During our 3 day stay in Rio my wife and I enjoyed an awesome time at Maria`s place. Due to my research we did in advance I selected Ipanema as our location in Rio as it has a nice neighbourhood with plenty of opportunities in terms of shopping, beach and public transportation. We picked Maria´s place as it is directly located at the square “General Osario” with its Metro station and many bus connections to everywhere. In addition to that you have just a 3 min walk to Ipanema beach, which in my opinion is nicer than Copacabana. However if you prefer Copacabana it is also in walking distance as it takes just 10 min to go to.
Our hosts were Maria`s daughter Miriam and her husband Manuel as Maria herself was on holidays. They were exceptionally friendly and helpful, never tired to tell us every needful detail to make our stay as pleasant as possible. Conversation wasn`t a problem at all as they speak perfect English and Portuguese. A very needful information e.g. was to make an online reservation for “Corcovado” (Jesus Christ the redeemer), which apparently seems to be the only way to visit this attraction by now and has to be done at least 1 day in advance.
Maria´s place itself is elegant and tidy. We had our own bathroom, which can be entered directly from your room and therefore provides privacy. The room has a ceiling fan and is air conditioned as well.
Altogether there was not even 1 thing we could complain about, so I can strongly recommend this place.