We arrived in Rio for Carnival and we couldn't have chosen a better place to stay than Joao's apartment, it's situated 1 minute from Copacabana beach, and it's only a 15 minute walk down to Ipanema (or if you're feeling a little lazy as we often were, a 2 minute cab ride.)

We felt safe at all times of the day and night, the neighbourhood was pretty wild during this week, it was Carnival after all :-) The streets were full of people in fancy dress, going crazy and generally having an absolute ball. Everyone was drinking and partying until the early hours, but I cannot stress enough that at no point did we encounter any anti-social behaviour or bad vibes from any group or individuals, it's such a fun atmosphere, you just have to get involved!

The apartment is small but perfectly formed, it has two AC units that keep the flat nice and cool, a great big flat screen TV, a kitchen with large fridge freezer and a washing machine (this we found particularly useful) the apartment has a great en-suite shower room with plenty of space for all your toiletries.

Joao was a great host and kindly offered to collect me from the airport, he gave me all manor of useful info on where to go for food, drinks etc etc. He left plenty of supplies in the apartment, breakfast and other refreshments and in general made us feel extremely welcome.

When we return to Rio we will undoubtably be contacting Joao to book us in for another amazing week in Rio.