I stayed with my friend and my son there during World Cup for a week. The apartment has enough space for 2 couples or a couple (one room) and 2 friends to share another room. The patio is nice to chill out in the evening. If you like you can prepare your own food (we only use kitchen to keep beer cold though). We used washer to get cloths clean and it worked as expected. The location is very good. The place is 5 min walk from Copacabana beach and to get to the beach you walk through the streets fill with restaurants and shops. Big supermarket is 5 minutes walk. Metro station is 5 minutes walk. Cash machine (inside big bank) is 5 minutes walk. There are plenty of buses and taxis on a street that is 2 minutes walk from the apartment. There is a big hotel right next to the metro and many organized tours have there pick up point there. We took two tours - one picked us up at the hotel, the other one used a bus station across the street. If you like local food then a nice cheap local restaurant is 5 minutes walk. Andrea is a wonderful host. It never took her more than 24 hours to reply to email. It was our first visit to Rio and when she met as there she spent as much time as needed to answer all our questions about food, Rio safety, entertainment, etc. Since none of us spoke Portuguese she even helped us to get in touch with a host in another city where we were planning to stay for another week. On a checking day she arranged to keep our bags until late at night so we could spend extra day at the beach. I recommend this place to anybody who wants a nice, clean place in a safe neighborhood that is close to the beach, transportation, shopping and restaurants.