Rio Carnival, Brazil💃🏻

You need to experience Rio Carnival once in your life! If you have ever been to Notting-hill Carnival in London, then it is exactly like that, but lasts a month, and is 10x more hectic and crazy!

It is the world’s largest most famous annual festival, a Portuguese tradition, which has now evolved into a huge celebration of Brazilian culture, music and dance. In Brazil, it is considered a national holiday, celebrated all over the country bringing millions of locals and international tourists together. Some celebrations begin right after New Years Eve, with a week of pre-carnival, followed by the main event and finally post-carnival occurring between February to March. The main event normally lasts a week and finishes before Ash Wednesday, however, the dates change every year, so make sure to check them before booking anything. The carnival includes spectacular themed samba school parades in the Sambadrome and there are huge street parties called blocos that happen multiple times a day. A lot of people will go all out with their outfits, some very extravanagant and imaginative, from feather boas, to sparkly tops, coords and see through tops. Others will go as different themes like minions or wheres wally etc. It is truly a spectacular and impressive sight of everyone coming together. As we went during a heatwave, our outfits were shorts and bikini top every day!

Accommodation
For accommodation, I personally preferred booking Airbnbs and Hotels, primarily for our safety and that of our belongings. If you are planning to go with a group, getting an Airbnb will work out cheaper splitting it between everyone. If you are solo, booking hostels will make it easier for you to meet people, however, around Carnival they can be extremely expensive, noisy and we have heard of people getting their things stolen, even out of their lockers. I would book accommodation as early as possible as they tend to get more expensive the longer you leave it. However, we met a lot of people booking last minute Airbnbs with other travellers looking to do the same, even if they didn’t know each other. Popular places to stay are Copacabana and Ipanema, which are more touristy places so you have a lot of options. However, you can also stay further out in Santa Teresa, Central or Rio Norte, but they are seen as rougher areas, especially at night.

Safety
Brazil is known to be quite dangerous, although we personally didn’t experience anything bad, we have heard of some horror stories. For carnival, as it is incredibly busy during this week, there are some things you can do to stay safe. Firstly, don’t walk through dangerous areas by yourself and in the dark. Buy a small bumbag that goes underneath clothes, which can fit your phone and some cash in. If it is out of sight, you won’t attract any attention. This is the same with jewellery, take any off whilst you are in Brazil and keep it in a safe place. Lastly, you can either get some AirTags to track your things and a phone strap which can deter thieves. Overall be aware of pickpocketing as it is extremely common and they are very good at it. Sometimes they might even cut off your bag or strap if they deem it easy to do so, so just be wary of your surroundings.

Transportation
Getting around can be quite hectic, especially coming into Rio before Carnival starts as the traffic is awful. We got a bus from Ilha Grande, and it took two hours longer than it was meant to because of traffic. Download uber and the 99 app, which can both be used and are quite cheap. During carnival, cars will take a lot longer to get around because of the traffic, so if you want to, it is a lot easier to get mopeds. We did this a few times, but tried not to as they drive quite erratically. Bear in mind, they drive mopeds everywhere everyday, it can be quite scary and dangerous to do so, so only get mopeds if you are seriously running late!

Money
Even though you can pay on card practically everywhere, it is good to have a bit of cash to take out in the night. You are less likely to lose your wallet/purse and it is easier to buy drinks at bloco stalls.

Blocos
Blocos are huge street parties, which happen all over Rio and Brazil. Before going, we were told there was an app to download, which had all the blocos on them. This was helpful, but we found out that the best blocos are the ones that the locals go to, which sometimes can be smaller. To find these can be a bit trickier, so speak to locals, ask them for recommendations on where to go as they always give the best tips! There are also different instagram accounts that you can look at which has set times, (blocosderuario) is one of the best ones to check. We also noticed when we went the best blocos tended to be more in the North, around Centro and Santa Teresea. The ones around Copacabana and Ipanema seemed to be more family friendly. However, don’t take my word for it as everyone experiences it differently, so make sure to do your research before!

Events
During carnival there are loads of events on, so make sure to do your research and see what’s available. There will most likely be DJ events at BOMA, Sambadrome parades and DJ events at Sugarloaf Mountain, all of which you will need to purchase tickets for. We bought tickets for Black Coffee DJ at BOMA, which were about £90 each on first release. We did look at getting Sambadrome tickets, but there were really expensive so chose not to, although looking back, I do wish we did, so if you want to, definitely buy the tickets! Lastly, we got Sugarloaf Mountains tickets, but sadly there was no DJ on the day we went. For these tickets, you can get them on GetYourGuide. All you need to do is purchase the cable car tickets and get there before sunset as DJs normally come on from 5pm onwards. We also noticed that there were sunrise tickets, which also came with breakfast. We really wanted to do this but tickets had been sold out for the next two months, so if you know a rough date of when you want to go, I would look at seeing if any are available!

The last event is Pedra do Sal, which is a famous street that everyone goes to on the Monday night of Carnival. The whole street is full of people, different drink stalls and has all kinds of music to dance to. If you are not a fan of tight spaces or sweaty people, this place isn’t for you! Everyone who goes there are very sweaty and are squished like sardines to the point that it can get quite claustrophobic. People tend to panic with the small space so it can sometimes get rough with people trying to get in and out. If you go early and make it to the stairs at the end of the street, you might be able to get a bit more space to dance. We went and were there for about forty minutes before we left, I personally was fine but can see and understand why some people don’t like it.

If you want to see what else we got up to whilst we were in Rio de Janeiro, and the other places we travelled to across Brazil, check out my other blog here💚