SolaceSoul

If you're staying at s resort in Punta Cana or another resort town like Puerto Plata, you will be very safe. The down side is that no locals outside the resort will be allowed on the premises. Your best bet for messing around will be with a staffer -- which is possible, with complete discretion. I am sure there are local places to go outside the resorts in those towns, but I am not too knowledgeable about them. It end to avoid resort towns like the plague, because they aren't my speed. As for Santo Domingo, you are relatively safe at night along El Conde pedestrian walkway and less safe on the streets that intersect it and surround it. If you are traveling by yourself and don't "look the part", you're strongly advised to take taxis or drivers anywhere else. If you are staying at a hotel on the Malecon shoreline and traveling to a bar in Colonial Zone, that's a 15 minute walk that is not advised for the uninitiated, especially after dark.

I haven't stayed at Casa Conde Hotel Boutique, but earlier this month, the management responded to a TripAdvisor customer complaint about their guest policy at the Trip Advisor website with this quote: " Visits. Even though you made a reservation for a room with capacity for 2 persons, if you do not register that person at the check in it is considered as a guest and we charge USD$5.00 per visit, as many other hotel of the area." So it seems if you have the same person as your extra guest and that name/ID is registered at the beginning of your stay, it is no cost. However, any other new guest would be $5 per visit. I don't think $5 per visit is unreasonable, but others might. The two Romas and the Discovery, I think, do not charge for guests, while the Mercure may charge $20 (but not per visit, I think that's per day).

The Discovery Hotel, Mercure and Roma I and II all allow guests with ID. Mercure may charge a fee for guests (not sure, the policy changes every now and then) but last I checked it was $20 USD. One way to try to sidestep that charge is to book the room for 2 but that has had mixed results. The good thing about the Mercure is that hotel guests get the great free breakfast in the downstairs patio while everyone else pays, so it somewhat evens out. The Romas and Discovery are well-known in the straight sex tourism community as hotels that are friendly to male tourists there to pick up women discreetly, and gays that are discreet can easily use the place and check in their Dominican guests for a visit as long as they have their cedela (ID) which is left at the front desk and/or copied there. These three places are no frills and very simple but the Roma 1 and 2 do have rooms with kitchens available and every room has a TV and small refrigerator. I would describe all of these places as "friendly to single travelers" instead of "gay friendly", because some more culturally naive posters might get the wrong idea about the establishments or about the DR in general. All of these places are along the Conde, either the exception of Discovery which is one short corner off the Conde but adjacent from Grand's / Paco's, the 24-hour restaurant / pick-up spot.

Personally, I am a little skeptical about Scott's tale about being assaulted outside a nightclub near Lagoa. First, he trash-talked Lagoa because he didn't find the odd sex that he wanted. Then he says he was assaulted while leaving a relatively safe and busy neighborhood. Now he is complaining about saunas being all about guys wanting your money (yet he plans to return to Brazil for a 90-day stay).I know the area around Lagoa and the brief walk to the closest Metro. The area is relatively safe and very well-traveled with both car and foot traffic. I think he either may have concocted the story of his assault and robbery near Lagoa because he is a little bitter that he was not successful at hooking up with the kinds of garotos he prefers and the sort of sexual arrangements he likes there, and wanted to trash-talk the place. Or he may have approached the wrong person in a cruisy, dicey situation (he did state that he was into doing that before, even though he doesn't know how to communicate in Portuguese).

Yeah, I'm thinking a gay guy who knows no Portuguese and hates sauna culture is going to have an awful lot of moments of uncomfortable silence during a 90-day stay in Brazil.

First you complain that the sauna garotos' smiles and chit-chat with clients are all fake and just for money. Now you complain that a garoto looked too bored at a restaurant with an older man who may or may have not been a client. There's just no winning with you.

Just a suggestion, but instead of staying the entire 90 days at once, you'd be better off staying a few days less just in case of an emergency. In the event that something unforeseen comes up and you have to overstay your visa even by 1 day, you might have a very big problem entering the country again.

You're free to spend your time and money elsewhere if you don't like it. It's a big world out there.

My answer: NO. I love the Brazilian sauna culture. I find it relaxing and engaging. Some people enjoy winding down at coffee shops, at a movie theatre, or watching TV. I much prefer a trip to the sauna. It's not for everyone. If you don't like it or tire of it (or it tires of you), then find something else to do with your time. Problem solved.

My experience and observations are that the "body boys" (the garotos known for the best, most built physiques) do not even bother displaying their dicks, while the garotos who are not quite built like physique models or bodybuilders are more inclined to show their dicks under the towels. At Lagoa and at 117, I have seen a few garotos who may walk around in street clothes, but those are usually the ones who have gone to the sauna to have a preplanned client meeting. They usually would not do this to attract new clients. There are two garotos I know who do this, and they don't always do it -- only when they know they can. But yes, these two garotos are considered "top of the line" -- in looks, build and in price.

TomCal, I think you meant to type, "From 2001 to 2009 I stayed in Copacabana exclusively." Otherwise, your first paragraph is a little confusing.

Again, there is another large sauna with garotos in São Paulo that might have had garotos that are more to your liking. It is called Fragata. If you were there for 3 nights, you should've checked it out and done some comparison shopping.

We get it, Scott. You like them young and barely legal. Did you try Fragata? That sauna probably has more of the type of garotos you are looking for -- and it's smaller, and the lights are also dimmer.

I have to agree with TomCal. It just seems to me that perhaps Scott is allowing his unsuccessful night at Lagoa dimly color his view of the quality of the garotos there. It's one thing to say that you didn't find what you were looking for (when you may be primarily interested in very young, barely-legal-looking skinny twinks), or that the deals couldn't be consummated. However, it's a completely different thing to say that the guys there were disproportionately average, out of shape and not muscular -- when the sauna is notorious for having very handsome and muscular garotos. When you say the latter, you're asserting that the sauna is no longer supplying what it is famous for -- and that's a fairly serious charge.

. THOSE are common gay sex phrases? We must hang in very different circles. I think you'd be better off staying in the USA or parts of Europe. You might wind up in a really bad situation otherwise.

Scott, are you mostly into very young looking twinks? If so, Lagoa would not be the place for you. That sauna is a Mecca for masculine muscle studs. Also, it's not cool to hold the fact that Brazilians don't speak any English against them or the local business establishment. Brazilians speak Portuguese. Unless you want to come across as an "Ugly American", it should be your responsibility to try to speak the native tongue of Brazil when you are a guest in the country -- not vice versa.

The Olympic Village is in the Rio neighborhood of Barra Da Tijuca, a southwestern coastal area. It is about a 30-40-minute drive from Zona Sul, but it's still in the city of Rio. That's like saying that Brooklyn or Queens are not in New York City just because they aren't in Manhattan.

Marcelo Vidal is a gay tour guide who speaks perfect English and does all kinds of Rio tours, from sauna tours to favela tours to gay bar tours to standard fare like Sugarloaf and Corcovado. His is knowledgeable and helpful especially for first timers. He is often seen at the saunas with foreign tourists for which he is providing a tour. His email address is celovidal@hotmail.com

It's all a matter of tastes (which we all know, there's no accounting for). The men at Lagoa tend to be much more built, muscular and model-like. It arguably has the best built and most handsome men in all of South America, and the garotos and the clients know this is the reputation. The facility is also the biggest and the best. Therefore, the prices are reflective of "luxury, high-end" items. If you're not into men that are built like physique models or bodybuilder so, or guys that look like they came off the runway, and maybe a little attitude that comes with it, then Lagoa might not be for you (I have personally not experienced much of that -- it's definitely not worse than the attitude you'd get at a gay bar, rentboy ad or a gym from a musclehead in the USA). It probably ranks either 1 or 2 with Clube 117 in Rio as the best in regards to looks and builds of the garotos, but a better and larger facility than 117. So if you like 117 guys, you'll also like Lagoa. So, conversely, if you prefer "normal, regular guys off the street" who aren't underwear models or physique competitors, like the boys at Meio Mundo, you'd probably prefer Fragata. The facility at Fragata is also less high-end, although I think they have a better food menu selection than Lagoa. The prices for garotos at Fragata also tend to be a little lower than the premiums at Lagoa, although like with anything, there are exceptions.

Last year, on this very day, I was in São Paulo. Lagos was closed on Christmas Eve but Fragata was open -- I believe it opened on time but closed early. My flight was a redeye that left out of GRU at around 11 pm that night, so I did Fragata, which had a few garotos and even fewer clients. I don't recall any shops or restaurants in the area of Pinheiros even being open at all. It was a quiet day, especially for São Paulo standards. However, traveling on Christmas Eve out of GRU was very easy and relaxed.

Denial is not just a river in Egypt. It might be valuable to read the great insight that TomCal provides here: http://www.boytoy.com/forums/index.php?/topic/23290-2015-porto-alegre-and-rio/page-7#entry134945 There might not be money directly exchanging hands like a garoto in a sauna or a rentboy ad, but it's still about gifts, dinners, favors, economics and security.

I'd be very interested in knowing why the hustler bars and restaurants in Rio have all gone away. Have the politics of the city shifted to the right (this is what closed down all the great hustler and stripper bars in New York City -- when Giuliani came into office)? Was it purely economic? Was it a cultural shift? Or are hustler bars just a thing of the past? They are almost nonexistent now in the USA. There still seems to be one in São Paulo and one in Santo Domingo, DR, both seemingly thriving with patrons.

I started out in the "street scene" like you, so we may be somewhat kindred spirits, MsGuy. Also, I tend to cringe at colonialist attitudes of proprietorship or superiority, particularly when it comes to people of color and/or socioeconomically disadvantaged people. The Eurocentric and/or quintessential "Ugly American" traveler is a behavior model I constantly must battle and try to chip away, little by little with every trip. For example, I don't know if it was on this message board or on another one, but I recall one very presumptuous poster saying that he would "treat the sauna boys to a good meal at a nice restaurant" instead of tipping them nicely after a hot session... what, because going to a trendy or nice restaurant and keeping you company instead of giving them the money and the free time to choose what they wanted to do with it surely suits the garoto's needs FAR more than it could ever suit the client's purposes, right? Oy vey.

One step forward, two steps back! Sorry to ruin my saintly image for you, MsGuy! :-)

A peculiar comment coming from the same poster who initiated this conversation in this thread with the following remark: