy Rio's pleasures, I would recommend checking in a hotel either in the Ipanema or the Leblon neighborhood. They have great beaches, and the streets and shops are quite comfortable at any time of the day. Their seafront is dead at night, but you'll be within walking distance from pretty cool places. Copacabana is a very fascinating neighborhood, but pretty busy. It's not very much into the tourists because it's just way too much….touristy structured. Seafront nightlife is very busy, but lacks quality. And definitely, avoid getting anywhere near the disco club Help, where the sex commerce for tourist is concentrated. I would stay in Copacabana only if you get a pretty good deal there, or if you wan to visit the golden years of the Copacabana Palace hotel or the Ouro Verde. Some other pretty good hotels are the Marina All-Suites in Leblon, a pretty cool place with rates around U$ 200.00 dollars (More info at - www.marinaallsuites.com.br). There's also the Leblon Inn which is also nice, and cheaper than Marina All-Suites, with rates around U$ 80.00 dollars. (More info at www.promenade.com.br/leblon-inn.cfm). At Ipanema, the Ipanema Inn rooms are not very comfortable, but they provide a valuable location for those eager to go to the beaches and for their cheap price of U$ 45.00 dollars. The Copacabana Palace (www.copacabanapalace.com.br), it's truly awesome for its beauty, but it's pretty expensive also. Rates are at around U$ 330.00 dollars.
Definitely another thing to do at Rio is to check on the local bars, and to eat at a fine restaurant in these 2 mentioned areas as well. Of course, you want to do the tour trip along the Pao de Acucar (which gives you a magnificent view of the whole city…well almost whole city) and the Corcovado also (which magnitude and beauty are almost chocking) as I mentioned, but I would also do the Rocinha slum-tour. Rocinha is the Brazilian slum's Beverly Hills, they have a great guided tour and I would ask for Anselmo to be your guide. He's very nice and will introduce you to his whole family, which is also interesting.
Rio in fact, invented the expression of "urban beach". In any other place on the world, going to the beach is an operation that demands driving outside the center or something. But not at Rio. After visiting the city you'll think twice about living anywhere else without a beach and some sand. Rio is also, the fashion capital for bathing suits. The more conservative, should be careful there, Brazilians just tend to not wear many bathing suits at all, the women bikinis are amazingly short and topless is not something very rare, in fact it's pretty common. They enjoy playing frescobol (a sort of beach tennis), beach soccer, and something called futevoley (a mix between volley rules and soccer skills, very cool and impressive, I used to call that soccer volley, though). Obviously, we can't demand that these urban beaches be just impeccable. In fact, they are more than beaches, they are public squares, anthropological treaties in 3-D. You'll find people selling teas, ice creams, snacks, drinks, etc, everywhere along the shore. And don't get frightened if you see cops among the people. They really provide everybody with an overall safety feeling. From the Leme neighborhood to the Leblon, the most interesting aspect of the seafront is, without any doubt, the fauna. Where you'll see more people walking along the huge sidewalks (they call it calcadao) than at the beach sand itself. Nature will only win from the Barra neighborhood on.
There are obviously many places to eat at Rio. There are greats restaurants everywhere, but I would recommend the Celeiro and the Carlota at Leblon, the Osteria dell'Angolo (prime Italian restaurant) and the Atelie Culinario (a very nice coffee shop) at Ipanema, the Caroline Café and the Boteco 66 at Jardim Botanico, the Porcao Rio's (a steak house with constant flowing meat for you for about U$14.00 dollars per person) at the Aterro do Flamengo area. To eat along the seafront, I would recommend the Posto 9 area in Ipanema.
If you're looking for beauties without comparisons, crystalline waters and untouchable purity go to the Prainha beach, way past the Barra or go to the Itacoatara beach in Niteroi city, which is also close to Rio. In fact, as you drive over to Niteroi, you drive over 8.5-mile Bridge over the ocean, it as astounding as the old and new seven-mile bridge of Florida.
The best time to go to Rio would be during the out-of-season times. Mainly, between late March- late May and late August - late November. There are fewer tourists, therefore, a less likely chance to get in some kind of trouble, and the weather is nicer around this time too. Of course, while going to Rio, or any other Brazilian city, do not forget the sunscreen and the sunglasses, and in Rio the temperature can get close to 104F (40C) pretty easily. The Rio trip should definitely not be shorter than 4 days, you'll end up missing out lots of things, a weekend trip is useless and something longer than a week might start to feel too strange for a non-used body, specially if you're there during the hottest seasons.
There's also the Carnival time at Rio, It's beautiful party, usually in February, and it's great just to watch, but it must be a real blast to dance among the huge allegories. The whole city and the country go nuts around this time of the year, and there are great celebrations, parties and lots of the inconveniences of being down there in a real "happy mood" time, so if you're planning to get a more calm, relaxed time down there, you are want to avoid going to Rio during the Carnival time. Also it's during Jan/Feb and March that the city gets more rain, another reason to not go there around that time. In addition, there's the soccer world temple the Maracana with a capacity to hold about 200.000 people, yes, you read it right, 2 hundred thousand people, it has been the venue for many concerts ranging from the heavy metal band Kiss and pop singer Tina Turner to Frank Sinatra and rock band Guns and Roses and teen idolBritney Spears, all of them having career breaking record audiences in this particular venue. But what the huge stadium is really well known for is for the wonderful game of soccer. You must try to watch a soccer game while in Rio, it's a unique experience and a very gratifying one, specially when the two major soccer teams play against each other, Flamengo and Vasco. It's a party of colors, fan chants, fireworks, and lots of noise. After the game, or during the weekdays, there's a tour inside the stadium that takes you even inside the field. You'll be overwhelmed with the magnitude of that place. In addition, another place in Rio you want to check out is the beach during New Years Eve party. The whole seafront is decorated and the skyscrapers have special fireworks that have become tradition in the Brazilian life. They also last a long time, and sometimes they go well over 20 minutes of fireworks, celebrations and music. I would recommend a certain caution in going to the beaches during this time, because the seafront gets really packed and crowded, and it would be easy to get lost or even robbed. But it's a very intense and touching party indeed. There also, Petropolis a beautiful small city on the mountains where the Brazilian emperor actually resided when Brazil was only a Portuguese Colony. The state park of Ilha Grande has many beautiful landscapes, and it's quite a fascinating place to visit also. It is located in a very friendly community with a variety of activities like trekking, river rafting and diving. The city of Paraty tells the history of Colonial Brazil just as Petropolis does. The Itatiaia National Park was the first of its kind in Brazil. It protects a large portion of the Serra da Mantiqueira forest, mainly huge temperate forests with enormous trees. It's a nice place to visit specially because one of its main attractions are its mountains ranging from 2600 to 8900 feet (800 to 2600 meters). Serra dos Orgaos National Park is located in Teresopolis, yet another small city in the foothill of the mountains and in fact, where the Brazilian National Soccer team goes to practice, something you might want to check out too. Teresopolis has beautiful landscape of summits and waterfalls. Deserving special reference is the Dedo de Deus (God's Finger, a magnificent geological structure). More radical tourists might want to go trekking and mountain bike in Nova Friburgo, Rio Claro and Macae. Water rafting and canoeing are offered in Tres Rios, and Angra dos Reis among others. Angra dos Reis in fact, is where the first out of two nuclear power plants of the whole nation are.
Finally, my ultimate advice would be, do not act as a tourist while in Rio. Try to mingle among the locals, putting away your camera and just getting it to actually take the picture is a good idea. Do not travel with jewelries and golden Rolexes. Try to appear as Brazilian as possible, so basically smile a lot, get some tan on that white skin and learn a few Brazilian expressions such as Muito Obrigado (Thank You - pronounced "MUYTO" -"TO" as in together- "O" - as in over- "BRI" - as in brick- "GA" as in garage "DO"). Don't take suits and jackets, as Rio, is constantly hot and humid. Lots of shorts and t-shirts will do just fine and will let you looking much more as a local than a sweating tourist. Try to enjoy the music, the nightlife, the soccer games, the horse races at the Hipodromo, where you can bet on your horses for real money. Enjoy the sun, the shopping, the beach, the women (always beautiful and perfect), the food, the excitement of Rio as much as you can.
Recommended:
Yes
Best Suited For: Friends
Best Time to Travel Here: Mar - May
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Epinions.com ID:
abhorrent
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Location: Salt Lake City, Utah
Reviews written: 21
Trusted by: 3 members
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