Help please - staying in Rio de Janeiro - advice needed

Gosia

Hi there

I was wondering whether someone could help out with some advise.

I will be staying in Rio for 2 days completely on my own (single female traveller in late twenties) in a hotel on the Copacabana beach called the Porto Bay Rio Internacional Hotel.

I'm doing a 20 days organised tour from Bolivia via Brazil that ends in Rio.

My concern is that this is the first time ever that I will be travelling on my own in a huge, unfamiliar and fairly dangerous city, however I do want to make the most of the 2 day stay by visiting the main attractions such as the Sugarloaf Mountain and the statue of Christ the Redeemer!

What's your advice - should I book myself onto an organised tour to visit these places or is it safe enough to make my own way there by taxi etc? Any advice would be much appreciated.

Note: I do not speak any Portugese. Also part of the reason why I booked myself into what I consider to be one of the nicer hotels is that I will not be going out anywhere by myself in the evenings - so I figured that I may aswell enjoy a nice hotel that has a nice pool and apparently stunning views!

Sorry for the long post :eek:

richardw

I have been to Rio and have been to up Sugarloaf Mountain and the statue of Christ the Redeemer.

They are both great things to do and the views are fantastic, but are best on clear non cloudy days, hope you will be lucky with the weather, we weren't we had 4 days of rain in January and on the 5th day it was clear so we did both in that day.

Sugar Loaf would be simplest just to get a taxi there from the hotel. I'd do something more organised to Christ the Redeemer.

cmw1212

You don't need to do an organised trip to Christ the redeemer you can just get a taxi to the station and take the cog train up or the taxi can take you all the way. I took the regular bus then train on my own and had no probs at all. I think for you it would be better to take a taxi but honestly it is better to get out at the station and take the train for the experience.
Is a shame you don't want to go out in the eve Rio is amazing by night- but I can very much see your pov.

richardw

There were three of us for Christ the Redeemer and so a Taxi between us was OK cost wise, the driver took us there and waited for us after we had been up to the statue and then took us back to Ipanema.
It is quite a way from Copacabana so a taxi might be expensive for one person, your hotel might be able to organise something.

Saz888

Hello
I met people in the hostel where I was staying who were making the same trips so we all went together

Gosia

Thanks everyone for the very useful tips and advice. I will try to get a taxi and do this on my own - hopefully there will be others at my hotel who may be interested in doing this and sharing a taxi.