Leblon is expensive. To me the best area is right between Ipanema/Copa because it's right near metro, and easy to walk to any of the beach areas. Metro ends right at the General Osorio stop so I wouldn't want to be more than a 5-minute walk from that. Cab fare can rack up quick and metro is quite good for most things and way cheaper.

Airbnb is fine. Depending on budget, you can look into hostels also.

Airport travel from Galeo is expensive. Cabs at disembarque are a cartel and will rob you. Go to the dropoff spot for people departing to get a cab and let them run the meter. Fare will be about BR$65 depending on time of day.

You can also take the bus to I forget which station and then metro from there. That's a cheaper option if time isn't a concern.

I just got an apartment in Leblon for two month and Air BnB seems much better value than going through a short term rental agency. Also, I got quite a big discount on the apartment so definitively worth it lowballing a bunch of people on Air BnB.

Do any of you guys have any experience with gettting a part time chef in Rio?

Cheers for the replies, would you recommend Leblon over the others if price wasn't an issue? Im going for a month so don't mind spending slightly more for a better experience.

Hopefully this won't appear as too much of a contradiction, but how is Botafogo? seems I can get nicer apartments with a great view there for similar price, just checking how much safety I'm sacrificing.

How well will I get by on purely english alone? learning Portuguese atm, although ill still be pretty noob by the time I arrive.

How do you find Leblon? Always imagined getting a "lol" reply if I tried to negotiate price on Airbnb, but you're telling me it works?

I have only lived in Leblon and Ipanema. I think it's a safe, cool area and it has a lot of good restaurants and bars. It's also very bad value. I'm sure you can get much nicer apartments in Botafogo.

Unless you are dead set on one particular apartment haggling on Air BnB is 100% worth doing. Except during Carnival or NYE you are almost guaranteed to find someone who is willing to accept a substantial cut. This goes for pretty much anywhere with Air BnB. A lot of people rent out their second apartment so it's no hassle and they will be making zero if you don't rent it.

I would prefer to be much closer to the metro (train) line and would not want to stay in Leblon. Ipanema between Posto 8 and as far as 10 would be fine. Posto 10 to the General Osorio metro station is maybe a 15-20 minute walk. Leblon is closer to an 40 minutes. No thanks, and cabs add up too fast for me.

I was fine with counting to ten in portuguese, Obrigado, bom dia, bom noite, quantosh (super important imo), cerveja, agua. Don't really need much else.

Airbnb is great.

Any interest in a 2+2 Rio meetup? Not sure how many there are of us in town right now, but I would be happy to go out for drinks. PM me if you are interested.

Anyone know where the best places to play live are? In Rio for 2 weeks on holiday and wouldn't mind one night on the tables! (VAMOOOO etc.)

Any grinders still living in Rio? Will be moving there with my gf at the beginning of January and it'd be awesome if there was still a poker community there.

we'll be in rio for 10 days early december - any recommendations for a cool closeby town for a couple days sidetrip/relax? Planning on partying hard in rio so don't need some giant city with nightclubs or anything, more beach, nature, mountains or something touristy for a few days

ilha grande is pretty cool. lots of beaches / nature / hikes / boat rides etc.

i think it took about 4 hours total to get there from rio, the first part by bus and the second part by boat

Buzios, Paraty, and the aforementioned Ilha Grande are all really nice. Buzios is just a small beach town, but the other two have more touristy / outdoors stuff.

I'm flying out for a month on Xmas Eve with my family, staying a little while in Rio, then going to Paraty. Any idea what the weather's typically like around January? From what I gather it's hot and very wet at the moment.

Also, will it be possible to travel much on public transport during Xmas/New Year?

January is the hottest month of the year there, but be prepared to face temperatures around 40ºC!! In Rio, you'll see people at the beach at night cause it still will be hot.

I just got to Rio and am going to stay here for a couple of months... looking for an apartement in Zona Sul now. Any poker houses or meetups in the city?

sent ya a PM - I'm in an apartment now until the 23rd with friends, but will be looking for a new place for 3-4 weeks afterwards. looking into botafogo or flamengo neighborhoods, but could be sold on ipanema as well.

hey anyone interested - my friend has a bike tour company in buenos aires running for like 5+ years now and they are expanding to brazil. they just started to expand in Rio and we're going on a 6-7 hour 'jungle' bike tour. Normal price is 450 and lunch is included, said they'll do it for 250 if jus me and my friend, or for 150 each if we get another person. pretty cheap for all day bike tour, more info on link http://bikeinriotours.com/forest-expert.php

I'm not trying to spam, just looking for 1 more person so our price gets cheaper for everyone, and seems like a dope deal and cool tour. escreve-me se voce esta interssado, vamos em wednesday or thursday I think

Will be in Rio in early Jan. Pm if you want to meet up for a beer

Hey guys,

I´d be looking to come down right away if someone had a room open or would be willing to start a new house together. Basically just looking to get away from european winter for a few months. Please PM (preferably your skype) if you have anything open or could lead me in the right direction by any chance!

Cheers!

Hi iv been to rio before on holiday with non poker playing friends didnt play but had the time of my life in 2014 wanted to back for a few months to grind and would just like to know the current state of live cash in brazil where can i play, which stakes and how often the games run. Iv seen some old posts where ppl say there is 2/2 and 5/5 is this in dollars or reais?
Last note i previously stayed in copacabana would like to stay there again but what would you recommend thats close by (not ipanema or leblon) thats just as nice/safe ect or does it literally have to be one of those.

Thanks

I'm a couple of weeks into my holiday here. Really loving it so far. Spent a week in Rio, staying in Lapa, and now am in and around Paraty, which it is a bit touristy at the moment, but is beautiful. Off to ilha grande in a few days, so hoping the nice weather holds out.

If I could speak a bit of Portuguese, and didn't get fried to a crisp whenever I came out of the shade, I don't think I'd ever want to leave.

ahhh still in my honeymoon phase in Rio, really loving it here...although the more people I meet who have been here longer term all basically hate it, haha. Ignorance is bliss

Anyways I'm off to Bahia in a couple weeks and wanted to see if anyone had good recs of places to go. Rough plan is 1 week in Recife and surrounding, then spend Carnivale in Salvador, but I'll have ~2 weeks total there. I know nothing besides ppl who say salvador sucks, but only planning on spending a couple days there partying. Valeu!

Anyone kicking around Rio for the next couple months? I just moved here and am living in Ipanema until the middle of May or so. It's super beautiful but a little overwhelming so far, def need to get my **** together and learn some Portuguese. If anyone's around and feels like grabbing a beer hit me up.

sorry for the slight de rail and i know this isnt strictly Rio related.. anyway long as shot here but anyone have a poker house in Balneário Camboriú or florianopolis 27th march - 2nd april. gonna be in that area these dates anyway and see that there's a tourney stop there for the BSOP figured i'll play. not stressed if this gets no interest ill just get a hotel but thought ild try my luck anyway. hit me a pm

Maybe I'm wrong, but you might have looked at last years schedule *BC event was held at the end of March).
This year BSOP will be in Foz do Iguaçu (March 17th to 22nd), don't see any event in SC so far: http://www.bsop.com.br/eventos

What is cost of living like here? What would a typical rent be in a nice place?