*flew into GRU airport São Paulo for $230 direct from Lima (5 hours) overnight with carry on, ubered 20 minutes to Terminal Rodoviário do Tietê bus terminal ($10; can also take public transport but I was short on time), and a $20 bus to Paraty booked through BookAWay (7 hours)

PARATY

Hostel:

–Chill Inn: Lisa and I split a private room for $26/night (also a smaller/cheaper option), had a basic but nice buffet breakfast included and a clean private bathroom, was about 20-25 minutes walk from the historic center but in a quiet and safe area  

Activities:

–Waterfall: take the bus from Paraty (5BRZ each way) to Penha, there is a long waterfall where you can slide down the stone, chill in the small pools at the bottom, or relax by the view in the entrance at the entrance – remember to check the bus times for return when you get on at the initial station! it’s much cheaper to go yourself than go with a tour 

–Islands Boat Tour: booked through GetYourGuide, included four stops; Ilha dos Cocos, Praia da Conceição, Lagoa Azul y Praia da Lula (all clear and beiwitudo water, could swim and snorkel with $5 rental), overall was nice but all food and drink was extra and a bit pricey when added with the fees 

–Street Parties / bars: we went to the center every night which had a lot of cheap bars and strong drinks, and because Carnaval was the same week, there were live music performances from bands in the square that lasted until midnight the whole week 

Restaurants:

–Cantinho Da Sil Restaurante: went here for lunch most days, have very affordable plates for $4-6 each with good portions 

–Maria Coffee 

–Secret Garden Coffee 

*just to note here, there is no transportation option other than during tours and the bus station (usually for longer distances), so if you want to go around the town or to the beach the only option is walking 

RIO DE JANIERO & CARNAVAL:

Tourist Spots:

–Christ Redeemer: we took the bus up from the spot through the National Reserve which was 85BRZ/$ booked online (same price in person) and was small vans up and down the mountain. there are stairs up to the statue with small souvenir shops and two restaurants as well. it was pretty crowded but had a lot of beautiful spots for photos and to overlook the huge city from above, really clear and amazing to see across all the buildings and ocean. the actual statue I felt was kind of underwhelming, but if you are visiting for a more religious purpose i’m sure it could be a bigger deal. overall cool to see but again just a bit underwhelming for a world wonder in my opinion. there is another option for slightly more to take a cable car-type transport from the same spot in the reserve, and an additional car transport closer to the beaches more south in Rio. just look the options up and choose what is best for your time and budget!

–Sugarloaf Mountain/cable car: with a 50% off student discount, the four cable car rides were around $18 USD, but expect to wait a long time to go up and down (especially going down at night). there is also the option to hike up and down to the lower mountain (30 mins up/15-20 down) which is pretty easy, and you can still visit all the restaurants and see the viewpoints. to go all the way up to the second mountain (Sugarloaf) you would need to take the cable car.  

–Jardim Botânico (student id entrance half price – $6.35 USD/36.50 BRL): really beautiful garden, huge and can spend several hours if you wish, also had a free museum outside but the info is mainly in Portuguese 

–Parco Lage: 20 minute walk down the street from the Botanical garden, free to walk around, just a large park but had lots of monkeys and a mini aquarium in the center, an old small castle, and a lot of cool plants in the park; also a larger castle in the front, not sure about an entrance fee since I didn’t go in but you can walk in the building and at least one restaurant

–Lapa/Downtown: always be careful with your belongings, but a few popular spots here are the Arcos da Lapa, the beautiful stained glass in the Catedral Metropolitana de São Sebastião and the colorful stairs, Escadaria Selarón. You can take a free tour of the Lapa area as well. 

Carnaval:

–Sambadrome events / tickets: We paid $60 USD including fees for our tickets (purchased one day before event) for one of the regular night performances, which was from about 9 PM-6AM and included 6 or 7 samba schools, each with thousands of students. They each had a theme, most seemed to have a political underlying, but the amount of effort and time in each float and costume and decoration was genuinely jaw dropping. I have never seen anything like it and I was honored to be able to witness such a unique show, which Brasil prides itself greatly on, taking it from the favelas (“slums”) to the entire world. There are shows for about a week straight with different floats each day, which are all judged. The three days at the end are for the better schools and previous years winners to perform (these tickets are more expensive). It is cheaper to buy tickets ahead of time, and easier to try to get them on your phone if possible, since we waited to buy them until last minute and had to wait two hours to pick them up at a hotel during a very stressful process. 

–Blocos: (blocosrj.official): Before and during Carnaval, there are a huge variety of street/block parties all around Rio, and this instagram posted the information on each one every day and their timing and locations. Some parties were better than others, as some didn’t really have any music and were really crowded and hot during afternoons, but at night on the streets with parades or by the beach were more fun for me. 

–Lapa: This was another super popular area which came alive at night with all the clubs lining the street, but still busy with food and drink stands by the Arches both day and night. Our favorite club was Insenato, which had good DJs and let us in for free most nights before midnight. 

Other:

–Beaches: Ipanema and Copacabana are right next to each other and very crowded, but safe, shop on the streets and grab food, and see the sunset behind the mountains. Praia Vermelha and the surrounding area is also really nice, next to Sugarloaf Mountain and the cable cars. 

–Food: there are shops honestly everywhere, I don’t have any specific recommendations since I would really just grab anything that was near me at the time (often it was açaí since it was really good and cheap from street carts)! Grocery stores are decently priced too (especially for alcohol!! you can buy super cheap bottles and/or mixers; we found a bottle of vodka for $1.80) and they have decent options for snacks or certain stores also have prepared foods, and many have bakeries. If you would also rather make your own drinks this is a safer option. 

–Cash/Card: literally every single place and person I came across had a personal card machine. I have genuinely never seen this in any country before, and although there is the typical card charge from my own credit cards currency exchange fee, none of the card machines charged their own tax and I only carried a small amount of cash on me since I never came across any problems with just card. Again this was really shocking to me but make everything super quick and easy! 

–SIM card: I personally mainly used my data from my regular plan, only having occasional spots without any service. I did end up buying a 1GB e-sim for a week in case of emergency for around $5 on the Nomad app, but didn’t end up using it all. Having some kind of sim is definitely a good backup just in case of emergency, and it’s usually cheaper to buy one in person somewhere out of the airport. 

–Language: this is definitely something I wanted to make note of for Brasil, because in such a popular place like Rio I was generally expecting more people to speak english. Obviously for Carnaval there were a lot of tourists, but most of the Brazilians I met spoke little to no english. Not that it’s anything wrong, but just something to keep in mind for future visits. I got by mostly fine speaking Spanish (they have similar words, some people understood some didn’t) and using google translate (download the language you need on your phone before you get there! just in case you don’t have service it can be a lifesaver). 

–Transport: I mainly used Uber as it is a safer option in my opinion than a taxi as there is always already a set price and tracking, and when splitting with friends or taking the motorcycle option here it’s never more than a few dollars. The motos can be scary since they go pretty fast and weave in between the cars (sorry mom), but I never saw or heard of any accidents while I was there. If you chose the motos, just be aware of your belongings and don’t have your bag or phone out for too long (someone will drive by and snatch it). 

–Safety: Overall I didn’t really experience any issues, although I did have a friend who was alone and got robbed in the middle of the day but was unharmed, and heard stories of people getting robbed at gunpoint or off the motorbikes, or just getting pick-pocketed in general. Also always be careful of drink spiking because there are so many street stands to get the drinks from (ALWAYS watch them make them, just in case), and hold them close to you regardless if you are in the street or a club. Again, I never experienced any issues and didn’t hear of anyone I knew specifically having this issue either, but this is common practice anywhere you are. Just don’t be alone if possible, be careful at night everywhere, don’t have your phone out if it doesn’t need to be, and tuck cash and phone out of reach always (my friends and I used small fanny packs and always kept them inside our skirts-even if visible it’s way better than your pocket!!)

Accommodation:

I knew a lot of people from traveling in Peru that I met up with in Rio, and I met up with Nicky again (my Australian friend in met in Japan!) and we split a mix of hotels and hostels, switching out every few days to see different parts of Rio. During Carnival even hostel prices that are typically $7/night were up to over $100-200 regardless of location. Copacabana and Ipanema were nicer as they are both beach front areas with a lot of souvenir shopping and restaurants, also generally safer than Centro/Downtown especially at night. One worth noting was Cooacabana Hostel, which was around $10/night and was a close walk to the beach, and we stayed there about five days after Carnival was over and the prices were back down. Some of the hotels we stayed at during Carnival were “adult only” (another world for a hookup hotel) but we honestly found them very comfortable, they had AC and typically included free breakfast delivered to the room which were spacious and included a private bathroom. They usually ranged $20-45/night during and after Carnival, and we never felt unsafe or uncomfortable. We weren’t aware originally of the meaning but these are very common around Rio, and some are much nicer than others but were fine and affordable for our trip. Just keep in mind prices of all accommodation switch around a lot depending on the day of the week and time of the year!

I really enjoyed Brasil and would 10000% return, both for Carnaval and to visit other parts of this huge and beautiful country! I did end up staying an extra week, but was sick so unable to do much extra. As always, leave any questions below! Until the next adventure!

xoxo,

Ang around the World 🙂