by Andrew Porter

Created on: October 09, 2008   Last Updated: November 24, 2008

I went on a two-week vacation to Brazil, starting in Rio de Janeiro. The main reason for the trip was to explore the Amazon, but we had to start somewhere. Rio is often marketed as the most beautiful city in the world, but has a reputation for being dangerous and crime-ridden, so I wasn't expecting too much, but it turned out to be a stunning and beautiful place.

We flew with Iberia from London Heathrow to Rio de Janeiro via Madrid, with just a couple of hours wait in Madrid. On arrival, the official Rio de Janeiro taxis at the airport are the recommended, safest way of getting to your hotel and prepaid vouchers can be bought in the airport at the tourism desk. Alternatively there are also shuttle-busses. We had the itinerary of flights and hotels put together for us by Audley Travel (www.audleytravel.co.uk) and they had arranged someone to meet us with a driver, which was probably unnecessary, but quite useful when tired after a long flight. We did however have to put up with the usual hard sell of various additional tours on the way to the hotel.

We stayed at the Luxor Regente which is a pleasant modern fifteen-storey hotel, in an absolutely wonderful location overlooking Copacabana Beach and very near Ipanema Beach. We had fantastic views of Sugarloaf Mountain and the beach from our room. Rio is divided by the Serra da Carioca Mountains into a northern and a southern zone and the hillside occupied by shantytowns on both sides. Rio de Janeiro fills a narrow strip of land between the mountains and the sea. It is a stunningly beautiful city and any good hotel directly next to Copacabana or Ipanema beaches, such as the Luxor Regente, would make an ideal base. The Luxor Regente has a reasonable restaurant that provided an adequate breakfast, but there are however far better, more luxurious hotels either to stay or eat at along this stretch of sand, such as the Copacabana Palace.

We walked along most of the length of Copacabana Beach from the hotel going east. It is beautiful and a great place to relax with a coconut. Rio had a bad reputation for crime, but this area seemed completely safe during the day, although walking along the beach at night may not have been such a good idea and of course, all of the usual precautions should be taken with belongings. It was mid-September and while more than warm enough for me, the locals were not out in large numbers on the beach. Later it started raining and there was a fantastic thunder storm, which given the setting really

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