Luis's place is a great spot to come to when one first arrives in Rio.
The views from the apartment and deck are stunning and will make for a super relaxing initial hangout upon having dropped the bags, and opened up a bottle of wine to chill for a bit and take in the feel of it all.
Location-wise it will be difficult to find a better spot in Ipanema. Positioned a couple of blocks from the beach and about twice that distance from the laguna, everything is within walking distance and Luis was super helpful with tips on where to wine and dine in the neighborhood.
Once there for a day or two and the more adventurous part within makes itself heard, it is very easy to venture out with one of the rentable orange Itau bicycles. Download the mobile app, get yourself a monthly contract for 5 Reals - with auto-renew turned off - and you are off to explore Ipanema, Copacabana, the Laguna, and even Botafogo and beyond using one of the many bike lanes that Rio has put in place - for the price of an additional 5 Reals per hour.
At the end of your adventures, you'll be happy to come back to the penthouse, take a hot shower with awesome views of the night skyline while you're washing your hair, cook up some Stroganoff, or head back out to the local bar and restaurant scene.
The place is equipped with a washer/dryer combo, which you can find underneath the sink outside, just around the corner from the bedroom.
As subjectively awesome as the layout of the apartment is, there are a couple of objective things one should be aware of:
- The elevator goes to the 14th floor and opens to a hallway of doors. One of them is yours and leads to a relatively narrow spindle staircase through which the kitchen and living room part of the apartment is accessed (15th floor). For travelers who have a bit of a heavy built or for those who have a huge and/or heavy suitcase with them - this circumstance can turn your checkin and your checkout into a little adventure. We didn't mind it and actually welcomed the layout. But - again - not quite designed for my diabetic grandma who just had hip surgery.
- The bedroom and bathroom are on the 16th floor and can only be accessed through the outside stairs. Again, a somewhat crazy yet cool layout we thought, but this could lead to unwanted showers when it rains.
Overall a super cool spot that we can't wait to come back to in the near future!