[I’m writing this report in thanks to all who preceded me and gave me such valuable information in their detailed reports. Thank you again and I hope this report will help a Newbie get the most out of Rio.]

1) Kenn did a great job with everything - kenn@EZ-RioRentals.com :

-Driver picked me up with a sign bearing my name (ride cost 50R - cab might be cheaper, but the driver spoke some English and it was a nice sign) and took me to the apartment.
-Apartment was great - small studio apt in a 24 hour doorman building around the corner from Help; recently refurbished - very clean - I was the first renter since the owner put in new countertops, etc.; only cost 110R a night (about 44 dollars); negotiated w/ owner that I was able to bring two girls up if necessary (and it was!).
-Kenn hooked me up with a cell phone - 15R a day - I spent less than 50R on phone calls during the week, so altogether on room and phone, I spent around $52 dollars a day, leaving much money for mongering.
-Kenn took me to Mea Pateca for a beer and gave me the lowdown on the café/beach scene

2) The reports regarding the dangers of Rio and the heavy negotiating for garotas have been greatly exaggerated.
-I don’t mean to offend anyone, but it became apparent my first night in Rio that a portion of the people posting on these single male travel sites are not like me - I’m in my 30s, in relatively good shape, I don’t need to get intoxicated each night and am considered a good looking guy.
-I’m guessing that 90% of the tourists that get mugged are older, out-of-shape and quite drunk. I saw a number of guys like that at Help and I heard stories from Kenn about one of these guys getting mugged three times in three days. It makes sense; why would you try to mug someone like me or you, when a "Mark" like the one I just described comes stumbling out of Help? Based on the reports, I’d read, I was pretty paranoid, but I never really encountered gangs of suspicious looking locals outside of Help. Also, if you leave before Help closes, there are tons of people about - many are tourists - the beach area is flooded with light, and there is a cop right on the corner near Help - right by Bob’s (a poor man’s McDonald’s).
-A lot of these girls are in Rio to have fun as well as make money. Many that I met were students coming to Rio for a month; they go "on the program" in order to pay for school and vacation. Yes, they are young and hot and they have options at a place like Help. If you’re a fat slob, they will charge you more and won’t negotiate. A number of girls told me that this was their policy when they met a real unattractive guy. If you’re a regular looking guy, however, the girls will be very excited and will forgo an extra 50 - 100R in order to be with a guy who turns them on as well.

3) The Termas
-Went to 4 Termas during my stay - L’Uomo (145R), Monte Carlo - 2x (160R), Solarium (180R), Centaurus (290R)
-Centaurus was the best; L’Uomo was the worst; Solarium and Monte Carlo both had hot girls, including some who used to work at Centaurus. They just did not have as many hotties and as much variety as did Centaurus. Additionally, the rooms in Centaurus are much larger than the other three Termas. It’s twice the price, but you have to try it once. It’s well worth the extra money.
-It still blows my mind that you walk into this sauna/steam therapeutic massage joint, throw on a robe and slippers and walk up one flight of stairs into a disco of bikini-clad girls fighting to sit on your lap and grab your snake. God Bless South America!

4) Help
-Help is like a candy store of hot chicks. You can walk in there any evening and take a chick home within 10 minutes. It’s the greatest invention since sliced bread. Here’s the report I posted on the site about Help:

The biggest problem with Help is too much eye candy. You get to a point in Rio where you are turning down women you would die for in the States because you would rather talk to your buddy at the bar. As strange as that sounds, imagine that you've already been with a 8.5 from Help during the morning after and a 9 from Centaurus that afternoon. You arrive at Help at 11:30pm and a 8.5 walks up to you and asks you to take her home. Not only might your boys be asking for a few hours of respite, but you know there are 30 other girls as good as this one.

In fact, there are so many hot ones, sometimes you wait too long. It's fine to play Burt Parks and choose your finalists for Miss Rio that night, but if you wait too long, they could all be taken. Best move is to keep evaluating the finalists as long as they are indistinguishable. However, if you see one that is far and away the finest of the lot, go for it. Otherwise, she will be gone.

The one caveat, however, is the timing. I, for one, need some reloading time. So, if I was looking for two shots on goal, I would wait until after 2:30am. Since Help closes at 4am, your garota is unlikely to find another suitor after your 1st shot. Consequently, it's much more likely to negotiate a sleep over with another shot in the morning. I like to ask for junta e cafe a manan. I know the spelling is incorrect, but, basically I would ask (tongue in cheek) for dinner and breakfast.

-You can get a girl down to 100R, but who wants to put in the time and effort to save yourself 20 bucks? 150R is currently $60 US. You’re going to haggle all night to get down to $40 and bring home an angry garota? Makes no sense. What you want to negotiate is time. This was my favorite move if I didn’t want to hang around Help (I can spell, but I’ll use phonetics for my crappy Portuguese, so you know the pronunciation):
-2:30am - pay my 20R, walk upstairs and scope the dance floor - take a lap or two
-2:32am - focus on the garota of choice and approach
-2:33am - say "Oi," rub her arm and start dancing with her, she will ask if you are American, etc. Just keep saying Seem (Sim means yes) and pulling her closer.
-2:36am - Garota (in broken English): "I liking you. You liking me?"
Me: Seem, I like you.
Garota: We go?
Me: Cuanto coosta? (How much?)
Garota: 200
Me: 200 reais? Muinto caroo (too expensive).
Garota: 150
Me: 150 reais? Por todo noich-ay? (for the whole night?)
Garota: Nooo! Noun por todo noich-ay (not for the whole night).
Me: Cuanto coosta por todo noich-ay?
Garota: 200 reais.
Me: 200 reais. Bamos a may-oo apartmento para sexo agora (We go to my apartment for sex now). Nos door-mee-mos (We sleep). En a man-yan, nos tay-mos sexo otra vayz (In the morning we have sex another time). 200 reais en todo (200 reais in total). Seem?
Garota: Seem. 200 reais.
-2:39pm - We leave for my apartment.

-It’s not always that easy, but I did it three different nights. So, you pay eighty bucks, spend the whole night with the garota and bang her in the morning. It ends up being 40 bucks a pop anyway. Just remember to be specific; especially as to whether she is quoting dollars or reais. And, never, never, pay until you’re ready to kick her to the curb. At worst, you can always go back into Help and get a new one.

Glad you had a good time for your first trip down here..... Thanks for the plug....

kenn

Great post! Love the Portuguese. Very FON-E-TIC

Another thing I found was once I hooked up with one I could "communicate" with, I occasionally used her as a tour guide (cheap eats, site seeing). Usually could get them for free during the day if you bought them lunch, and were, yes, fairly attractive yourself.

I love RIO!!!!

A lot of guys on another site where I posted this are getting bent out of shape (re: my opinions on the dangers & the women), so here's my preemptive rebuttal:

You guys miss my point. The reports here are so frightening, I was afraid to go down to Rio alone. I agree that it is not Disneyland and you have to take precautions, but if you read these boards, you would think it was South Central L.A. Unless there is a conspiracy to keep men away from Rio, let's tell the truth. It's probably a bit worse than Times Square in Manhattan, but it's safer than a lot of places in the U.S.

As for Help, vets were saying that this was a typical crowd. And, no, every girl was not an 8 or 9. Each night, however, there were at least 250 women in there, if not more, and 10% of them were as good or better than the Centaurus or Barbarella women. That's 25 girls a night and they do charge more; I heard them start at 200 dollars with some guys and turn guys down willing to give them 100 dollars (250R) for three hours. 200R for the night was a bargain for these girls and, yes, I probably could have chipped them down to 150R, but I was on vacation; haggling over $20 was not worth my while.

I'm trying to provide a viewpoint that's being sorely under-represented on this site and it's as realistic as the viewpoint of some guys who overstate the negatives about Rio. It also represents the views of my new friends, who are similar to me, and were on their 3rd, 5th and 7th trips, respectively, to Rio. They concur with my thoughts about Rio.

Rio indeed is relatively safe if you are cautious. I've been there 5 times and nothing has happened. Which is not to say it won't happen. If I keep going there, and I will, it will probably happen to me. I'm guessing that you probably played things safe(which is what you should do!).
You threw me with your comment about Times Square in Manhattan. You probably haven't been here in more than 10 years. It is now as safe as you can get.
At any rate, the time you are most vulnerable in Rio is when you're leaving Help later than 4am.
Everyone has pretty much disbursed from the area(except for that mean old lady selling chewing gum). A friend of mine was robbed on his walk back to the Debret. He was 30 like yourself and fit. It wasn't anything dangerous, just a quick hit and run pickpocketing. All I'm saying is too strike a balance between confidence and caution.

Sounds like prices have doubled for Carnaval time.
Starting quoted prices were $100 back in Nov.
I totally agree with Help report, small percentage of hotties, but real hotties when available, and yes you gotta strike fast in this place. Pretty garotas available everywhere in Rio imho, Lido, Help, termas, agencies.

The dangerous period is between 200am and 500am outside of Help. The cops are long gone and thugs prowl the neighborhood.
You will be in trouble if you spend enough time in Rio and put yourself into such condition ( ie walk alone in the so hours at so places) Thugs are black, 6'3'' 230lbs and there are packs 3-4 of them gang up against you. They are usually high on Coke and have guns/knives. If you escape the first pack, there are more of them in the dark up the street ambush you when you run by...Think of packs of wolves hunting prey....Do you hear the story of a young US Air Force captain shot dead during an heroic attempt to free another unlucky victim?
Don't be a hero and do not count on Brazilian cops. They are so corrupt like any South American cops.
If cornered, do not fight back, just sheepishly give up your wallet/jewels and you will be fine..and yes,, I have been mugged 3times in the last 4 years just try to save some taxi fares..

Well GatorHunter - I totally agree with your rebuttal but unfortunately for you, your rebuttal was not your only statement. You kinda got what you deserved. When it is necessary to issue a rebuttal, generally there is a reason. If you had said what you said in your rebuttal in our initial statement, then you would not have offended anybody.

But instead you chose to make insulting comments like - "I?m guessing that 90% of the tourists that get mugged are older, out-of-shape and quite drunk" are not going to make any friends. Given that it is your 1st trip to Rio, you obviously don't have many facts to base this statement on. Especially given that if you had done your homework on Rio, you would know that all shapes and sizes have been mugged on the way home from Help; not just the fat, old and ugly. If you had confined your comments to "Rio is not as dangerous as people seem to be saying" then maybe someone would have listened to you.

It is okay to be naive; but to be insulting to boot combines 2 of the worst of all human qualities.
Sarcasism & negative humor in internet posts generally are not understood as they were initially intended so I would recommend not using them.

Understood about the sarcasm...i'll tone it down. Being insulting was not my goal.

Though my belief about the type of person being mugged 90% of the time is not based on my experience during my trip to Rio. How would I know?

It's based on the experience of native Brazilians with whom I spoke, Americans who now work there and deal with tourists every day and my friends who have been to Rio up to 7 times.

I've also been to Sao Paolo and Porto Seguro and I knew two guys who were mugged who basically fit my description (minus the sarcasm). It wasn't until I went to Rio and started talking to people, however, that I made the connection.

I'm sorry if I was overly harsh but it easy to misread ones intent. Thanks for report though. Kenn is a great guy, I luv the termas & I totally agree that trying to nickel & dime the chicas on price does not pay off in the long run (not even in the short run). Any plans to return to Rio in the near future?

BTW Gatorhunter - there is an very active discussion group regarding Rio & Brazil here. It would be great if you come over & add your thoughts.

Like the gluch in SJO, places in GIG (Rio) are
dangerous at night period. Shape or no-shape, if you are not careful there are good chances that you'll get mugged. A buddy of mine, 6'6"/210lb, who lives in Botofogo got mugged in Ipanema last month -- Go figure

IMHO...The Gulch in San Jose is 1000% safer and öld drunken folk"are the ones that get robbed...I'm primaraly speaking about the walk from the Del rey to the presidente...

I'm in rio for the first time...been here about 5 days...in a nutshell...this place is awesome...BTW and FWIW...an american was mugged outside of help...he was attacked by a guy with a knife and as he defended himself from the knife "had the guys knife hand\arm in his" another guy came from behind and took his money out of his pockets...(the story was told to me by someone else)

NoMal

read gators report on rio, and have to agree on many points. obviously there are exceptions to all the rules{airforce pilot story}but i feel the key to safety is: when walking at night, do not walk alone. i always traveledd with 2 friends who are quite menacing looking when need be. the piranas ARE looking for targets who are single or with garota. if you have to leave help alone, get in a dam cab, even if for 2 blocks. what is spending an extra 5 bucks at the most, going to really mean in the end? one less choppe?

$5R = 5 less choppe (lol)

I agree, take a cab if alone or with garota.

While hanging with Layne the other morning. I gringo told us he got robbed at 7 in the morning across the street from help. He said he had a thick gold chain around his neck and some guys started messin with him. He argued with them and one grabbed a knive from a kiosk and charged him. He stood up quickley and used a table as defense. He said he slipped and as he was falling an different guy grabbed his chain and took off.

Moral if one...they are never alone. It´s the one you don´t see that gets you.

BTW, not 100% sure the guy was telling the truth.

Man - I am reading this back four trips later and I'm realizing 1) what an idiot I sounded like and 2) how lucky I was that first trip not to get mugged.

Ignorance is not bliss; it's just ignorance.

Please forgive me; I was an idiot newbie.

Ever since I saw two kids approach me outside Help with knives, I always walk directly to the cabs outside - even if they will charge extra.

See you in the RDJ - March 29.