rated the Ipanema Plaza Hotel as follows:| Cleanliness |  | | Location |  | | Staff | | | Food | | |
| Entertainment |  |
| said: The Ipanema Plaza is only 3 years old - quite rare to have new in Rio. Most hotels were built in the 70s and look like it as well!
The hotel is one block away from the beach - a 2 minute walk. Our room did not face the beach but we did look out to Christ the Redeemer. We had a junior suite which was very spacious and had a lovely bathroom. It had air conditioning, a reasonably priced minibar and cable tv.
Breakfast was really anything you could think of. We ate out on the terrace area where we could "people watch". We were told beforehand that people take very little down to the beach and it was commonplace to see men walking the street with only a pair of speedos and flip flops on. The women were not wearing much more - but not speedos thank goodness!
The bar is in the reception area and we stopped there before going out most nights. There is a small rooftop pool with a cafebar. The hotel supplies towels. The entertainment rating was not really applicable as it is not really a resort type hotel. We could not really rate the food apart from breakfast and a couple of lunches which were very good as we had too many restaurants we wanted to try out and only one week to do it!
The Plaza is in a good position. Ipanema is a lot safer than Copacabana. The hotel was in a residential area. There were many restaurants and bars around it.
There is a lot of poverty in Rio and it is best to leave jewellery at home. I left my rings in the safe. We never felt in any danger. We did meet two others from Aberdeen who had a mugging experience (unsuccessful) but he was wearing a gold chain. It was commonplace to see people searching through rubbish.
The beach was fantastic. People seem to live their lives there. Beach vendors sell anything you would want. They do not hassle you in any way - a shake of the head and they immediately move on. In fact they have to have a licence to sell and it would be taken away very quickly if there are complaints.
We did the usual tourist stuff such as going up the cable car to Sugar Loaf mountain one day and taking the train through the forests to the top of Corcodavo mountain to see Christ the Redeemer. Both were well worth it. We took a schooner around the tropical islands. This involves an hour and a half coach journey through the country which was really interesting. You pass many favelas (shanty towns) and can see at close hand what life must be like.
There are restaurants and bars by the hundreds. The food is fabulous and very cheap. The drink is cheap too - I bought a litre of Bacardi in the supermarket for £3 (and it is the proper stuff!) There are really not that many Brits there and in fact, in a hotel with 16 floors, we never heard another Brit. You get mainly Portuguese and Brazilian holidaymakers and quite a few Americans. In a lot of places you will find no-one who speaks English although some of these places will have a menu translated into English.
You have to try the local drink - Caipirinha - great but lethal!
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Fiona and Tony from Aberdeen travelled to Ipanema Plaza Hotel with
DIY
on a couples holiday.