I've just returned from my first time in Sao Paulo, and I had a great time. Thanks to this group for reporting back your experiences here, it was good guidance for my trip and shows it's worth reading the forums to make for a good first-time trip. Also special thanks to SocratesNY and your friends for showing me around Scandallo and introducing me to a couple girls so that I wasn't as much of a sitting duck and obvious newbie on my first visit. I still made some Newbie mistakes, see below, but that's ok. Sharing a few highlights and lessons learned, to help future travelers:
Hotel: I stayed at the Renaissance because of the guidance from this group, and it worked out great. The neighborhood (Jardins) was active and safe, with plenty of restaurants where I was able to get by on English and the Google Translate app, and my american credit cards worked just fine. The hotel was really good if you have status with Marriott, because they have a pretty nice lounge with breakfast (including eggs to order), where they also serve happy hour and soft drinks and filtered water available all day. I was also upgraded to one of the suites. And I got a feeling they have lots of them and upgrades aren't so hard. So that was a nice touch too. I brought a girl back one night around 11 pm and was expecting to need to register her, but we walked through the lobby and past reception to the elevators without any hassles. I hear from you guys that maybe it's good to register the girl, but in this case I was just glad to get through unnoticed, the girl came and went without issue, so it worked out fine.
Transport: Uber worked great for all transport. There's a taxi option where the cars are fine and they can use bus lanes, I tried that a few times but I wasn't really noticing when or where they were using the bus lanes. Uber black was also an option, but a Honda or similar would show up, so I don't know if it made much of a difference to the type of car. Only time Uber was inconvenient was when I was leaving for the airport at the end of my trip. Between traffic and mistakes from the driver he took over a half-hour to arrive to pick me up, so definitely budget a lot of time to get to the airpot.
How I spent my time. I went to Scandallo nearly every night, and to The Palms on one day.
Scandallo: top-notch experience, if you like Globe in Switzerland this might appeal to you. Food was good, drinks were great, everything was classy and professional. Being a repeat visitor pays dividends, as the girls get to know you, the security guys, front desk, room staff, and waiters get to know you, and you get better treatment all-around. Yes it can be expensive, but as the girls recognize you and know you have some experience, you get less of the newbie BS and the prices get fairer. I admit I got played on my first day. SocratesNY and his friends introduced me to a couple girls they knew on the first night, and I ended up going with both of them during my trip. The first one was super cute and spoke English, and she convinced me to take her and her friend all night. At 5 k BRL each! I had talked them down from 6 k per girl, but I know now that this was a newbie rate. When I paid at the front desk and the girls told the reception woman the rate, she gave a look to the girls, like 'good job getting this guy to pay that much'. I knew I was overpaying, but it was the newbie premium I guess, and I got better over time. On my last day I took a girl all-night for 2500 BRL, which I think was more fair.
I'm willing to spend instead of looking for the best bargain, so I think Scandallo was a good model for clubs worldwide (Globe in CH is another one of my favorites) - the only improvement would be if Scandallo had set prices so that you don't have to negotiate with every girl. At the same time, it was nice that the girls don't charge for extras. Girls that do anal or rimming will just do it, they don't charge different prices, unlike european clubs where there are extras for each service. The Scandallo model can also be a bargain if you take a girl all-night, since cost for a second, third, or fifth hour, doesn't 2 x, 3 x, or 5 x your price. As some have mentioned here, Scandallo also has a nice model for buying bottles, where they put a number on your bottle and you can ask for it on a future visit. It attracts girls over to you when you have bottles at your table (though it's not hard to attract the girls either way), so it can be a nice investment that doesn't get wasted if you don't finish your bottles on one day. Also, every girl would offer me her number and mention that she's willing to come over to my hotel on another day. So I collected a few numbers every day, and some of the girls continue to message me, and are even sending me photos and videos.
The Palms: As many have said here, the manager was really nice and helpful, he spoke English and told me how it would work. I paid 350 to the girl in the room, and 450 to reception after the room, for a total of 800 BRL. I chose Eva and she was even better looking in-person than on the iPad. But she was very mechanical, she wouldn't kiss, and she was trying to rush me through the session. She would ask me every 5 minutes if I was ready to put on a condom for sex, and then roll her eyes if I said no. Overall she was nice enough, but it was more of a pro experience than the type I like. I'm glad I tried it, but decided to stick to Scandallo after my one visit to The Palms.
I had been planning to visit Casarao on a Sunday, when Scandallo is closed. However, I was pretty tired after the previous night at Scandallo, so I took that Sunday night off instead, and never made it to Casarao. I don't know how you guys do many days in a row on your trips, I was happy to have a night off after just one day, and was tempted to take more. But I couldn't help myself from going to Scandallo every day after that. One difference at Scandallo from other places I've visited is that it's active enough in the daytime. They open at noon, there are certainly fewer girls at night but also far fewer men. So, you can have a good time there even around midday / early afternoon, where the girl / guy ratio seems pretty high and the girls are eager for any business.
Restaurants: All kinds of restaurants in SP, and I if I were to go again I would explore more of them. American credit cards were fine at all of them, English menus weren't common so I used the Google Translate app a lot. I tried Japanese, Italian, Indian, Lebanese. All were good. I think the best place I went was a Lebanese place called Saj, where the food was great and the watermelon / ginger caipirinha was one of the best cocktails I've ever had.
The girls:
There were all kinds of girls at Scandallo, nearly all attractive to me, and some even looked like models. I spent time with half-Asian, fully Asian, white, and black girls, some with a Latina look and others that looked more European. I learned after the first few sessions that I prefer girls that speak at least a little English, because it was ruining the flow to reach for a phone and take time to use a Translate app every time we wanted to say something. And this limited the number of eligible girls somewhat. Some of the girls that spoke no useful English also happened to have weird mannerisms that changed the dynamic negatively (one kept yelling "beautiful! At random times, including when I was mid-sentence). My preference for natural girls also limited the eligible pool severely, since so many girls there have implants. I still saw a few girls with implants and it was fun, but if you prefer natural and soft girls, just know that they were in the minority. I also learned over time to just tell the girls what I want ahead of time. I didn't want to get surprised by girls refusing to do things. I learned that DFK, BBBJ, and BLS were all pretty common. Nearly all girls I talked to were willing to do it, but I think it was still important to tell them and make sure. One girl I was really attracted to said no to BBBJ for instance, so it was important to know that ahead of time and we respectfully agreed that she should move on to find a different guy. FIV and rimming were less common, but still not hard to get. I didn't ask for anal, but some of the girls volunteered it. One girl even volunteered bareback after we were in a room, it's not my thing but I guess the point is that the girls are willing to do all kinds of things, and asking for what I wanted didn't seem to shock or turn off any of them. A highlight was one girl that masturbated while I watched, and then started squirting. That was fun to see, and she hadn't said anything about it ahead of time so it was an exciting surprise. So, I guess when you meet a girl at Scandallo anything can happen. Rates I paid for the girls ranged from 2500/ hour and 5000 for the full night when at the start of my trip, to 1200/ hour and 2500 for the night by the end of the trip (plus a 500 BRL fee to the club for taking the girl away for the night). I know I paid high overall, but did better over time. And the girls were not churning rooms repeatedly like at European clubs, so I think the advice from other guys here is right: have an idea of a reasonable rate and stick to it, and the girls will probably come around. Still, easier said than done when you're new to the place and excited to get to a room.
Locations for overnight: I mostly stayed at the room in Scandallo, and sometimes added an hour with a girl that I was already with. They have guys in the hallway that will bring you whatever you want from the bar, extra towels, and anything else. That was a cool service that I haven't seen at Globe, and I made sure to tip them each time I left the room. I liked having everything contained in the club, but I did take a couple opportunities to go offsite with girls that I liked:
My hotel: I took a girl all night to my room at the Renaissance, we ordered room service and spent the night together, and it was a great experience. Only downsides were that she was pretty loud, and there were times where I felt like I needed to cover her mouth to keep people in the neighboring rooms from complaining. She was also a little hard to get rid of. It wasn't an ugly experience in the morning, just that she was so relaxed that she wanted to hang out and talk for a long time, when it would have been easier to wrap up if I had an excuse of being on a clock with a room.
Love Motel: On the first night I asked the girl at Scandallo to recommend a love motel because I had read about them here and wanted to try them. She recommended Lush, we took an uber for less than 10 minutes, and got a room that had a private pool and hot tub in it. And it was awesome. It was very private, we could make as much noise as we wanted, we could call down to the staff for drinks and they would deliver them to a cabinet connected to the room, so that we could retrieve them without us or the staff seeing each other. I think I paid a couple hundred USD for the full night for our room (by credit card), which seemed a good enough value, so I'd probably stick to love motels when taking a girl all night in the future. Rates were lower for more basic rooms. Only thing to call out here was then when it was time to leave, the girl that I was with was very particular that we should not go outside of the motel to wait for our Uber because it would be too dangerous. She made sure to have the motel open their front gate for the Uber to come inside the property, and she did the same with hers. I didn't see any signs of violence or crime around SP, but I guess that's different by area and maybe time of day, so it was good to have a girl look out for those kinds of things.
Things I didn't expect or see mentioned before, so I'm sharing them here:
ATMs: I had a lot of trouble getting cash using my US ATM cards. I tried at least 5 different banks (including Bradesco and Banco do Brasil, and I went to Citi but it was a corporate office with no ATM) - all with no luck. This is the first country I've been to where my ATM cards from major US banks don't work. Ultimately I ended up getting some cash at the ATM in the Renaissance. It's in the floor below the ground floor, but there was an egregious mark-up on the exchange rate, and if I didn't accept the exchange rate then the ATM would charge at 15% (fee. I ended up just paying the fee for some cash, and using my credit cards much more than I had expected. This included using my credit cards at Scandallo, both for the rooms & food / drink (where they processed my credit card like normal), and to pay for some of the girls' time (where they charged an extra 10% to pay by card). I read here that some of you have called out ATM issues, but it sounded like major banks worked for you. Unfortunately that didn't work for me. I guess in the future I'll just take more BRL with me. There's still a charge for that from my US banks, but it's much less than what the fees were like to get BRL in SP. Or, I suppose I'll take USD and exchange for BRL at one of the exchange places recommended here.
Anonymity: This was much more of a problem in SP than in other places I've been. For starters, they required ID to check into Scandallo. I showed a copy of my passport, and then they documented the details in their system. When I checked out each day, the receipt had my name printed on it. A few times they also asked me for my real name when I checked out, I guess to verify I'm the right person associated with the in-house card that I handed them, to close out the charges on my tab. After you pay your final charges they hand you an exit ticket to hand to the guard at exit to confirm that you've paid your bill before he lets you out, and that exit ticket also had my name on it. Sometimes the guard at the exit would also ask for my name to verify against the exit ticket. In all these cases they would ask right in front of the girl that I was with. All this in addition to using credit cards for so many of the charges, created more of a paper trail than I would have liked. So, you all should know that if these are non-starters for you.
Overall I made some newbie mistakes, had a couple minor complications, but had a great time. I'm thinking of going again toward the end of the year, between Christmas and new year. I expect it'll be a lot quieter, but hopefully still a good time. The only thing keeping me from going to SP more often is that it's far from some other places that I would need to go anyway, unlike Europe, where I can add on time in London or Zurich more easily to my work trips. I'd highly recommend giving SP a try. Thanks again to this group (especially SocratesNY) for your help to make this a great trip.
