My husband and I were lucky enough to visit Rio De Janeiro for the World Cup. Our trip was kind of last minute, kind of planned forever. We got the tickets last November, but did not actually decide to go until about a month before the game our tickets were for. Because of this, we did not do a ton of research, we did not really have a place to stay, and we had no idea what to expect. Luckily we have a few friends who have been to Rio and gave us some information and recommended someone to stay with. To be honest our first couple of days in Rio were not that great, we got lost, were in kind of a shady area, had little sleep and discovered that Spanish is not as close to Portuguese as we hoped. But as always we made the best of our situation and in the end had an excellent time. Here are some tips, must see places and advice on Rio.
1. Visas, Money and weather
One thing that is very important to know is if you have a US passport than you need a visa to go to Brazil. It can take quite a while to get your visa, so I recommend starting the process as soon as possible. It can also cost a couple hundred dollars, so be prepared for that. Because we went for the World Cup my visa was free, but I did have to go to my nearest consulate (Los Angeles) to apply in person. I receive my visa in 5 days. Some areas of Brazil require certain vaccinations, but Rio did not require any. Prices were surprisingly higher than I thought they would be. They use the Real, not the dollar, we found that if you divided the Real price in half it was pretty much what it would be in dollars. So 120 Reals was about $60 (it was actually just a bit more). To ride the bus was much more expensive than I expected and depending on where you shopped prices were higher than the US. Food and lodging were about the same as you'd find here. When we went to Rio, it was in July, which is technically their winter season. The weather was perfect, around 75 degrees, but it did get dark pretty early at 5:30 pm.
2. Stay as close to Copacabana as you can
Our first mistake was not knowing the area that well. The person we were staying with lived pretty far outside of Rio. Unlike most cities where that is not as much as an issue, this was. To take the bus to her house was very confusing and we had to make a couple transfers. To take a taxi was very expensive. In two days we had gotten lost about 4 times and spent over $100 on buses and taxis. We moved locations on our second day to Copacabana and had a much easier time after that. There is a metro system in the city that we used with absolute ease and everything we wanted to do was located around Copacabana. The only down side to this is the logging itself was pretty expensive. Because we had not made prior reservations we had to take what we could find and the cheapest was a shared room at a hostel for $60 each person a night.
3. Be very aware of your surroundings
One thing about Rio is the favelas are mixed in with the city. They are mainly on the mountains surrounding the city, but its just a short walk up a staircase and you are in the favela. Some favelas are not as dangerous as others, but it is hard to tell the difference and I was advised that unless I had a guide, to just not go there. My husband was always aware of who was behind us, where our bags were, who we were around and he kept telling me to watch my purse and be careful. While at times it drove me nuts, I was thankful for his ever present awareness, because there were a couple of incidents that I'm sure our being careful saved us. For the most part we did not have a problem, nothing was stolen, no one purposely led us astray or scammed us, but there were a few close calls.
4. Go to all the tourist attractions
We made it a point to go to the Cristo Redentor, Pan de Azucar, Copacabana Beach, Ipanema Beach and the Maracana. All of these areas were amazing, well worth the time and money and a must see. When we went to the Cristo Redentor it was cloudy. So cloudy that you could not see it even when you were standing right in front of it. But we waited and the clouds parted for a moment, we got our pictures, and then the clouds came back. I have heard some days the clouds do not part and you do not get a refund, but it was the only time we had to go, so I'm glad the Heaven's decided to open for us, if only for a moment.
Pan de Azucar (the mountain that looks like a loaf of bread) was breath taking. We went at sunset, it was half price, and not very crowded. We got some of the most beautiful pictures of Rio at sunset that I have ever seen. When we returned it was dark, but the trip was well worth it.
Obviously we went to the Maracana (the biggest soccer stadium in South America) for the World Cup game we had tickets to. I was impressed with how well organized it was. I am not a big fan of crowds and was a little worried about the 74,000 people that would be there, but it actually was very pleasant. Of course seeing an actual game is the best experience, but if there is not a game going on when you are there you can still do a tour of the stadium.
5. Don't be afraid to venture outside the city
We had heard about some islands not far outside of Rio that were supposed to be amazing. Besides asking some locals, we did not have that much information, but decided to go anyway. The first island we went to was Agra dos Reis, a beautiful little town about 3 hours south of Rio. We stayed there for the night and the next day took a tour of four other islands. It was not hard to find a tour to do, there were several agencies along the main street of town, and we just picked one that sounded good to us. We went to crystal clear water, swam with fish and had a nice meal on the beach. It was a great experience and I recommend it to anyone looking for something to do outside the city.
6. Interact with the people
In all the cities I've been to in the world, Rio by far had the friendliest people. Not only were people very pleasant to talk to, but strangers approached us and asked if we needed help. I do not know of a lot of other cities that someone would ask you if you needed help. I felt like we had all these guardian angles looking out for us along our trip. My husband often thought the people that helped wanted some kind of tip or thank you, but when we offered some money they refused it. Even people we sat next to on the bus were friendly and offered advice and service to us. I was very pleasantly surprised at how wonderful the people were.
As I said, once we moved locations to be near Copacabana we had a much more relaxing vacation, but I am glad I got to see how people live outside of the city. I feel like we got to see much more of Rio the state than most people do who go there for a vacation. I think it would be awesome to go back to Rio for Carnival, but as of now I feel we saw pretty much everything we wanted to and I'm happy we were able to go to such a beautiful part of the world.
No comments:
Post a Comment