Arriving in Rio

I am counting down the days now! so, here is the post about arrival in Rio.

After you pass customs with your luggage, but still inside the customs' area, you will notice some stands with some people waiving and offering you taxis. Those are legal taxis and very comfortable ones. You pre-pay it there, which is a positive thing since most drivers will not speak any language but Portuguese and might even be nasty and take you for a longer ride than you need. The average price for Copacabana-Ipanema area is around US$40, but you need to say where you are going to the agent before closing the deal. These special taxis (radio taxis) can be white with some color stripes, or blue, or red. Reliable ones are Transcoopass, Cootramo, and Coopertramo.

If you decide to deal with the drivers in Portuguese and get a hopefully cheaper rate, you can go outside and look for yellow cabs queued at the entrance (only the ones in the queue should be trusted). They have meters and drivers don't expect tips (at least not from Brazilians), but you can always make the change easily.
Another option is to take the Bus! not a bad option, if your luggage is not not too heavy and you know the address of your hotel and have a map to follow. The driver of the frescão (means super cool because of chilly AC temperatures during the summer) bus by Real company, will try to help you, but it is not his responsibility to find your hotel, and he will only recommend a stop that is near the hotel.

By the way, you will need Brazilian currency to pay for transportation. Business cannot be conducted in dollars or any other currency than Brazilian, it is illegal to use other currencies.

BE CAREFUL WHEN USING ATM'S, ALWAYS HIDE YOUR PIN CODE WHEN TYPING IT. MINE WAS CLONED AND MY ACCOUNT WAS IN THE RED AFTER A FEW DAYS. They had a camera somewhere checking what I was typing and made a copy of my card with some kind of device that I didn't see. These are professionals, don't understimate them. Most of the time, only Bradesco ATM's will work for US credit cards, not sure about europeans.

I recommend you bring cash and do a small exchange at the airport's official cambio offices for your first day. US$100 will be enough to pay taxi, get you 3 meals and still do some shopping. Rates in Copacabana and Ipanema Cambio houses will be better, probably 15% better, but that changes quite often. They are located in the main avenues, Avenida Nossa Senhora in Copacabana and Rua Visconde de Piraja in Ipanema. Look for Casa de Cambio.