After staying here for the last 98 nights, I wish I could give this apartment ten stars.
Miriam is an exceptional host: she answered all messages within minutes, she’s decorated the apartment thoughtfully with great Rio touches but also towards great use of the space, and she has equipped the apartment with literally everything we wanted or needed and nothing we didn’t need that would have taken up precious space. Because we were there for so long, we routinely cooked dinners at home and the kitchen was surprisingly very well-stocked. There are plenty of bath and kitchen towels, and the washer/dryer works great.
Another great perk of this apartment for longer-term rentals is that Miriam sends the efficient Lurdes once a week to clean the apartment. Lurdes does an amazing job - the apartment was spotless when we arrived and she cleaned it to that standard every week. She was even changing the bedspreads and decorative pillow shams every week until I asked her to scale that back. All that to say, I had zero concern that I was sleeping on dirty bed linens!
The neighbors and the porteiros in the building are wonderful and friendly. Next-door neighbor Edna is awesome and was ready to assist when we had any questions.
We recently lived in Rio for 3 years, staying in Lagoa, São Conrado, and Leblon. I thought I wanted to return to Leblon for these few months, so we rented a place near our old house. It was a disaster and the owner wasn’t interested in fixing the problems. So then I found Miriam’s place, which she offers at such a great price that it was a no-brainer to try it for a month. About 2 days into that first month, we knew where we were staying for the rest of our time in Rio. You can walk to the Metro in 13 minutes, the best Zona Sul grocery store (on Bartolomeu Mitre) in the whole city is about a 5-minute walk, our favorite Posto 12 beach spot was minutes away, the amazing Itaú bike share stand is a block away, and this is before I touch on the Gávea neighborhood itself. You literally never have to leave Gávea to buy everything you need. There are great restaurants (Braseiro is a long-time favorite) , a mall with good movie theater, grocery stores, fruit/veg stores, bakeries, and loads of small businesses selling anything you need, all within blocks of the apartment. The neighborhood is walkable, and everybody is so friendly. There is a lovely youthful energy in Gávea that was really refreshing.
Sorry for this long review, but I cannot speak highly enough of this apartment and Miriam and the location. I intend to plan future trips to Rio around the availability of the apartment!