Studio apartment with stunning views across downtown Rio. Nice hammock by window.
Jennifer, being Canadian with perfect English, made us very welcome. the language thing is important.
Brazilian people in general do not speak English and are not very helpful to tourists without perfect Portuguese. Make sure to have a phone translation app and/or lingo book to hand.
There is noise at night from the party area of Lapa. It is close, at the bottom of the hill, and noise carries to the apartment every night, especially at weekends.
The apartment would benefit from a chest of drawers or other form of storage. Currently your hanging clothes, plus EVERYTHING YOU OWN, end up on display. Makes the place look and feel untidy.
The filter water tap was very welcome meaning we did not have to buy water and carry it in.
Lots of options for breakfast and meals out within a 5-10 min walk, and without going up or down hills. For breakfast try the Acai (semi-frozen fruit pulp often served with a sprinkling of granola) and the pao de queijo (cheese bread – lovely profilterole-sized dough-balls with melted cheese inside).
Our favourite breakfast location was directly across the road from Cafecite about 10 mins walk. Juice (freshly squeezed), coffee, Acai and some pao de queijo cost about 60 Real for 3 people. Somewhere locals and tourists go.
For the less adventurous Cafecite did a nice breakfast with waiter service at a slightly higher price. Lovely cake on the breakfast offer. Closest breakfast offer is down the hill from the apartment, bear left, 100m. Very good but tables outside so only for a dry day.
Taxis – on advice of landlady we used Uber which were safe, cheaper than taxis. However communication in English impossible and GPS/directions were often an issue.
Brazil’s dark secret is that no article mentions that toilets cannot cope with toilet paper being flushed. You need to use the bin. This is the case in 5 star restaurants, public buildings, everywhere, it seems.