Which neighborhood in Rio

[mare s.]

A charming pousada in Santa Teresa, reasonably priced and highly rated or a hotel in Ipanema, good ratings and more expensive? (going to be there 3 nights)

[Menininha82]

A charming pousada in lovely but still gentrifying Santa Teresa, albeit a nice place for a stroll and a meal for one afternoon, but where you are advised to stay off the side streets, and with inconvenient transportation (on a hill where the taxi drivers hate to go, the bondinho trolley is not working, and you will have to figure out the limited service buses to get where you want to go)?

Or a hotel in safer upscale Ipanema, with restaurants, metro, beach and services close by, convenient to stroll around, and and an inexpensive taxi ride to the sights?

If you want a relatively inexpensive pousada in Ipanema, you could try Ipanema B&B or the very modest and welcoming Margarida's.

http://ipanemabedandbreakfast.com/

http://www.margaridaspousada.com/

[BridgeMates]

A charming pousada in Santa Teresa, reasonably priced and highly rated or a hotel in Ipanema, good ratings and more expensive? (going to be there 3 nights)

 

You might check out Rio Guest House (Marta's Guest House). We stayed there before a cruise a couple of years ago. It's right on Copacabana, near the fort. Views from the terrace are spectacular. If you decide to book it, be sure and get an "ensuite" bathroom if that's important to you. Otherwise the "private" bath might be outside the room. We would stay there again if we get back to Rio.

[Artemis]

mare s., we faced the same decision for our 3-day pre-cruise Rio visit in March and decided on Ipanema. We checked out the Santa Teresa neighborhood while we were there--it is a lovely oasis, and I think I would enjoy staying there on a return, longer visit when I had time to simply savor lazy time at the hotel and around the neighborhood. But ST is definitely set apart from the action. For a quick, first-time visit, Ipanema was definitely the best choice for us. Its proximity to all the usual tourist attractions and a wide variety of dining, retail and nightlife options makes it easy to do a lot in a short time. The streets are lively with people and well-lit into the wee hours, so you can safely walk both day and night, utilize handy public transport and easily grab the occasional taxi. By lodging in Ipanema, we could be more spontaneous with our days and had the flexibility to return to our hotel to change clothes for the next activity, rest a few hours or enjoy a beach break. Had we been up in ST, the "travel to/from" time, logistics and cost would have meant leaving the hotel in the AM and not returning until the end of the night, plus organizing our days to insure we were appropriately attired for that day's schedule and/or backpacking what we needed.

 

I'll try out a cruise analogy: Staying in Ipanema is like making a port call from a ship docked at a downtown pier. Staying in ST is like tendering. Does that make any sense?!

 

Good luck in your research and planning. Whatever you decide, Rio will be amazing! :)

[mare s.]

Thank you all for your comments...I was really torn (the pousada was so attractive) but you make a lot of sense. If we had two weeks to spare, Santa Teresa would be a lovely place to rest, but we do want to maximize our time in Rio and you're right, by staying in Ipanema, we can get to a lot of the attractions on our own (and not have to rely on "iffy" transportation or expensive tour guides)

I knew I'd get help from my cruise critic friends!

[Bowie MeMe]

We were at the JW Marriott on Copacabana Beach and it was just wonderful. Yes a bit expensive (except for points) but we stayed in one of the interior rooms and it was luxurious and fine -- did not feel "interior at all". The wonderful thing of this hotel (and the many many many others in the area) was that in the morning you walked across the street to the fabulous beach and watched the beach wake up and set up as the sun rose off the water and in the evening (Thursday I think) all the sidewalks had markets in booths and in the sand. Late afternoon we went wading and watched the games of soccer and whatever that crazy game they play. The area was safe enough to walk up about 2 blocks to a busy neighborhood street where we went to the grocery store and bought Brazilian flipflops and found wonderful fresh bread and seafood restaurants and ate almost everyday at the open air restaurant next to the Marriott door where they gave me the free wifi address to use my Droid phone. We had a guide and car for the 3 of us and it was money so well spent as we saw and did everything we wanted. Driving around we were really glad to be in Copacabana as it was so much closer to the places you want to see than Impanima. JMHO. If you need the name of a good guide I have Marcio's information and recommend him.

[Fattony]

I think your choice is a good one. I'd personally prefer even Flamengo/Botafogo over ST if you somehow wanted a more "local" feel than the popular beach areas. At least lots of very good restaurants, bars and shops, and access to Metro (or taxis), in F/B. And the very small but enjoyable Carmen Miranda Museum is tucked away in Flamengo Park. Miranda (who was NOT the origin of the Miranda Rights) was born in Portugal but moved to Brazil at an early age, and was embraced by most Brazilians after a long spell of seeing her as a bit of sell-out perpetuating Hollywood stereotypes of Latin America.