My husband and I are planning to spend 3 weeks in Rio De Janiero this coming January. We are a retired couple and deliberately avoiding the Mardi Gras scene, therefore we chose January. We hope to rent a 2 bedroom apt thru Airbnb as we have done in the past winters in Buenos Aires and Montevideo. Can anyone help us determine the best neighborhood to stay in? We would like to be located where we can walk to shopping, lots of restaurants available and of course safety is a must.
Thanks to anyone who wants to share their experience or thoughts.
Melanie
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5097 posts
Not to sound alarmist, just realistic, be sure to get a good recent guidebook for tips like carrying a dummy wallet, etc. Rio gets rare mention here so I would also check on Trip Advisor.
I was only in Rio for a few days and had no problem whatsoever, but as you likely know from your previous travels, street crime is rampant. At night, we took uber everywhere, whereas in other places we would have definitely walked. It depends on your risk tolerance of course. Just as soon as we started to feel silly like we were being overly cautious, we'd meet someone (our last uber driver) who had been a victim.
It is an amazing place and we enjoyed our brief time in Rio very much--do try to get outside of Rio--you will not be far from the Atlantic rain forest and we totally let our hair down at Paraty/Ilha Grande, even rented a car. My husband dropped his wallet on a dock and someone walked right up to tell him.
Posted by
OP
Door County
17 posts
Thanks for your advise. We try to be overly cautious when out..We are comfortable using Ubers and generally are not night people. We were warned while in Buenos Aires not to walk on the sidewalk with a cell phone visible. Apparently theft of cell phones is common... It is difficult to find an up to date guide books We did order two tho. Definitly looking at Paraty as well for a few days.
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5097 posts
Sounds like you are well prepared and know what to expect. It was a new experience for me to go somewhere I had to be on guard, but well worth it. I was traveling with a government employee and you can imagine how extreme those travel warnings are. But I also saw some examples of poverty that I will never forget, so it is not overstated. I don't really want to harp on it, but on the one hand you need the phone to use uber, and on the other hand you should not pull out the phone just anywhere--cognitive dissonance for me!
I think I mostly relied on Trip Advisor and there are many experienced people there who can likely give you more info on neighborhood to choose--blogs and Reddit are good sources too. DK, Lonely Planet, and Rough Guide have recently published guides, so I'd look there even if you think you will limit your trip to Rio and environs.
Good luck--it's unbelievably gorgeous!
ETA It can be scorching hot in January, so don't forget to take that into consideration!