I'm hoping for advice on which area to stay / things to do / night life etc...
Some of my friends speak Portuguese but none of us have ever been to Brazil.
Also might be cool to meet up for a game of aoc but not sure if i can get away :]
Be careful with taxis on Rio. Some of them like to be smartass with foreigns and do some detours to get extra money.
The touristic places are usually pretty much safe, but dont wakl around showing cellphone, expensive cameras etc, better be safe than sorry.
I am from Rio, but i will travel to Espírito Santo in May. I like São Conrado's beach (great paragliding at mountains). Very beautiful. You need to go to "Pão de Açúcar" (Sugar Loaf) and see all Rio from above. Watch a soccer game at Maracanã. Don't go to "favelas" by walk. I can't help you with the other thing cause i am not a night guy (faith reasons).
Enjoy Rio, but the best places to enjoy Brasil's nature is Bonito (Mato Grosso do Sul), Cataratas do Iguaçú (Paraná - just incredible a near to Paraguay {everything hiper mega cheap}), Fernando de Noronha (Pernambuco), Porto de Galinhas (Pernambuco).
Thanks for the advice. We'll obviously stay away from favelas / dangerous areas. Were thinking of staying at copacabana. Thoughts ? Also were not opposed to visiting other cities or areas. We were thinking of spending 3 days in Rio then 3 in Sao Paulo . Might be too short of a time period though
im not a brazilian, but i went to rio last february, and stayed there during 4 days.
I dont speak portuguese (but spanish), but what i can say is:
- never feel unsafe... at all... even in lappa, at 4 am. (but i wouldnt recommend it... i prefered the nightlife in Buenos Aires than in Rio. but i was there during Rio carnaval, so i dunno..)
- never had any trouble with taxi driver. (but i took the bus most of the time)
- must do : pao de acucar, corcovado, copacabana / ipanema / leblon, maracaña.
- must eat : churrascaria (!!) , feijoada, and drink caipifrutras or fresh fruit juice
- some guys are fu*ing HUGE in this city. much bigger than in argentina and girls are "all fake", but damn, they know how to dance
My girlfriend used to work for German television in Rio so I spent some time with her there 2 years ago, she'll be there for the Olympics again this year so I'll probably go for a couple of weeks as well. I really like Rio, but it's true that it doesn't hurt to be careful, especially if you don't know which parts are safe and which aren't. Speaking some portugese also helps a lot. About the taxis: Sometimes (e. g. at the airport) you can buy tickets for the taxi, meaning you pay a fixed price to a certain destination beforehand. Going by bus was a bit of an double-edged sword ... on the one hand I found the bus drives very communicative and fun (of course, being on vacation and usually not having to follow a strict schedule, because that's hard with busses in rush hour Rio), on the other hand it was pretty chaotic and there were some situations I wouldn't wanna be in without any knowledge of portugese.
Most of the stuff I enjoyed was already mentioned before, some of the best were caipifrutas at the Ipanema Beach, rodizio (oh god, the meat was so good I couldn't move for hours afterwards) and a perfectly timed visit to Corcovado at sunset. We also had a nice relaxing walk through the Jardim Botânico, but that might be more of a couple thing and not the right activity for you guys. I also went to Maracaná to watch a football league match of Botafogo vs Santos, but was pretty dissapointed, only roughly 1/8 of the stadium filled, with a couple hundred ultras and lots of tourists. I was told ticket prizes were too high, that's why the stadium is mostly empty.
I was pretty careful about showing my smartphone in public etc., coz local friends warned me about it, but I have to say I saw lots of Brasilians running around pretty careless (especially in Botafogo where we lived and Urca, where my gf worked) which made me feel more at ease quickly. We had one weird experience at the beach of Ipanema. Suddenly everyone just started running for no apparent reason, so we just grabbed our stuff and ran along. One minute late everyone returned to their towels and some locals told us there had been armed gangs robbing the beachgoers lately (they spread out and then strike quickly, grabbing what they can and dissapear before the police can react) so when someone shouted because he thought his backpack was missing, everyone assumed a robbing was about to commence. Turned out there was nothing.
Enjoy your time in Rio, great place and very cool people.
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