8 hours in RIO...need suggestions

[Ikna]

Traveling to Rio on the MSC Orchestra and only have 8 hours to enjoy the city. We (2 adults/2 children) plan on hiring a local private guide and want to know if there are many of the accessible as we disembark at the port or should we hire one ahead of time? I really don’t trust the overpriced excursions offered by the cruise line.

Any tour guide recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

[Wendy The Wanderer]

I would hire ahead of time. There are many good guides but they tend to be busy. And you can work with them to plan your day in advance to take advantage of our time.

 

I have a whole list of guides that I collected by doing searches on the Cruise Critic boards. I would recommend my guide, but I believe he's moved away from Rio just this month (cedricdz@uol.com.br). You could try donrafainrio@yahoo.es, Rafa, we met him while we were there in December, nice guy, and close associate of our guide Cedric.

[sultan_sfo]

Also expensive but less than cruise excursions are the tours available from the tour booth at the pier which you will see after you disembark. There are a variety of tours offered.

 

Traveling to Rio on the MSC Orchestra and only have 8 hours to enjoy the city. We (2 adults/2 children) plan on hiring a local private guide and want to know if there are many of the accessible as we disembark at the port or should we hire one ahead of time? I really don’t trust the overpriced excursions offered by the cruise line.

Any tour guide recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

[stella53]

If you have 8 hours you are not going to be seeing a whole lot of different places. If you disembark in Rio just go to the Sterns or Amsterdam Sauer shop in the terminal and they will give you a free ride into their Ipanema flagship stores where you can spend 40 miniutes on a tour of either factory seeing how stones are mined, cut and set. Take your luggage with you and ask then to store it. Then hop in a cab and go to either Sugarloaf or Corcovado. Cab should run about R$ 25 . Adult fare to top is about R$45 and kids about 1/2. Depending on what day it is you can try to take in both Sugarloaf and Corcovado or if Saturday maybe Lapa street fair or if Sunday the Ipanema hippie fair or Jardim Botanico or if you are really adventurous hop a cab to the Sao Cristavo fair (aka Nordestino fair) which is on the road to the airport. Lots of crafts , food and entertinment from northeast of the country. A guide will run you about $200 -250 with car. You really just need a guide book ( or see www.Ipanema.com) and some spirit. Use the money on souveneirs, food or haviannas.

[freddie]

Ikna - You cannot at all be certain that there will be guides available at the port. Even if there were, you would have to discuss your needs with them and negotiate a price, etc.

 

Wendy is entirely correct that the best thing to do is engage a guide in advance. That way, you can agree on the itinerary (particularly important in your case, as you will have two children with you). Our wonderful guide, Cedric, is no longer in Rio; but his friend and colleague, Rafa, whom we also like very much, continues to provide private guide services in that wonderful city.

 

Wendy gave you his email contact address. Here are the links to his blogs, so that you can get an idea of his passion for his country and his city: http://donrafaguestsinrio.blogspot.com

 

http://braziliantours.blogspot.com

 

If Rafa is not available for the day you will be in Rio, he can direct you to one of his colleagues, several of whom have guided friends of ours.

 

Rio is one of the great cities of the world. Using a private guide will allow you to make the most efficient use of your limited time there. Priceless, indeed.

 

Please understand that the private guides in Rio are often escorting clients either there or in other parts of Brazil and therefore may not be able to respond to your email immediately. The lack of an immediate response is not a lack of interest in your business; rather, it is an indication of the attention of the guide to his present clients, something you will enormously appreciate when you are the present client.

 

Have fun visiting "a cidade maravilhosa" - the Marvelous City.

 

Cheers, Fred

[chrismch]

Rio is a big city and the traffic is horrendous so you need to plan in advance what you want to see. We booked 2 day tours with Rio Plus (www.rioplustours.com The first day we went to Christ the Redeemer (Corcovado) and that alone took about 3 hrs! Our 2nd day took us to Sugarloaf and the traffic flow gave us more time to see what we wanted.

[Lady Jane]

When we were in Rio, we had an all day tour with Peter (Pedro) Novak. It was awesome and reasonable! You can contact him at http://www.privatetours.com.br.

 

I highly recommend him.

[Nuka]

Rafa (Rafael) is great! We saw him last year and he is enthusiastic, knowledgable and friendly. He, or one of his associates, will definately make your stay enjoyable. If you decide to book him, you are in for a treat. He is the real deal. Price I found was very reasonable on a per person basis. He has itinerary suggestions, or if there is something you would like to see, I am sure it can be arranged.

 

When I was at the port of Rio last November, there weren't any 'guides' per se - lots of taxi drivers willing to take people places. Best to pre-arrange a private guide. We avoided the ships tours because we thought they were overpriced and didn't feel like being on a large motorcoach for a tour.

[Mary Ellen]

We used Neyla Bontempo (web site) for 2 days of touring pre-cruise and also our airport/hotel/ship transfers. She was outstanding. If you do a forum search on Neyla (view posts works best) you'll find lots of recommendations. neyla@tourguideneyla.com (e-mail)

[Fattony]

You have 8 hours you can use, or 8 hours in port, which includes disembarkation and re-embarkation? What does the cruise line offer? You can't see everything, so you should consider prioritizing. Will the private guide "guarantee" you'll be back to the ship in time? I once worked in Rio and have been back several times (I currently reside in Fortaleza due to my wife's job). Personally, I'd skip the jewelry store unless you're really interested in buying something (the stores mentioned are among the most expensive-- but definitely high quality). If you can find a tour that takes you to Corcovado, with its sweeping views, and then Ipanema/Copacabana, great (is Cordovado still covered with scaffolding for renovations?). Pao de Acucar (Sugarloaf) is much lower. It's fun, but I wouldn't worry if I missed it. Getting a private guide might be worthwhile if you want to see places, such as museums (the small Carmen Miranda museum in Flamengo is fun), the metroplitan theatre, etc., that typical tours might skip. Maracana Stadium is famous but, frankly, not very interesting without a game, and not at all in a scenic part of town (but, then, neither is the port). If it's a weekday, beware the notorious traffic, as mentioned above.

[Paul123]

I agree with Nuka, see above, that Rafa is the real thing.

His e-mail is:- donrafainrio@yahoo.es

and just check out his website. It is cool:-http://donrafaguestsinrio.blogspot.com

 

We were with him in February and he is amazing with tremendous enthusiasm for his city of Rio and Brazil generally. You probably won't do better than with him in an 8 hour stop over in Rio.

[treesah]

We just returned from Rio and an 18 night repositioning cruise on the Star Princess. I found Rafa's name on these boards and we were very lucky to have him as our guide. He's knowledgeable, fun, enthusiastic, has excellent people skills, is flexible and takes you to places that you'd never see on a bus tour. Plus his English is excellent. I can honestly say that Rafael tops the list. Rio is truly a marvelous city.

[Nuka]

We had so much fun with Rafa and his associates that we've booked him for three days after our cruise this December. We can hardly wait!

[robi1]

We were in Rio for two weeks in December. Rafa Torres was our wonderful guide and followed the ship down the coast meeting us at each docking point. Excellent. You can email him at donrafainrio@yahoo.es. He is dependable and reliable. from Robi1

[Oceanurse]

We were in Rio for two weeks in December. Rafa Torres was our wonderful guide and followed the ship down the coast meeting us at each docking point. Excellent. You can email him at donrafainrio@yahoo.es. He is dependable and reliable. from Robi1

 

My girlfriend and I did a Transatlantic cruise last November ending in Rio- I was given Rafa's name from Maurice, a fellow cruise critic who was planning a second cruise so he could see Rafa again! The referral was excellent and really the highlight of our trip! Rafa and Marcone (we were lucky enough to have both of them) took us to places in Rio that are off the beaten path- I don't know how they did it but we saw Rio with no crowds and only spectacular scenery! You can see by the pictures below that I am telling you the truth. We were the only ones on the vista overlooking all of Rio. It was unbelievable!! I can only tell you that as two women traveling alone we both felt very safe and comfortable with Rafa and Marcone. We loved our experience with them and have booked another cruise so we get to see them again in December! They have become like family and we really can't wait to see them again!