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I visited Rio two weeks ago. I stayed in the Ipanema Plaza Hotel (Golden Tulip Ipanema Plaza). It was ok, although I personally think it is too expensive for what you get. But if you want to have guests, you should know that they charge 100 Reais for every visitor. I booked a double room, but that didn´t help. I booked a guy, when he arrived, he had to show ID, I had to come down and they escorted me and the guy to my room. I had the impression that they don´t want to have a guest, so they make it really embarrassing for you. Sorry for the mistakes, my English is not so good, but I thought it might be interesting for other people here.

Mvan1, I hope you recover soon. I am glad that you are able to take such a balanced view of what happened and that it will not affect your future travel plans. It is worrisome, however, that such an experienced traveller to Brazil as you are could fall victim to a mugging. As an aside, may I ask what taxi firms you use. Should a traveller always ask a sauna or restaurant to call a taxi? And how do you know if it is reliable? As a comparison, I've travelled extensively in Argentina and know to take only radio-taxis on city streets and pre-book 'remises' or limos to go to/from the airports. On my one trip to Rio (5 years ago, with an Argentine who knows Rio very well and speaks Portuguese) we were bemused at our inability to get a taxi on the street or even to discern which taxis were actually for hire

Although I believe that your advice is well intended, I hope you really don't mean for people who expressed concern, to stay away from Brazil. There is no question, Brazil has changed for the worse since the recession hit. I see it and I saw first-hand. Countless young men are curently without work due to the recent and major economic recession in Brazil. Even young men who are not street people resort to stealing and street mugging if they have families to support and have no money for necessities. Wives and children cannot go without food. Rent must be paid. Some formerly peaceful guys resort to desperate measures to feed their families. One of my favorite saunas guys was arrested over the weekend for mugging an English tourist. Furthermore, hobos on the streets have become more aggressive. More so than I ever saw in my many trips here. I did encounter some street guys last week but I was not bothered by them. However, for the first time in 124 trips to Brazil, I got mugged the other night. Fortunately, my injuries will heal but the injuries are quite obvious. I get a lot of questions from people, such as "what happened to you?" particularly when they see the black eye I got from the incident. It was simply a matter of my being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Even though I am cutting my current trip short because of the incident, I have every intention to return to Brazil in early July. Obviously, the mugging will heavily influence my behavior while in Brazil now and in the future. After I return to Brazil, I will change my pattern of getting to and from the places I visit. I will use more cabs than I previously did. I find it very convenient to go to the saunas and other places via the Metro and walk only a few blocks. It was during one of those short walks that I got accosted by street thugs. There are a lot of young street people wandering around aimlessly even in good parts of the cities. Many of the guys appear to be on drugs. If a non street person happens to cross their path, obviously, it is not a pretty picture. Brazil remains a great place to have a wonderful time. As I wrote, I will return. Unfortunately, at the present time, the economy in Brazil is on the skids which puts lots of potentially dangerous people out of work and in need of money. Just be careful while visiting this splendid country and its wonderful people.

Is this place still used by many posters to the forums? I stayed there more than ten years ago and it was only tolerable because of the liberal visitor policy. In the interim, all one needs do is read the reviews of this hotel on Tripadvisor. According to most reviews, the place is nasty and is in terrible disrepair. Some guests reported that their belongings were stolen by employees of the hotel. http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g303506-d307969-Reviews-Atlantico_Copacabana_Hotel-Rio_de_Janeiro_State_of_Rio_de_Janeiro.html/BackUrl#REVIEWS When I visit Rio I stay at a different hotel. Every now and again I pass by the Atlantico Hotel. At night, one-third of the lights showing the name of the hotel are burned out. The burned out lights tell a lot about this run down hotel.

Many things have changed in the past few months as well as past couple of years with respect to obtaining a tourist visa to visit Brazil. Except for one in-person visit at a consulate office, almost everything is now automated. You no longer have to go pick up your visa/passport like you did only last year. It is mailed to you. The section of the application that asks for a contact in Brazil is not critical for being correct, as most tourists stay in hotels and are transient. Tomcal's advice is propitious and should answer that section of the visa application. Below is a link to the Brazilian web site that answers all your questions related to obtaining a tourist visa. Be sure to pay attention to the section where it tells you WHERE or which consulate office to apply for your visa (based on your residency). Please observe the warning in the visa instructions in that if you attempt to have your visa processed at the incorrect consulate office, your visa application will not be processed. Depending on which consulate office is assigned to you, the processing time is different. You can use an agency to obtain your visa but you are going to pay upwards of around $200.00 for their services. Here is the link: http://cgwashington.itamaraty.gov.br/en-us/visa_application_form.xml -

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