We absolutely loved our stay at Casa 48 for 8 days over new year. We stayed in two rooms - the studio downstairs (which has it's own kitchen, bathroom and terrace) and the Acai room upstairs. Both were fantastic. The upstairs rooms share two bathrooms which were good and clean. Shared kitchen was also great and the common lounge area really nice. Wife worked well. And, of course... that view! Wow. It really made our stay. We enjoyed staying in Santa Teresa which seemed a bit less hectic than the beaches, especially at this time of year. From the house it is easy to get a bus down to Lapa and a couple of different metro stations. There are also vans that take you around. It is about a 20 minute walk down hill to the heart of Santa Teresa. Staying in the favela was a great experience and we had no problems at all - everyone was so friendly and welcoming, it really was wonderful. Axel provided us with lots of great info when we arrived and then Valentine, another housemate, took good care of us while we were there. Breakfast was great (fresh juice and cake!). We had the best time in Rio and Casa 48 was a big part of that, we cannot recommend it highly enough.