From the minute that we made our reservation with Beto, I knew that it would be a great experience. He was informative, helpful, and the listing was exactly as we expected when we arrived.

I've stayed in a few AirBnBs at this point and there are often some disappointments when you finally arrive. THIS WAS NOT THE CASE with this listing! This apartment had everything that we needed and even came with a few extra perks we weren't really expecting! I cannot say how pleased we are with this experience and hope that our review is something that you will consider when looking for places to stay in Rio.

PROS:
Beto speaks and writes in English! For someone like me that doesn't speak Portuguese, this was really helpful and made adjusting to our surroundings really easy. Upon arriving in Rio, Beto met us at the door, let us into the apartment and showed us maps and gave us pointers about where to find things. It was really helpful and we had a great introduction to the city because of it.

The apartment is situated about 5 minutes away from the beach and the subway. A fully loaded grocery store is in the neighborhood as are some fun local bars when you wanna just stay close for a night cap. As neighborhoods go in Rio, this one is as safe as they come. It's well lit, easy accessible, and is easily accessible by cab, uber, or on foot. Never once did I, nor my girlfriend, feel unsafe walking to and from this apartment, especially since there was a doorman present most of the time that would let us in and out of the building when he saw us coming and going.

For women wondering, this place does have a legitimate hair dryer (or so my girlfriend says) and it definitely was unexpected when we saw it. If you plan on going to the beach a lot, the apartment also has a washer, which we found really useful on days we wanted to do a quick load of laundry the night before going the beach.

For those of you that are runners, the apartment is in the perfect location for you to throw some running shoes on and go for a run along the beach. The distance from this apartment to Ipanema, is about 2 miles. You could easily pop off a 6-7 mile run along the beach if you wanted to and never feel unsafe. There are a lot of runners in Rio and it's really fun to be a part of that scene when you're there. If you have time, take the subway to the Nike Store in Centro and do the run club there. It's one of the best in the world and definitely worth it!

CONS:
You're going to need to grab toilet paper, laundry detergent and trash bags when you get here.
If you like to have clean towels frequently, you're going to need to do laundry.