Most likely, you'll arrive at the international airport (at the Antonio Carlos Jobim Terminal), which is a good distance from the places in Rio where you'll want to make your home. After going through immigration (usually painless) and getting your luggage and clearing customs (ditto), you'll head out to get a taxi. When you exit customs you'll be accosted by guys wearing quasi-official looking uniforms trying to get a taxi for you. Do NOT take them up on their offers. Despite their quasi-official uniforms, they are scam artists and will charge you at least double the highest rate you should pay. Instead, you have two options. The cheapest of the two is to go directly ahead and outdoors and look for a metered cab (a yellow cab with meter). You may have to walk a ways to your right or left to find one. A metered cab ride to Copacabana should run you between $26-32 reais (all amounts in Brazil's currency, the Real). These cabs may or may not be air conditioned (and can charge extra for aircon), and the driver will likely not speak a word of English. However, if you bring a sheet of paper with your hotel's name and address, you should be fine. I've only had a couple of cabbies in Rio try to cheat me (with rigged meters), but I also speak some Portuguese and know my way around the town. The other option is to turn to the right as you exit customs and look for the "radio cab" booths. You'll see a line of 4-5 booths ("Coopertramo" etc) with women trying to get your attention. Here you'll pre-pay for an air conditioned "radio taxi" cab to your destination but pay more (about $43 R one way; you can also buy a return ticket). The advantage: guaranteed air conditioning and no haggling over the fare. Also, you can pay in dollars here and get a fair exchange, but you risk being ripped off if you try to pay with dollars with a metered cab. BTW, there are banks at the airport where you can exchange currency, including one by the baggage carousels, but the rate is not very good (but probably better than you'll get at your local bank at home). Take note that if you arrive on a holiday (they have lots of them in Brazil) or a Sunday, exchanging money may be a big problem. More on currency exchange later.