Considering the Leblon Palace Hotel in Rio de Janeiro?
A VT member wrote the following comment about visiting Rio de Janeiro:
Hiring a guide by Dabs
All of the reports about the dangers of Rio encouraged me to spend a little extra money and hire a guide for one of the days we were in Rio. I saw the company we used, Brazil Expeditions, recommended in Lonely Planet (listed as South America Experience in there but I was redirected to this website). Our guide, Wilson, was affable, knowledgable and delivered the tour just as stated on the website.
We opted for the Carioca tour which included a hike in Tijuca Park to the top of Pedro Bonita, followed by the option of going hang gliding (we didn't do this), after which we voted to go have lunch in Santa Teresa and then to the top of Corcovado, the statue of Christ.