Rio de Janeiro after a Cruise

[Heartfelttraveler]

We are considering flying from Buenos Aires to Rio after an Antarctica Cruise.

If you flew to Rio after a South America or Antarctica cruise - did you use a Tour Company or did you book on your own?

What were your experiences?

[kaisatsu]

6 hours ago, Heartfelttraveler said:

We are considering flying from Buenos Aires to Rio after an Antarctica Cruise.

If you flew to Rio after a South America or Antarctica cruise - did you use a Tour Company or did you book on your own?

What were your experiences?

I did this after my first trip. I had tickets home from Buenos Aires, but then I needed to be in Rio that week for work, so I changed my ticket. Since it was a work trip, I probably had the company travel agency book it, but it’s not hard to do yourself. Rio-BA is a well-trafficked local tourist route. In fact, my boyfriend flew down from Rio roundtrip for a few days before my trip to see me.

 

Using an online flight search like kayak will help you find which airlines fly the route. Then you can book directly with the airline website or with an online flight agent (Orbitz, etc).

As for hotel and activities, that depends on your travel style and the amount of research you want to do. There are some serious safety concerns in the city, so you need to stay in the right areas and avoid unsafe situations. Most of the beaten tourist track is fine during the daytime, but stick to safer neighborhoods at night. Ipanema is a good choice for safety and location (slightly safer than Copacabana, where you shouldn’t venture much farther north than the Copacabana Palace Hotel after dark). Avoid shared taxi vans.

 

Beyond safety, don’t travel up to the Christ statue at Corcovado on a day that you can’t see it through the clouds (because it’s not SO interesting without the view). Try lots of things at the juice stands, especially ciriguela, acerola, and soursop (graviola), if you haven’t tried them. Pineapple with mint (abacaxi com hortelão) is another of my favorites. And try the open empadas at the Boteca Belmonte on the west side of Praça General Osório in Ipanema. It looks a bit of a dive and is overrun during football matches, but they are so good. Especially the carne seca with catupiry.

 

Sorry! Got carried away there! I’m overdue for a trip to Brazil due to the pandemic.

Edited July 10, 2021 by kaisatsu

[Paul S]

I can't speak for  flying from BA to Rio, but we have spent a few days in BA pre-cruise and in Rio post cruise plus an independent 2 week visit to Rio flying in from London. Our son has spent a few years in Rio, is a samba and choro musician and speaks Brazilian portuguese. he flew in to meet us off the ship and stay for a few days, and the other time I was visiting him.

 

We found it best to stay away from the tourist strip at nightand certainly not go on the beach in the dark, eg we stayed in Flamengo, easily accessible to most parts of the city, to avoid dressing or looking obviously like tourists (no ship's logo clothing, no flashy jewellery, no big cameras though we took ours and kept them in backpacks till we wanted to use them, no walking round with guide books or maps open), try and blend in and be streetwise, which is easier coming from a big city. Avoid the beach areas at night.

 

We found BA had similar issues. They didn't affect us, but two elderly women in our hotel were mugged and jewellery ripped off, and our guide told us not to wear flashy watches or jewellery, one of his clients had a watch stolen off his wrist.

 

In both cities, with our big cameras on view locals tried to warn us off, and we had the same thing in Santiago.

 

Despite the above we had a great time in all three and hope to back in BA in 2023 ahead of a second Antarctic expedition.

Edited July 22, 2021 by Paul S
correct omission and spelling