Big Brazil trip in 2 weeks July/August 2018 Advice Needed!

[Riotastic]

I am going to Brazil in 2 weeks and I need some advice.  I will be spending a month in Rio July/August but on weekends I will be taking side trips on Fridays and Saturdays to Sao Paulo, Porto Alegre, Curitiba and Florianópolis.  This is my 5th trip to Rio so I am very familiar with that city.  My favorite place to go in Rio is Club 117 (where I spend most of my nights) so hopefully you can tell the kind of men I find attractive (well built light skin guys with fit bodies) as I love the hot guys at 117.  I am looking for advice on hotels to stay at in the other cities and for advice on the best saunas with men like you would find at Club 117 in each city.  The only one I know for sure I will be going to is Lagoa in Sao Paulo but I am not sure of the best ones to go to in the other cities.

I would like to stay at hotels in each city that are 3+ or 4* and are in the center of the old town or the most interesting section of each city that would enable me to take an interesting walk around the neighborhood of the hotel that will show me interesting parts of the city.  Of course I also do not want to end up in a hotel that is ridiculously far from the saunas but then again I will take a taxi back and forth to the saunas so an interesting neighborhood for walking around by the hotel is important to me.  I'm not a beach person, historical buildings and theatres are more my thing.

One other thing, I know there was a thread earlier about clients who hang out in the saunas in street clothes instead of changing into towels.  Well, I am one of those guys who really is not comfortable hanging out in public in a towel so I always hang out at Club 117 in my street clothes which has never been a problem there.  Will this be a problem at the saunas in São Paulo, Porto Alegre, Curitiba and Florianópolis?

I really appreciate any and all advice I can get as I have purchased all the flights between cities so now all I need to do is reserve hotels and plan which saunas to go to.

Thank you for any and all advice you (more experienced) guys can offer me.

[TotallyOz]

I have never changed into a towel in any sauna in Brazil and have been to most over the years.

For Porto Alegre, I like the Sheraton. For Sao Paulo, I like the Renaissance.

Have you been to Salvador?

[Tomcal]

i will give it a shot at answering some of your questions where i have had current* experience! 

Over the last 17 years i have seen the saunas change back and forth in popularity but 117 has always remained in #1 or #2 position! Saying that there are nights when it is not the most popular and it is closed on Mondays.

For weekend getaways i like Porto Alegre and São Paulo!  In porto alegre i always stay in the Moinjos de Vento area which is a upscale neighborhood and has 2 hotels i like, The Sheraton and the Quality Hotel. The Sheraton is attached to a 3story Boutique higher end Mall and the street in front of the hotel is called Padre Chagas and in its 5 blocks has about a twenty plus restaurants, specialty stores, clubs!   there is a park that starts a block down from the Sheraton and goes for about 5 or so square blocks, very nice with many joggers on the weekends! Mezziniu sauna has always been one of my favorites it opened in 2007 i by chance happened to be there the week after it opened. best times there are Fri, Sat., Sun. thou not necessarily three nights in a row! 

I wont go in depth regarding LaGoa as there has been much written already but i like Friday and saturday nights there!  Mvan is the resident authority on SP here and can give much better detailed info then i can.

i will say the last time i stayed in SP i used Airbnb and got a great place in the Aclimacau neighborhood which was a great location and had a whole house 3bdrs/3 Baths for a really reasonable price

[Riotastic]

Thanks OZ. No I have not been to Salvador. This trip I am concentrating on southern Brazil.  I am hoping next time to go north to Salvador, Reciefe etc...

[Latbear4blk]

7 hours ago, TotallyOz said:

Have you been to Salvador?

Muito Obrigado for that question/suggestion!

I always wonder why Bahia is never a topic when discussing Brazilian destinations. It is even closer to the States than all the other cities we are drilling about. Why is it that São Salvador does not seem to be so appealing?

I am considering a trip for next Christmas vacation, I am indecisive between Mexico and Brazil. If I go for Brazil, of course I would go to Rio, bur rather than short escapades to the South,  I would rather explore Abrobrazil. 

But my apologies, I do not want to kidnap the thread. I will open my own in the near future.

Let's leave São Salvador de Bahia as an option for @riostatic. 

[SolaceSoul]

15 minutes ago, Latbear4blk said:

Muito Obrigado for that question/suggestion!

I always wonder why Bahia is never a topic when discussing Brazilian destinations. It is even closer to the States than all the other cities we are drilling about. Why is it that São Salvador does not seem to be so appealing?

Because Salvador and the entire Bahia is predominantly black people. It should be plainly clear by now that many of the posters here aren’t “into” that.

[Riobard]

I suggest, Riostatic, that you use the search function here for Curitiba and Floripa, as attempts have been made to summarize the comparatively ambiguous scene regarding sauna brothels there. You may actually be the best person to bring us up to speed following your trip. 

If it were me, I might also try to briefly connect with a few garotos de programa off the vivalocal site (go to the male escort component). Maybe bullshit a little, eg, you do not wish to use your room, you prefer whatever local baths the guys work out of and what can they tell you about these venues and their associations with such establishments. 

Enjoy your trip ... bring a sweater for cool evenings. 

[Riobard]

Apropos of Ceara and Bahia, I think there is fairly good coverage in the forum, just not the same degree of repetitiveness found for the more conventional destinations. Copa Airlines , as previously mentioned of course, added a connection from Panama to Fortaleza and to Salvador on various days, sparing the dip south yet enabling multiple cities for return leg options. 

[mvan1]

19 hours ago, Riotastic said:

snip 

One other thing, I know there was a thread earlier about clients who hang out in the saunas in street clothes instead of changing into towels.  Well, I am one of those guys who really is not comfortable hanging out in public in a towel so I always hang out at Club 117 in my street clothes which has never been a problem there.  Will this be a problem at the saunas in São Paulo, Porto Alegre, Curitiba and Florianópolis?

snip 

Your question about wearing street clothes is easy to answer, but not totally.

In Sao Paulo, you can definitely wear street clothes both at Fragata and at Lagoa saunas.  

 

However, both of these saunas have a room for garotos to view porno and masturbate to porn trying to get an interested client.  Clients often go to these porn rooms to engage garotos for sex.

These rooms are reached going up a stairway at each sauna.

At the bottom of each stairway is a sign (in Portuguese) that says street clothes are not allowed.

Is the sign enforced?  I do not know. 

Since you are not Brazilian and do not read Portuguese, what is the worst thing that can happen to you if you enter these special rooms wearing street clothes.  Again, I do not know.  The signs are there for other than decoration.  I assume the signs are enforced.

Just be aware if you enter the porno rooms that you are passing a sign that says street clothes are prohibited.

Or you might ask one of the employees if you can wear street clothes in the porno rooms.

 

[floridarob]

11 hours ago, Latbear4blk said:

 

I am considering a trip for next Christmas vacation, I am indecisive between Mexico and Brazil. If I go for Brazil, of course I would go to Rio, bur rather than short escapades to the South,  I would rather explore Abrobrazil. 

. 

I don't have the memory that many have here, but 1 thing that sticks clearly in my mind is that the week between Christmas and New Years is a no-no for me.

The few weeks before is an absolute buyers market, the day or 2 after Christmas, the waits for cabins, the boys trying to do 8 programas a day, etc....is something I will never repeat again, lol

11 hours ago, SolaceSoul said:

Because Salvador and the entire Bahia is predominantly black people. It should be plainly clear by now that many of the posters here aren’t “into” that.

I'm into brown skin guys.....never had a problem in Salvador. That'd be like saying New Orleans or Houston has a lot of blacks, so the workers must be black??

Some guys do the sauna route, Natal, Fortaleza, Recife....many have never been to SP or Rio.

Almost all the guys in Rio & SP that I've liked come from Salvador.

[SolaceSoul]

13 minutes ago, floridarob said:

I don't have the memory that many have here, but 1 thing that sticks clearly in my mind is that the week between Christmas and New Years is a no-no for me.

The few weeks before is an absolute buyers market, the day or 2 after Christmas, the waits for cabins, the boys trying to do 8 programas a day, etc....is something I will never repeat again, lol

I'm into brown skin guys.....never had a problem in Salvador. That'd be like saying New Orleans or Houston has a lot of blacks, so the workers must be black??

Some guys do the sauna route, Natal, Fortaleza, Recife....many have never been to SP or Rio.

Almost all the guys in Rio & SP that I've liked come from Salvador.

When I wrote this, I expected at least one #NotAllWhiteGuys comment.

Your individual tastes in men are duly noted. I did, however, say “many of the posters here” (and it may even be implied that si meant “most”), but I did not say “all”.

BTW, percentage-wise, with over 80% of its population from African descent, Salvador da Bahia has WAYYYYY many more people of African descent than either New Orleans or Houston (or for that matter, Atlanta, DC, Chicago or New York City). I didn’t quite understand the purpose of that comment, but it’s otobably not worth debating it at all, as it was presumably innocuous.

https://medium.com/atlantico-online/salvador-the-most-african-city-in-the-world-b93673215231

[Alaskabear]

On 7/8/2018 at 5:18 PM, SolaceSoul said:

When I wrote this, I expected at least one #NotAllWhiteGuys comment.

Your individual tastes in men are duly noted. I did, however, say “many of the posters here” (and it may even be implied that si meant “most”), but I did not say “all”.

BTW, percentage-wise, with over 80% of its population from African descent, Salvador da Bahia has WAYYYYY many more people of African descent than either New Orleans or Houston (or for that matter, Atlanta, DC, Chicago or New York City). I didn’t quite understand the purpose of that comment, but it’s otobably not worth debating it at all, as it was presumably innocuous.

https://medium.com/atlantico-online/salvador-the-most-african-city-in-the-world-b93673215231

I CAN NOT wait for Salvador.   I’m planning on being there next spring for carnival.   Am I suicidal?  Perhaps.   I’ve heard it’s a raucous good time and like nothing else.   Also the fact that it’s home to the largest diaspora of African people surely means it must be an interesting city to explore for its food and music.    My dream Brazil trip will have me start in Manaus and then to São Luis and make my way down the coast all the way to PA .   Finding every sauna I can and reporting back.  

[Latindude]

16 hours ago, Alaskabear said:

Also the fact that it’s home to the largest diaspora of African people surely means it must be an interesting city to explore for its food and music.

Yes, if you are looking for that, I am sure you are going to have a good time in Salvador, the culture is very different from São Paulo and Rio - there are many local exotic dishes (as acarajé) as well as dance (capoeira) and religious traditions and celebrations (a mix between tribal Afro religions and Catholicism). Also, if you are into brown and black guys that’s the place - It is not a place  I would recommend for our friend ParisRio for example LOL 

Just be careful as always, as in Rio the security is an issue.