How unsafe is Rio?

[simbe]

Thinking of going to Rio for a week next winter. Never been to Brazil. How unsafe does it feel there?

If you’ve been, did you feel safe enough to walk to a restaurant for dinner?

Absolutely fine- we're getting on a bit, but found the people lovely and very friendly. We kept to fairly mainstream roads and paths and didn't flash the cash.

We loved it.

Watching

I'd like to go

I went a while ago, but I don't think it's changed much. No, it's not what I would call safe, but as long as you keep your wits about you and leave any nice jewellery and accessories at home, you should be okay. We walked to restaurants every night and we were fine (we stayed in Copacabana). There is a lot to see there and the food is great - we really liked it.

Same here, when I went I didn’t change my behaviour when walking around etc as we didn’t feel the need to.

My DH went for work, I think the main thing is keep to the main 'tourist' streets and areas, if you get into the back streets you can be in trouble. I think the usual advice to not carry too much cash and valuables and prepare to just give it up without protest in the hopefully unlikely even you get mugged and keep passports in a safe place. You could ask in the hotel where it's safe to go, most cities have areas best to avoid anyway.

Used to go for work purposes but not recently.

Advice we got at that time was similar to the comments made by@cheezncrackers and @custardpyjamas , i.e. stick to the main streets, don’t flash jewelry or money and if confronted give up what you’ve got.

We’d hear occasional reports that colleagues had been mugged but it never went beyond them having to give up cash, nothing more…

We went and were fine. You do need to keep your wits about you though.
The company we went with arranged a woman to pick us up at the airport. She asked my husband to sit in the front with her so it didn’t look like she was driving tourists. She told us to be careful where we went and not to walk on the beach at night. When she picked us up to take us to the airport for our next destination (Iguazu) she asked us what we had been to. When we told her we had walked to Sugar Loaf Mountain on the pavement of the car tunnel she nearly went spare. Apparently we were very likely to get mugged there.
I think it is basically like any country where there are poor people, well off tourists and not a great police force.