Oct 5

[world traveler]

Will arrive in Rio Oct til Oct 14, anyone else going to be there. Let me know by email if you wish.

 

WT

[Mikeyz7]

Have a great trip. I will be in Rio for the first time near the end of November. Looking forward to "hearing" your impressions as a first-timer.

[Guest ihpguy]

Hi, World Traveler. I'll be in Rio from October 4th through the 13th. Perhaps, we can get together. Where will you be staying?

[world traveler]

>Hi, World Traveler. I'll be in Rio from October 4th through

>the 13th. Perhaps, we can get together. Where will you be

>staying?

>

I will be at the Best Western Sol Ipanema right on Ipanema Beach. Would be nice to meet you. Send me some e-mail where you will be etc and lets set something up. I arrive on the 5th from Chicago and will stay until the 14th. Have you been to the saunas before?

 

WT

[paulsf]

I've been reading about the adventures of several first timers headed for Rio. Well I just returned 2 weeks ago from my first trip and wanted to share a few thoughts.

I had the same fears and aprehensions as most of the 1st timers here.

I appreciate the help I received from the MC and especially to Tri, Tomcal and SFtravler. They put everything into prospective and I had so much fun, that I have already booked my 2nd trip, for Carnival in Februay.

I booked everything thru Carlo. He arranged a car to pick us up, but the driver was in an accident on the way to the airport. So we are looking for our driver and the taxi drivers are all over us like vultures. So read the section on how to get a taxi. We paid a price. But after flying 20 hours I didnt care. They rest of the trip, we understood setting your price before you go and never paid more than $5.00 We had a little trouble finding an ATM. But finally found one in a pharmacy a couple of blocks from the hotel. (Royal Rio)

At nite could only get 100.00 reias, but during the day, it gave me all I wanted. But Rio is so inexpensive, I had a hard time spending money We found taxi's the best way to get to the major tourist sites. The taxi drivers loved to be tour guides also. They talk alot and pointed out alot. But we felt more and more comfortable as each hour went along. By the 3rd day, we felt like we had been there a month. As much as we fell into a comfort zone, we also we very aware of our surroundings and never felt a situation that made us nervous.

We did notice that most of the boys go to the beach, just wearing their hott little bathing suits. This made for great eye candy while having lunch along the beach restaurants. But I assume this is also a warning that you cant take much to the beach with you.

The saunas, what can I say. The first time I needed to get used to the scene. The second nite...well what can I say. Had a lot of fun..

Tri told me that the first trip to Rio can be intimdating. And it was, for about 1 day. Then we settled down, got used to our surrounding and had so much much I cant tell you. We talked about staying longer, but both had commitments at home. So as I said, we have already booked trip #2...

You will have a great time and I'm sure you will be like everybody else....booking trip #2 real soon