anyone been to Brazil?

[cushionedwell]

we are thinking of going next year but looks overwhelming.
we'd like to stay in rio then one or two other places
would like a nice beach place to finish off
any recommendations please?

We stayed in the Leblon area which was perfect for my family. Each evening we went to a different restaurant and went out and about each day. We got around the language difficulties by writing down where we wanted to go and showing it to the taxi drivers, taxis weren’t too expensive. We never felt unsafe.
We stayed for five nights and then flew to Iguassa and stayed on the Argentine side, my DC really enjoyed this holiday.
We loved Cape Town too.

Rio...cant remember where we stayed as so many years ago....i hope crime levels have dropped....we were standing at front of hotel having a smoke...german tourist flatly refused to hand over camera to a teen lad....and told lad to f...off....lad shot german tourist...took camera and calmly strolled off...!!....preferred colombia and argentina.....less crime and hassle.

Few people outside of hotels speak even basic English.

This is very true and I was surprised how few people spoke any English at all. I speak French and Italian + enough Spanish and German to get around on holiday and none of them worked, because I tried them all and got blank looks! We were there several years ago now and I used my phrase book a lot. Now I guess you can use Google Translate, but don't count on anyone speaking English in Brazil.

I don’t see why they should speak English. We found it easy enough to communicate.

thankyou all fir the replies. we actually had a hideous moment today rememberingZika
my daughter who would be coming with us is getting married this summer and we thought -what if they are planning a baby!!
so we have cancelled the flights for now.
we are still really keen to go but will have a conversation with hee and her partner befitecrebooking.
looks like most of the Southern hemisphere is Zika ridden
may or may not be an issue