Ok, I came back from Rio a couple of hours ago and hopefully I'll find a job in Europe soon.
In this post I'll try to give practical information about my trip.
- I flew with TAP (air Portugal), booked my ticket 3 days before the trip (560 euros) and booked a studio through Airbnb a day before landing (40 euros/night).
- I used "Tinder everywhere" to change my location while I was still in Paris and had many matches with beautiful girls, this together with the cheap plane ticket triggered everything. I arrived in Rio without any information about the city except that it's dangerous. Didn't buy a city guide nor did I spend much time on internet.
However I don't recommend this to anybody, I spent here 5 weeks and I didn't move from Rio so I had plenty of time to discover the city. For anybody coming for less than 1 week, I strongly recommend to do your homework and read as much as you can about the city, this will save you a considerable amount of time.
- When you arrive at the airport, don't order a taxi from the counter, they will ripp you off. Instead go to the first floor of the airport, go outside and grab a taxi, you'll pay half the price.
As an indication the taxi from the airport to Botafogo costs around 60 reals, I would say if you go to Copacabana or Ipanema it would be around 70-80 reals.
- You'll need a local sim card, I recommend to buy one from the operator TIM, you can get one for 5 reals (10 if it's a nano sim, the smallest).
This was a hassle for me as to activate the line you apparently need to be registered as a resident and use your PCF, it's your tax number. Of course I didn't have this but a chick I met called the customer service and gave her own PCF to activate my sim card.
I've read in some forums that if you go to a fancy shopping center they are used to deal with tourists and can activate your line simply with your passport, however I went to the mall Rio sul in Botafogo in the official Tim store and none of the employee spoke a single word of english...
- Accomodation: in general Rio is an expensive city but you can find good deals.
As an example you can rent a studio through airbnb for a week and then do a deal directly with the owner if you like the place. I paid around 1200 reals (around 400 euros) for 2 weeks for a studio in Botafogo. That's a decent neighborhood in zona sul, far enough from the hordes of gringos but quite close to everything. That's very cheap for a decent apartment in Rio but keep in mind that it's the low season which means lower prices but also less fun as everybody is working and the weather isn't good enough to hit the beach.
- Security: as a man travelling alone and without any previous experience in the country or connections in the city, that was the biggest downside of my trip. I never had any problem but that's because I was constantly on guard. The first week I never had more than 50 reals in my pockets and never had my phone with me when I was out, when withdrawing big amounts of money I was heading back to the apartment directly.
One thing I noticed is that the cariocas also seem to be constantly on guard, nobody ever stares you, it's like they try to avoid confrontation at any cost (which I wasn't looking for anyway). You can feel the stigma of past years of violence in the attitude of people. The good thing from it is that the few times a guy stared at me I knew that was suspect and changed place asap.
I would say that walking obliviously is impossible in Rio, you have to know in advance if the place you're going to is safe or not.
- Cost of life:
metro ticket: 3,7 reals,
Food: supermarket prices are comparable to western Europe, local snacks are a cheap option for lunch but not healthy. for around 10-15 reals you can get several snacks and feel full.
You can also try these restaurants where you pay for the weight (in general 3-4 reals/100g so a full plate is around 20 reals).
Ticket for the Corcovado or sugar loaf : 62 reals each
Regarding the girls, I've said my experience in a previous post, if some of you have questions feel free to ask. I didn't go to clubs, most of the girls I met were from online game which is for me very unusual as I love daygame but I had good results with Tinder so I sticked to it, I tried a bit of daygame in centro around metro carioca around 6pm, not easy for a man who knows around 15 words of portuguese, tried 3-4 approaches that didn't go far so I didn't insist.
I find online game extremely boring so in a way I'm glad I'm back to Paris so I can feel again this excitement of haunting in the streets.
In this post I'll try to give practical information about my trip.
- I flew with TAP (air Portugal), booked my ticket 3 days before the trip (560 euros) and booked a studio through Airbnb a day before landing (40 euros/night).
- I used "Tinder everywhere" to change my location while I was still in Paris and had many matches with beautiful girls, this together with the cheap plane ticket triggered everything. I arrived in Rio without any information about the city except that it's dangerous. Didn't buy a city guide nor did I spend much time on internet.
However I don't recommend this to anybody, I spent here 5 weeks and I didn't move from Rio so I had plenty of time to discover the city. For anybody coming for less than 1 week, I strongly recommend to do your homework and read as much as you can about the city, this will save you a considerable amount of time.
- When you arrive at the airport, don't order a taxi from the counter, they will ripp you off. Instead go to the first floor of the airport, go outside and grab a taxi, you'll pay half the price.
As an indication the taxi from the airport to Botafogo costs around 60 reals, I would say if you go to Copacabana or Ipanema it would be around 70-80 reals.
- You'll need a local sim card, I recommend to buy one from the operator TIM, you can get one for 5 reals (10 if it's a nano sim, the smallest).
This was a hassle for me as to activate the line you apparently need to be registered as a resident and use your PCF, it's your tax number. Of course I didn't have this but a chick I met called the customer service and gave her own PCF to activate my sim card.
I've read in some forums that if you go to a fancy shopping center they are used to deal with tourists and can activate your line simply with your passport, however I went to the mall Rio sul in Botafogo in the official Tim store and none of the employee spoke a single word of english...
- Accomodation: in general Rio is an expensive city but you can find good deals.
As an example you can rent a studio through airbnb for a week and then do a deal directly with the owner if you like the place. I paid around 1200 reals (around 400 euros) for 2 weeks for a studio in Botafogo. That's a decent neighborhood in zona sul, far enough from the hordes of gringos but quite close to everything. That's very cheap for a decent apartment in Rio but keep in mind that it's the low season which means lower prices but also less fun as everybody is working and the weather isn't good enough to hit the beach.
- Security: as a man travelling alone and without any previous experience in the country or connections in the city, that was the biggest downside of my trip. I never had any problem but that's because I was constantly on guard. The first week I never had more than 50 reals in my pockets and never had my phone with me when I was out, when withdrawing big amounts of money I was heading back to the apartment directly.
One thing I noticed is that the cariocas also seem to be constantly on guard, nobody ever stares you, it's like they try to avoid confrontation at any cost (which I wasn't looking for anyway). You can feel the stigma of past years of violence in the attitude of people. The good thing from it is that the few times a guy stared at me I knew that was suspect and changed place asap.
I would say that walking obliviously is impossible in Rio, you have to know in advance if the place you're going to is safe or not.
- Cost of life:
metro ticket: 3,7 reals,
Food: supermarket prices are comparable to western Europe, local snacks are a cheap option for lunch but not healthy. for around 10-15 reals you can get several snacks and feel full.
You can also try these restaurants where you pay for the weight (in general 3-4 reals/100g so a full plate is around 20 reals).
Ticket for the Corcovado or sugar loaf : 62 reals each
Regarding the girls, I've said my experience in a previous post, if some of you have questions feel free to ask. I didn't go to clubs, most of the girls I met were from online game which is for me very unusual as I love daygame but I had good results with Tinder so I sticked to it, I tried a bit of daygame in centro around metro carioca around 6pm, not easy for a man who knows around 15 words of portuguese, tried 3-4 approaches that didn't go far so I didn't insist.
I find online game extremely boring so in a way I'm glad I'm back to Paris so I can feel again this excitement of haunting in the streets.