Rio on New Year's Day..need help on hotels

[goat rancher]

In order to have a couple of days before our cruise, we will need to arrive in Rio no later than January 1, 2015 ....

We want to stay in a hotel on Copacabana or Ipanema beach, but we have some questions:

1) how trashed out are those beaches right after those big New Year's Eve celebrations ie. can we actually go to the beach without walking through piles of garbage:eek::eek:???

2) we see that many of the hotels have preexisting conditions for booking, like minimum 4 or more night stays. Is there a list somewhere of GOOD hotels along the beach that do NOT have this condition?? We really only need TWO nights.

3) how far ahead of time do these hotels take reservations??I noticed that many are fully booked for New Year's 2014...so it looks like we will have to move quickly for 2015 when bookings open...

Thanks for any help or advice:)

[VidaNaPraia]

.....Copacabana and Ipanema beach...

1) how trashed out are those beaches right after those big New Year's Eve celebrations ie. can we actually go to the beach without walking through piles of garbage:eek::eek:???

 

Well, there are usually millions of people on the beach at Copacabana. Last year it was 2.3 million. So of course, as hard and as fast as they try to clean up, it doesn't happen overnight. And IMO the water and the sand of many of Rio's beaches is none too clean to start with. If tourists only knew....

 

 

2) we see that many of the hotels have preexisting conditions for booking, like minimum 4 or more night stays. Is there a list somewhere of GOOD hotels along the beach that do NOT have this condition?? We really only need TWO nights.

 

Reveiilon is the time of year, along with Carnaval, when most tourist oriented businesses in Rio (and really, anywhere in Brazil) make most of their money for the year. From December 28 to January 1 or 2, all decent hotels have multi-night packages. High demand is there (Rio suffers from a chronic shortage of hotel rooms--good hotels more so, good hotels along the beach even more), so they do not have to compromise, and most ask for full payment upon booking. This also usually includes rental apartments. Less well-located or lower quality accomodations may at the last minute be forced to rent rooms for less time. Why not just add a couple of days? There's plenty to see and do.

 

 

3)how far ahead of time do these hotels take reservations??I noticed that many are fully booked for New Year's 2014...so it looks like we will have to move quickly for 2015 when bookings open...

 

I would book a package as far ahead as possible, especially in a year of added interest in Brazil because of the World Cup.

 

Happy travels.

[goat rancher]

thanks so much :)