Just the other evening someone asked me what I thought was so special about Rio. Obviously this was someone who had never been to Rio. I asked him where he usually went and he replied Costa Rica. Since I have been to Costa Rica eleven times this was something I could use. I asked him to imagine San Jose as clean modern city with unlimited access to goods and sevices ,to multply both the number and quality of the available women by a power of ten, to improve the types and quality of the food similarly, and to put the whole thing down by the beach…”that gives you an idea what Rio is like,” I said.

Others have said it before…Rio is the major league and everything else is minor league. This is not to put down the minors…good sport is great wherever you find it…but, where you might find one or two really good players on a minor league team, in the majors, all the players are stars. It’s like that in Rio.

It’s not just the sex either. Rio is a world class city even without it (perish the thought). Culture, history, Scenery, excitement…Rio has it all. But most of all…

There are the girls. The intention of this report is to give a highly personal overview of Rio’s sex scene from a tourist point of view in hopes that this information may be useful for the man who is going to Rio and motivational to the one who is not.

I first visited Rio over three years ago and I made every rookie mistake in the book. I got robbed by street punks and by my landlord, I ate in the worst places,

I overpaid drastically and I unknowingly picked up a transsexual. At that time the real was trading at almost 1-1 with the dollar. Even with all of this Rio captured my heart and when I returned two years later, armed with a little experience and a lot of information, it was great. On my last trip I bought an apartment and Rio will now be a permanent part of my itenerary. The information here was gathered between Dec. 2, 2001 and May 9, 2002.



PREP WORK

Do your homework. Find out as much as you can about your destination. Read the guidebooks and study a little Portugese. Know what the exchange rate is. Book in advance. There are many people who can help with this. You will often find them mentioned on these boards. I have not used many of these folks and can’t say too much about most of them one way or the other. However, when I was shopping for my apartment , I met an American living in Rio who acts as a facilitator specifically for men like us. He is not a pimp, but he knows a lot of good girls from the earlier experience of his friends and he can often steer one in the right direction. He also speaks fluent Portugese and such knowledge is often invaluable when negociating. Whether or not you choose to use his guide services he manages a number of rental apartments very conveniently located

To all the action and he can also arrange airport pickups. If you want to check him out ask for recommendations from people on the board who have used him. His name is Don, and He can be contacted at Don@riotrips.com. I much prefer apartments to hotels for a number of reasons. Decent hotels in Rio are not cheap. Especially those located conveniently. In addition, the better the hotel the less chance that they will be tolerant of your Brazilian girlfriend at 3am, and , even if they are tolerant, they will probably want to charge you extra for a girl in the room. I generally entertain many girls in the course of a stay and this can be quite expensive. The girls seem to be more comfortable in an apartment as well, and a girl at ease usually translates into a better experience.

Here is the view from the last apartment Don rented me.

GETTING LAID IN RIO

It’s hard not too. One of the first things one notices in this culture is a different attitude toward sex. Somehow, many people in this primarily Catholic country seem to have largely escaped sexual guilt. Women and men proudly display their healthy self image and eye contact is frequent and frank. Professional sex is accepted and open and lacks a good deal of the seemy quality one finds in many other places. There are a number of venues one can explore and I will touch on most of them while highlighting my favorites.

HELP DISCO

A Rio landmark. I personally hate the place, but it’s a must visit if only to compare it unfavorably with everything else. To be fair, the first visit here has a kid in a candy store flair. It is intoxicating to find oneself in a large, crowded disco with a few hundred beautiful young women and know that it is possible to take ones pick with little chance of rejection. All it takes is money and a confident air. This is THE tourist spot and girls here know they can overprice the uninitiated or the unwary.

So , they try to overprice everybody. Close proximity with tourists has given many of these girls bad habits. They will often quote prices in dollars. NEVER pay in dollars…always in reals. Laugh good naturedly at any initial offer. This is a buyers market. If you do not believe me count the number of girls and compare it to the number of men.(note: If the number of men exceeds the number of women…leave. You are obviously in the wrong place.) The standard pricing at present is 150R for short time (2hrs) and 200R for all night. If you don’t really want all night don’t pay for it. She will usually want to leave when you are done anyway. If you really hit it off you can always upgrade.

You get a real cross section at HELP, but the girls here seem to be a bit more mercenary and hard core.

A good alternative is to simply sit at the café outside of HELP and watch the girls come and go. It is even easier to make contact with them in this way since they are anxious to save the 20R entry fee or they have already come up empty inside. Also the light is better and you can get to know your little darling a bit before committing. This is a sample of some of the talent I have met in that café.

Photo: Extravaganza01

I didn’t get a chance to do this girl. One of us was always hooked up whenever we saw each other. However it was a lot of fun flirting (the second most popular sport after soccer), and there’s always next time.

Thanks for the great insights and focus on help - have been hearing the full gambit of opinions on this place and now can truly first hand see the types of gals who are at Help

The Artist,

Thanks for the most honest and details report. I just got back from BA, Argentina and have met several seasoned hombres. They all seemed to agree that the only two places which could top BA are Rio, Braz and Prague, Czech Rep in terms of the quality of the women. They even went on further to say that if you throw the Copacabana beach and Rio's women in Buenos Aires, you would have a perfect vacation and mongering destination. Heaven it is!!!

I'll be a newbie to Rio and Sao Paulo in late June, and with reports like yours, Athos, and others, I feel very confident and looking 4ward to my visits.

If it's not an issue, could you please tell us how much did you rent that apartment for and does Don even rent it for just a two-week stay? TIA

SBomb

Sakebomb,
Thanks for the kind words.
Actually I am a bit jealous of your BA trip. I fully intend to test those waters just as soon as I can, but one cannot be everywhere and I'm a sucker for the beach.
Don has a variety of apartments at his disposal and they are available by the day if i am not mistaken. The studio I rented was about $55 a day if memory serves. It was a studio and i know he has 1 and 2BRs available as well. Prices vary according to season so you will have to contact him (or probably his sister Rhonda) for details.June is off season and you will notice this on the beach and in HELP, but I found the off season to be advantageous in the termas. Perhaps it was my imagination, but I have never experienced better quality and consistency than on this past trip.Besides...less tourists=more for me. Hope you enjoy.

I have to second the suggestion about Don. I have
heard it from two others offline, that he has
great apartments. His website is www.riotrips.com

Artist,
thanks for the report and pictures!! I agree with gathering as much info as possible will help in the enjoyment. Thanks to guys like you us young newbie's know what the deal is and do not overpay. A quick question ... is there a dress code at Help ? And how nice or casual do most guys dress? I will be going to Brazil for the first time in october. How is it at that time of year? I plan to do a trip report with photos. Any advice or tips are always greatly appreciated.

Thanks, I will try to give all my general recomendations in the report and answer specific questions here. Dress code at HELP...strangely enough they have one (I think it may be the only place on Copa which actually does). No shorts and no sleeveless shirts for guys. Often I have insured that I would not give in to the lure of HELP by puposely going out in shorts. Of course this does not apply during Carnival when everyone goes everywhere naked (at least that is what it seems like). What rules there are go out of the window at that time.The rest of the time everybody dresses casual,this is still the tropics, and tourists are expected to be casual. The locals stay comfortable as well. It's not unusual to see people waling around city streets in bathing suits and no shirts (at least in Copa) In the termas it's not an issue since everyone is dressed the same...terrycloth bathrobes (supplied by the club)
Rio weather and MIami weather are similar, only reversed. Oct in Rio is a lot like March in Miami.Check the weather channel websit or travel FAQs for specifics. Rio weather doesn't have a tremendous range.
Pictures are always good. A small digital camera is best. I'll go into more details about photos in the body of the report. Good luck and stay tuned. We've barely begun.

Artist - what is Don's http link? I'll add it to the LINKs section (anyone can add useful links over there). Lots of great links over there if any of you are unfamilar with it; check it out & add your favorites.

Artist,

This is a great thread you've started.

I'm thinking about my next vacation destination other than Costa Rica (4 times) and its a toss up between BA & Rio. BA is the fav now because of the exchange rate, but Rio is making a strong run.

Youngtom,
here is that link! http://www.riotrips.com

I never even looked at the links before...wow those are going to keep me busy! thanks Youngtom

Sorry to go off topic, but I just had to throw out another thanks to Uwphoto. He kept sending me link submissions from the old utility which involved a manual process of adding links. I couldn't keep up with him, so I eventually developed the current utility in his honor.

He STILL adds links all the time, and assists as one of the "Link moderators". Can you believe I have Link moderators? (They are more active than the message board moderators)

Earlier, I criticized Bobby for doing a bait and switch on me. Ironically, he switched me from a one bedroom to the studio directly beneath the one you had (I recognize the view) for only $40 a night. If you paid $55 a night, someone pocketed a few extra bucks.