New Years in Rio

In addition to the New Year’s festivities, I would say that the following top my list:

• Sitting on the beach in Ipanema, relaxing and sipping on a cool caipirinha
• Enjoying the view from the Corcovado or Sugar Loaf, with some of the most magnificent views I’ve seen anywhere in the world
• Strolling along the Lagoa in the evening and stopping to eat at one of the outdoor restaurants and listen to the live music.

In addition to this, one of the best things about Rio is the favorable exchange rate and the bargains that result. Overall, food and lodging costs in Rio are very cheap, even after paying the inflated tourist prices.

Lastly, there is a certain intangible relaxed atmosphere about Rio that makes this such a wonderful place.

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Our room itself was rather small and did not have any view, but it was clean and adequate. The room included breakfast each morning that was very good and served in the restaurant with a great view of the beach.

The one complaint I had was with the air-conditioning. You could not control the air-conditioning from the room; you had to call down to the front desk to have them turn it on or off. In addition, due to the small nature of the room, it was situated right next to the bed, so it was blowing right on you.

The cost of the room was very reasonable considering the location. We paid less the $50 for the room part of our stay, but of course they bumped up the cost to nearly double that the weekend of New Year’s, just like very other hotel in Rio. Even with the inflated holiday pricing, I still thought the place was a good deal for the price given the great location.

The interior of the restaurant was quite nice; it was elegant in a relaxing way. Though it was expensive by Brazilian standards, it was still quite cheap compared to what you would pay for similar food in the US. The bill for two of us, including drinks, was less than $50.

Any trip to Brazil requires at least one visit to a churrascaria, and I would recommend Marius as that one stop.

Our taxi driver tried to convince us to have him drive us to the top. The price he quoted us was equivalent to the round-trip cost for two train tickets, and we wouldn’t have had to wait for the train. However, we decided to take the train based on advice we had read, and I think it was a good choice. Though we did need to wait a while for the train, the ride up was filled with great views that we wouldn’t have appreciated from the car.

On the top of the mountain, there was small restaurant and snack bar. Though it was a bit overpriced, the view was unbelievable and more than made up for it.

We had reserved a table at one of the many restaurants Av. Atlantica. The cost was about US$40 per person, quite steep for Brazil, but I thought it was well worth it. This included a huge multi-course dinner that was quite good, beer and wine, and use of the table for the entire evening. I would highly recommend doing the same. We were able to easily go in and out of the masses of people along the beach and relax for while, and even at the table, we had a great view of everything going on.

As we ate dinner, we watched the crowd of people build up on the beach. As the hour of midnight approached, we made our way on the beach to get as close to the water as possible. To ring in the New Year, we were treated to a fantastic fireworks display over the water that lasted almost an hour. The fireworks were fired off from barges that were docked just off-shore. Needless to say, it was quite a show. After the fireworks finished, concerts began on several of the many stages that were set up along the beach.

I’m sure the celebration carried on until dawn, but we were only able to hold out until about 2am, when we made our way back to our hotel.