General Info

[QUOTE=Puta Playa]
Ibis Centro: 91 USD night
Mercure Rekso Hayam Wuruk - 59 USD/night
[/QUOTE]
Ibis and Mercure are two very different things.

A room at Mercure Arpoador or Mercure Ipanema costs some 330 BRL (low season), which is 150€, so three times that you paid for the Mercure Rekso.

To compare two Ibis, you can get a room at Ibis Tamarin in Jakarta for 300 000 Rp (27€).

[QUOTE=Puta Playa]SP is overpriced[/QUOTE]
SP is MUCH cheaper than Rio for accommodation. A one-bedroom apartment at Mercure Itaim Bibi or Mercure Pinheiros cost around 150 BRS, and a room at Ibis Paulista 90 BRS.

[QUOTE=Prosal]Wrong. SP is MUCH cheaper than Rio for accommodation. A one-bedroom apartment at Mercure Itaim Bibi or Mercure Pinheiros cost around 150 BRS, and a room at Ibis 90 BRS.[/QUOTE]Ibis Paulista is R159 (other Ibis properties around town are R$130 to R$159) and the Mecure propeties are a bit higher. Av Paulista Ibis is a great location for business. Restaurants around there tend to be pricey though as it is the major business district.

Can you fact check before posting?

[QUOTE=Prosal]+1. A fucking pousada in Sao Paulo Litoral Norte (Camburi) is nowadays more expensive than the Four Seasons Jakarta or the Grand Hyatt Bangkok. Go figure !

Brasil has priced itself out of the market. That is why you bump more and more into brasilian vacationers in Thailand or Bali now.

They inevitably make a stop in Paris by the way (brasilian tourists literally swarm here), thanks to the looong lasted and firmly embedded francophilie (admiration and love of french culture) of -educated- brasilian people.[/QUOTE]

Just flew out with Air France and the plane was full. (mostly all brazilians). They were asking people if they minded flying another day as there were so many on standby.

Has anyone experienced or knows someone who's been scammed when they exchanged money at the airport upon arrival in rio????

[QUOTE=Ryjerrob]Has anyone experienced or knows someone who's been scammed when they exchanged money at the airport upon arrival in rio????[/QUOTE]The rate they pay is like robbery.

[QUOTE=Puta Playa]SP is overpriced, but Rio is not overpriced for the kind of things that experienced mongers want. If someone insists on Copa hotels and termas like a tourist, then yes it's expensive too, but otherwise it's fine. SP was really expensive even 5 years ago when I first went there, but they are priced higher because they are a real international business hub with high cash influx, unlike Rio.[/QUOTE]In the land where the tourist trap is infamous, experiencing a new low at the moment. In Caldas Novas quoted a hotel rate of 700 reales for one night (ending at 10 a, m,) Includes meals for two and entrance to the aquatic park.

Room was so basic ($30-40 in Thailand), wouldn't have stayed there if price was 200 reales. Granted its Corpus Christo weekend, but another illustrative example. Off to Pantanal next and prepared for similar.

[QUOTE=Ryjerrob]Has anyone experienced or knows someone who's been scammed when they exchanged money at the airport upon arrival in rio????[/QUOTE]
I have had good experience with the "private traders" at the airport, always getting a more favorable rate than the cambio. You need to know the current exchange rate before you begin to negotiate with them. Don't exchange more than you will need on arrival at your destination. Also use caution to not reveal currency in public. The airport is full of big eyes.

[QUOTE=Hughdad] Can you fact check before posting?[/QUOTE]
IMO you must be yankee to pay to the rack rate in a hotel. Obviously as your fellow countrymen, you are more skilled for quibbling and complaining than for hoodwinking, wheedling and lowering the prices. I don't have to "check" anything. That's the rates I pay in SP (yet that are quite close of the rack rates, so there's admittedly few merit in doing so).

Anyway hope you demonstrate more craftiness and awareness in latin culture to get girls in Brasil. But you remain a boring quibbler in your DNA, don't you ?

BTW just grimly negotiated with Korston Hotel in Moscow and got a very good rate (long stay) at 4000 rub taxes and bkft included. From a rack rate of 8000 rub + taxes. :p

[QUOTE=Koolkid]Just flew out with Air France and the plane was full. (mostly all brazilians). They were asking people if they minded flying another day as there were so many on standby.[/QUOTE]I'm not surprised. Brasilian tourists literally pullulate in Paris.

One may ask whether it's not cheaper for them to go to Europe than vacationing in their own country (which I believe).

[QUOTE=Prosal]IMO you must be yankee to pay to the rack rate in a hotel. Obviously as your fellow countrymen, you are more skilled for quibbling and complaining than for hoodwinking, wheedling and lowering the prices. I don't have to "check" anything. That's the rates I pay in SP (yet that are quite close of the rack rates, so there's admittedly few merit in doing so).

Anyway hope you show more craftiness and awareness in latin culture to get girls in Brasil. But you remain a boring quibbler in your DNA, don't you ?

BTW just grimly negotiated with Korston Hotel in Moscow and got a very good rate (long stay) at 4000 rub taxes and bkft included. From a rack rate of 8000 rub + taxes. :p[/QUOTE]So the "rack rates" at the hotels in both SP and Rio are the exact same. I was giving you the rates from the website. What's the matter, your "hoodwinking" better in SP than Rio? I know someone in management at Accor and I am sure they will tell me you are full of shit.

And while you have to go around flashing shining accessories, expensive clothes and cash to try to get some pussy (you are that douche right?), I have a beautiful young mulata lady that takes care of all my needs (and she brings around her friends for me too). She is making me "aware" of all I need to know about Latin culture.

Good luck in world travels big spender, I am loving my great "boring" life here. And, why yes, I think I did see a little "quibbler in the DNA" I left on my lady's belly early this morning. Ride 'em Yankee!

[QUOTE=Poucolouco]I have had good experience with the "private traders" at the airport, always getting a more favorable rate than the cambio. You need to know the current exchange rate before you begin to negotiate with them. Don't exchange more than you will need on arrival at your destination. Also use caution to not reveal currency in public. The airport is full of big eyes.[/QUOTE]

Was that 8 or more years ago? At that time the black market rate was much higher then all other exchange rates.

Nowadays, a good cambio has the tourist exchange rate. The private guys should have an even worse rate. Now the best cambios downtown or in Copacabana give a little better rate

Often the bank gives the best rate. Depends.

[QUOTE=Hughdad]So the "rack rates" at the hotels in both SP and Rio are the exact same. I was giving you the rates from the website. I know someone in management at Accor and I am sure they will tell me you are full of shit.[/QUOTE]
Rack rates from the Accor website (for a stay from 06-06-10) :

- Mercure Ipanema: 325 RS/day ; Mercure Arpoador: 335 RS/day ; Mercure Leblon: 330 RS/day (which is low season rates BTW).

- Mercure Vila Olimpia: 150 RS/day ; Mercure Pinheiros: 160 RS/day ; Mercure Moema: 155 RS/day (there is no low or high season in SP)

You talk out of your ass, as usual.

[QUOTE=Hughdad] And while you have to go around flashing shining accessories, expensive clothes and cash to try to get some pussy (you are that douche right?)[/QUOTE]
WTF? .. what this spiteful, malevolent and embittered BS has to do with accommodation rates in Brasil ?

FYI, in the civilized world (out of US), people dress up. By choice, and by taste. That is also very true for the cosmopolitan bowels of any big brasilian city BTW.

The fact that you dress like a slob and that your favelada GFs accepts it (which says a lot) means nothing. Eveywhere in the world, from Antinanarivo to Jakarta, through Curitiba and Vladivostok, well-groomed girls require the company of correspondingly well-groomed guys. No "emerging country" girl with a bit of taste and of self-respect wants to be seen making out or holding hands with a shittily-dressed foreigner. But this doesn't concern your target group obviously, so I don't know why I even bother to explain you those things.

[QUOTE=Hughdad] And while you have to go around flashing shining accessories, expensive clothes and cash to try to get some pussy (you are that douche right?)[/QUOTE]In the civilized world (non-US), people dress well by choice and by taste, not by necessity.

[QUOTE=Brazil Specialist]Was that 8 or more years ago? ...the best cambios downtown or in Copacabana give a little better rate. Often the bank gives the best rate. Depends.[/QUOTE]

Perhaps I wasn't clear. The context of Ryjerrob’s question was “at the airport upon arrival in rio.” I have done it several times over the years and most recently within the past year. I have had good experience with the "private traders" at the airport, always getting a more favorable rate than the cambio at the airport.

[QUOTE=Poucolouco]Perhaps I wasn't clear. The context of Ryjerrob’s question was “at the airport upon arrival in rio.” I have done it several times over the years and most recently within the past year. I have had good experience with the "private traders" at the airport, always getting a more favorable rate than the cambio at the airport.[/QUOTE]
Sorry, don't know the Portuguese word for them, but in a book I read some time ago they were called money changers. You will see them milling around the Rio airport in gray or tan jumpsuits. The day before you arrive check the current exchange rate at [url]http://www.oanda.com/currency/converter/[/url]
Although [url]http://www.xe.com/ucc/convert.cgi?Amount=1&From=USD&To=BRL&image.x=44&image.y=10[/url]
is often cited here, Oanda actually will give you a rate closer to what is offered at the cambios. If you don’t speak Portuguese, write down the rate you hope to get on a piece of paper. Have the money you want to exchange ready and when you are approached show the guy the paper. He will pull you over to the side and count out the money in front of you all the while trying not to be too obvious.

For laughs, you can stop at the bank counter after you exit customs. The AMEX exchange (located in the terminal) is not too bad if you do not feel comfortable exchanging with the jumpsuit guys. I just exchanged money with them on my recent trip and got a rate comparable to the Copa cambios. I do not recommend exchanging a lot of money, just enough to tide you over until you can make a more secure cambio or ATM run.