Majestic Rio Palace Hotel

information

by brazilnut30

"Rio de janeiro info!"

here are some websites and e-mail for hotels in Rio:

Sofitel Rio Palace: accorbrasil.com.br
Caesar Park: caesarpark-rio.com
Copacabana Palace: copacabanapalace.orient-express.com
Sheraton Rio Hotel & towers: sheraton-rio.com

if you need more just ask and I will help you!

Rio de Janeiro Vacation

by bmw10111

"Summer in rio"

I had not been back to Rio in many years. But this October while I was in Buenos Aires I met up with my girlfriend for a week. We used to stay at the Rio Palace but it has been bought by the Sofitel Group. We stayed at the new Sheraton Barra Hotel and Suites. Mostly because we wanted to stay at a new place, and their website http://www.spg.com makes it a breeze to book rooms.

The Sheraton Barra is not located in the actual city of Rio, but we sort of enjoyed being away from the masses. The hotel is about 30 mins from the airport. The hotel is very new. I think there are some areas that they are still working on. We booked an executive suite. It had a small kitchen area, and a separate living room with a pull out queen sofa bed and decent TV. The bathroom was large and well equipped. I am into bath salts lately and they had them. (which is nice) The bathtub is certainly non-standard by US standards. The controls are up and away, and a bit confusing.

The room had great air conditioning, which is also very important to me. The mini-bar was well stocked, and moderately priced. Room service was fast and the food was fairly good. There is a nice breakfast buffet in the restaurant off the lobby. Apparently some rooms get this for free, and other pay.

The hotel has a great pool towards the back of the property, and direct access to the ocean.

We took a private helicopter tour of the city. It was about $300.00 for an 40 min tour. It was great and worth the money. There are several tour operators that offer similar trips. Seeing Rio from the air is breathtaking.

Rio de Janeiro - Cidade Maravilhosa!

by MikeAtSea

The cidade maravilhosa is one of the most densely populated places on earth. The Cariocas - as the inhabitants are called - thrive on dance, drink, beach, sport and sun. It's a city of Dionysian spirit whose people live life head-first.
The international tourist crowd take advantage of Rio's ritzy side - there are innumerable opportunities to be decadent. But Rio also has much to offer the budget traveller. There are cheap hotels and restaurants aplenty, and the beach is a free entertainment zone.
Gaspar de Lemos set sail from Portugal for Brazil in 1501 and entered a huge bay in January 1502. Mistaking it for a river, he named it Rio de Janeiro. It was the French, however, who first settled permanently here. The Portuguese, like the French, harvested brazil wood along the Brazilian coast, and as Portuguese colonisation began to take hold, the French became concerned about being pushed out.
In 1555 three ships full of French settlers reached the Baía de Guanabara and settled on a small island they called Antarctic France. It didn't take long for the weak new town to come under attack from the Portuguese. They finally expelled the French from the region in 1560, also driving out the powerful Tamoio Indians, who allied with the French, in a series of grisly battles.

The founding Cariocas set up a fortified town on the Morro Castelo in 1567 called São Sebastião do Rio de Janeiro. It was a typical Brazilian town: poorly planned, with irregular streets in medieval Portuguese style. By the end of the century the settlement was getting by on fishing and the export of brazil wood and sugar cane. In 1660 the population was made up of 3000 Indians, 750 Portuguese and 100 blacks, but was still Brazil's third most important settlement. Slaves were brought in and sugar plantations - and their owners - thrived.
A gold rush in Minas Gerais at the start of the 18th century - ending half a century later when the gold ran dry - changed Rio forever, and Rio became the prize of Brazil. In 1710 the French, who were raiding the Portuguese colonies, attacked the city. The French were defeated at first, but a second try succeeded and the entire population fled the city in the dark of the night. The French demanded sizeable piles of gold, sugar and cattle, and the Portuguese had no choice but to oblige. However, the victorious French were brought down a few notches when two of their returning ships, filled with gold, were lost in treacherous storms.

Rio bounced back, replacing Salvador de Bahia as the colonial capital in 1763. In 1808 the entire Portuguese monarchy and court arrived in Rio, and so it was that the city came to house what was left of the Portuguese Empire. With the court came a heap of money and skills that were used to build some of the city's lasting monuments. The coffee boom in the mountains of São Paulo and Rio revitalised the economy, and the city took on a new importance as a port town and commercial centre. Passenger ships began sailing to London in 1845 and to Paris in 1851, and by the end of the 19th century, the city's population exploded due to European immigration and internal migration.The early 1920s to the late 1950s saw Rio's golden age. It became a romantic, exotic destination for Hollywood stars and international high society, which came to frolic in the city's posh casinos and nightclubs. The city remained the political capital of Brazil until 1960, when the capital was moved to Brasília. During that time, there was a hotel building boom along the beaches that saw the rise of biggies like the Sheraton and Rio Palace.
As the glitz was glistening, however, the favelas (shantytowns) of Rio were becoming overcrowded with immigrants from poverty-stricken areas of the northeast and interior, which swelled the number of urban poor in the city. As crime and violence went on the upswing, the city as a whole began to lose its gloss. It wasn't until Rio was chosen as host city for Eco 92 (the UN environmental conference) that living conditions began to improve in the favelas. In the build-up to the event, major projects, financed by federal grants, were undertaken to polish up the city. The trend to upgrade roads and restore buildings has continued.
Rio remains the cultural and tourist capital of Brazil. It is still at the forefront of the nation as far as fashion and pace are concerned, and should continue being so for years to come.