2p2 tell me about RIO de Janeiro

[Zach Belden]

(xpost from BBV4Life because I didn't know there was a travel forum)

This guy at work told me the absolute best place to go vacation/spring break is RIO. He said as an american, you feel like an absolute baller walking around there and its a great party/drinking/bar city.

I'm wondering first how true this is, second where I can get cheap flights (cheapest I found on travelocity was $800 round trip) and third how much I should expect to spend for a week vacation. Mainly looking for people who have been there to share their stories (beats and brags) about the whole experience.

Also, if RIO sucks, where should I go and be spending less than ummm $1800?

[MrBlue]

i found this on travelzoo, but have no experience with them. Says $529 from NYC to Rio.

http://www.intratours.com/flights/de...ro/NYC-RIO.htm

Spring break is usually late March/early April? The summer will be ending in Brazil and Carnival party goers are all gone by then but Rio parties year round. Also remember the R$ is now 1.75 to $1 USD.

I went in Oct of 05 when it was 2.23 to 1 and my beach front apartment in Copacabana cost $65USD/night. Flights cost me a little over 1k from JFK->Rio->Buenos Aires->JFK. For lunch, I went with cheap food paid by the kilogram. At night, I went to real restaurants for about 25-30USD for a standard meal. The language barrier was a pretty big problem for me. I speak some Spanish but couldn't communicate with locals even though people claim that Brazilians can understand Spanish because Portuguese sounds close.

Rio is high on my list on places to visit again. 5 days on the ground just wasn't enough for me. I've never been to Rio during spring break but why go all the way to Rio when you can hit Miami or Daytona or Cancun and other spring break hot spots?