Rio de Janeiro - Hotels & Apartments

[Victor01]

Has anyone stayed at Golden Tulip Ipanema Plaza. It is located close to Porcao and Mario's. Is this hotel girl friendly! Please post any experience.

Thanks,

Victor01

[Sunset Strip]

How is the California Othon Classic for quality? I have a good rate for Ja. and am thinking about staying there since apartments are higher this season anyway. Plus, I am not planning on bringing too many, of any girls back to my room. I have just had too many problems with girls in Rio lately.

I am not worried about the Hotel being girl-friendly because I know that is a relative term. If I meet one girl I want to spend lots of time with I will work things out with hotel management I am sure.

But I do not want to stay in a rundown place.

Thanks.
TJ

[Ezinho]

For you Rio experts - do you know of a good hotel near the American Consulate which charges a rate of less then $100/night? Guest friendliness is not an issue since I will be there with my fiancee who will be a registered guest? What kind of amenities do they have? We will be staying there about a week in late January.

Thanks,

Lucky Chuck

I went to meet the Consul General once earlier this year to see if I could land a job with the Consulate there in Rio, so maybe I can help. I'm not sure how close you want to be to the Consulate, but there is an Othon hotel (called the Othon Aeroporto I think) that is just a few blocks from the Consulate, and right near the domestic airport. I've never been inside the hotel so I can't say for sure how it is, but I'm assuming it caters to Brasilian businessmen, so it should be fine.

Another option is the Hotel Gloria, which is just as good as any upscale hotel in Copa or Ipanema IMHO, but cheaper. It is right near the Gloria metro stop, so you can take the metro from there to the Cinelandia metro stop, which is only one stop away. From there it's a 5 minute walk to the Consulate. You could also walk from the hotel to the Consulate, but it probably would be about a 25 minute walk or so. Fine in the daytime, but I wouldn't do it at night. Both hotels are, of course, under $100 (as are almost all hotels in Centro). Hope this helps.

[Lucky Chuck]

For you Rio experts - do you know of a good hotel near the American Consulate which charges a rate of less then $100/night? Guest friendliness is not an issue since I will be there with my fiancee who will be a registered guest? What kind of amenities do they have? We will be staying there about a week in late January.

Thanks,

Lucky Chuck

[Garotoz]

for the last few years i have stayed at the priaia lido in lido on av ns copacabana. totally guest friendly and very reasonable at r$120 per night. also the rooms are quiet so when you want to sleep you can. breakfast is included (you and your guest) and they have high speed internet as well.

the reception personnel all speak english, and they have very good security. i like it better than renting flats unless i am going to be in rio for a prolonged time. they also have a web site as well.


garotoz

[Skisandy]

Thank you all for your input. Surely this is not the only place where official/unofficial policy don't match. Probably will give it a try again, especially since there is no pre-payment policy there for a reservation. If there is trouble, one can move out with no notice and no loss of $$.

[Shemp]

Skisandy,

I too received that confirmation e-mail mentioning no unregistered guests in the rooms at IP towers before my trips to rio this year but I never had a problem-either with girls I brough back personally or with escorts who came in on their own. I know a bunch of gringos who had plenty of female guests over the thanksgiving holiday-no problem. They have 2 policies-their official one & their real one.

Shemp

[Truant]

Parthenon Botafogo flats was offering a TWO BEDROOM flat on a recent Saturday night for R$204.00. 2266-9200-- Rua Sorocaba 305--just thru the tunnel behind Luomos so not really far from Copa. This is a newer hotel that was very guest friendly and LARGE. With kitchen, two bathrooms,(two showers for those that don't like sharing with the garota), two TVs. One room had a king bed the other room had two twin beds. Breakfast not included. Mini bar waters were only R$2.00. Not a tourist trap. Just a bargain if you can handle not being at the beach. Will repeat.

Truant

[Trippleecks]

i rented an ocean front studio apartment in leme near the meridian hotel, with high speed internet from www.ez-riorentals.com

[Marc25]

Anyone got any ideas on how to get a better rate at the jw in rio, corporate, special cards, I have to go direct but would be happy to buy a membership card ,,,looking for any mongers going in january or feb

[Euro100]

@lonzof, Skisandy

Hotel Luxor Continental - about $100/night
Girl-friendly !!! (you pay an extra 30 reais per girl, but then you can take them to the really nice greakfast buffet, too)

Easy walk to Prince Isabel boites, if this is what you are into.

You need to ask for Internet access when making the reservation, because not all rooms have it. Wireless access in the foyer. (By the way, the Internet access is not free, but the charges are not too unreasonable.)

euro

[Skisandy]

"Only registered guests are allowed to enter the rooms" said my confirmation E-mail for a January 2006 reservation.

Claudia, the reservation manager, refuses to answer my question whether there is a new policy in effect or not.

Ricardo, the recetionist, who speaks very good English, tells me to confirm any policy changes with Claudia.

Seems to be impossible to get a straight anwswer - I am thinking of booking somewhere else. Does anyone else know anything about this?

I liked the place very much, having stayed there several times in the past, it's kind of sad to have to move on.

[Lonzof]

i highly recommend www.rioapartments.com. the company is a class act. they have some great studios, which are very nice by american standards.i also recommend john thompson at www.riorentals4less.com/apartments_hotels.shtml. i have never used kenn www.ez-riorentals.com, but i understand he runs a good operation. i do not recommend www.apartmentsinrio.com
or www.spectralight.net, which is the same guy. bait and switch.

ronnyron

hey ron,

took your advise and stayed in copa with rioapartments.com. the studio apartment had marble floors, hi-speed internet, dvd, cd, capble tv, and was extremely clean. the room did not have an iron so i called them up and it was delivered to me. rioapartment.com is a good group to deal with.

i'm planning on returning to rio in march but wanted something closer to the leme side with hi-speed internet which seems impossibe to get.

hi-speed internet is important to me because it allows me to have voip phone service. i use lingo.com and they supply me with a brazilian phone number. i chose a sao paulo number in order to keep rio hiden from the wife. voip service allows me to call the wife without her knowledge of where i really am and it allows her to call me thinking i'm somewhere else in a hotel.

if someone has a better phone disguise, please hit me up and let me know. i don't like caring a lan line phone and the lingo adapter box with me while i'm traveling. i do have a world phone but have not figured out how to use it without her knowning that it is a cellphone and not a hotel phone.

later.

[Hojo]

I took Big Dicks advice and checked into the Sheraton Rio Hotel & Towers and booked a double occupancy room on the internet.

The Sheraton was definitely girl friendly. However there seemed to be a miscommunication between the night staff and the day staff. The night staff kept trying to charge me $20 to bring up a girl and the day Manager kept taking off the charge. Make sure you talk to the day manager at least once if this happens. When I checked out, no charges were to be seen for taking up a girl. If the girl comes up to see you, sometimes a reception guy will walk her to your room so you can sign the girls visitor papers. I should have tipped this guy, but I didn’t.

If you are going to reserve a Deluxe Room, take a look at the Junior Suite. It’s only $5 USD more. The Suite is much bigger with a sitting area but the view is of the side view of the beach. I think the Deluxe Room faces the pool and the beach side. Personally I like a bigger room for longer stays.

Also, if you call the hotel directly you can negotiate the price a little and even get them to throw in a breakfast buffet for two every morning. This wasn't offered on the Sheraton website. The Breakfast is worth $50R per seat. I was able to extend my stay and pay $20 USD less than my Internet reservation. Just remember there is a 15% tax on everything you charge to your room.

One more plus to the Sheraton: On my way back to the hotel from HELP, my taxi was stopped by a police roadblock 20 meters away from the Sheraton Entrance. They asked the driver, my girlfriend, and I to step out of the car. One police officer asked if I had drugs, and I said no. When they asked my girlfriend where we were going, she said the Sheraton. The police man “immediately” let us goes after that.

Taxi cost:
Sheraton to Therma Loumono: $15R to $20R depending on traffic.
Sheraton to Therma Monte Carlo: $13R to $15R depending on traffic.
Sheraton to HELP: $12R $13R, both ways, make sure they use the meter.
Sheraton to International Airport (taxi with meter): $50R
The Sheraton car service is the same price if you negotiate, however
I took the taxi just to see how much it would be.
International Airport to Sheraton: $20 USD, I waited for a taxi dropping off people
on the departure level and offered the guy 20 buck. He said OK.

A note on getting a taxi at the Sheraton. Wait for a taxi bringing people to the hotel and take that one. Don’t walk to the taxis parked on the main road because, they will charge you a large flat rate. The same goes with the hotel cars. They will try to charge you $30R to go to help. Make sure your girl knows this as well or she'll be hesitant to visit you again if she thinks she will be paying a $30R taxi fare.

In conclusion, I have nothing but good things to say about the Sheraton Staff. They were the most professional and friendly staff I have dealt with, even though they knew what I was up to.

pop till you drop,
hojo

[Amerioca]

I am staying at the JW Marriott in Copacabana. They are very definitely girl friendly. On my way out in the evening I spotted two girls in the lobby that looked like working girls and later saw them both working at Barbarella. The hotel makes the girls sign in and they make a photocopy of their ID card.

At night, there should be several at the bar on the second floor.