00MK00

Went there for carnival 2007. Stayed in a hotel just off ipanema beach for a few days before the carneval, then moved to centro during the carnival weekend.

The beaches are awesome. Spent most of my time in Ipanema beach but also visited Copacabana and Flamengo. In copa, the sun sets behind the buildings, not the best view. In Ipanema it sets behind a hill. I think it is vidigal. Very nice view.

The beaches are always popular, but they weren’t that crowded in the weekdays which was nice. Come Friday, All I could see were umbrellas. Still OK though.

The view of Rio from the Sugarloaf mountain and Corcovado (where the Cristo Redentor statue is) are breathtaking. Its amazing to see the clouds passing around the statue. Sunset from Sugarloaf is a must see. Both of these places are always busy though. It seems like a never ending queue of people waiting to have their pictures taken.

The street parties were great. There was a really friendly atmosphere. Went to scala for the Mangueira ball. It gets really crowded there, and the people love to samba till morning!

On the parade days the teams were assembling their floats during the daytime in Ave. Presidente Vargas, which is quite interesting to watch. Its also a good time to look at the floats, as you don’t really get a chance to see them properly or up close during the samba parade, unless you have one of the tables next to the runway. The seating in the sambadromo isn’t great. if you are in the private seating area and and you’re not in the first 3 or 4 rows, you’re not goung to see much. The views are better from the grandstands provided you have binoculars or something. But those are unbelievably crowded!

I was warned to be careful when wondering around especially at night. But I felt safe in general. probably because I stuck to the streets where parties were, or in Ipanema or Presidente Vargas where there were always a large number of people around.

I didn’t get to do somethings I wanted like a Favela tour, which I was advised against by the hotel staff, saying things weren’t very safe then.

All in all, rio was great fun. I don’t know if I’ll go back there anytime soon though. There are a plenty places I haven’t been to yet. But I definitely recommend it as a holiday destination.

I’m from Bangladesh. haven’t been since ’93. would like to visit again someday.

A very clean and nice city. not much else to it though.

The zoo is nice.