Rio Carnival

Wow! Rio Carnival 2019! So you've asked for tips and advice on how to do it -  best as I know, here we go!

Plan A. Go with a local. If you have a friend in Rio, use your connection. Local knowledge counts a lot.

Plan B. If not, here's what we learnt. There are different aspects to carnival.

1. Samba School Parades. A competition held in the Sambodromo. The best nights are Sunday and Monday before Shrove Tuesday when the top 12 samba schools take part. It's hard to get a ticket directly, so we used the official resale site RioCarnival.net, paid via credit card, well over local price and at least 6 months in advance. Tickets are only released on the day of the event either delivered to your hotel or as we did it, collected from a ticket office in Copacabana. This process was simple. They advised getting to the Sambodromo on the Metro but it's located in a super- dodgy part of the city, so we used Uber. Our driver found a route - there's lots of road closures in the area - that dropped us one block from our entrance.

The parade starts at 9.15 pm and ends at about 5 in the morning. Each school has about an hour of parade with at least 6 massive floats and a few thousand dancers!!! It's mind blowing!! We made it to about 2.00am!!

2. Balls - These are fancy affairs at hotels or clubs. Not our scene.

3. Blocos - or street parades. Over Carnival season Rio has over 500 different parties in different neighborhoods. Here again, local knowledge will be most useful. The bigger parades are crazy and crowded and we witnessed crime and gangs clashing with armed riot police a few times. We would find a restaurant or bar with outside seating and enjoyed the parade in comfort and safety. At other blocos the atmosphere was relaxed and a lot of fun. You must dress up. Imagine the entire population of the city in fancy dress or swimwear out on the streets for 48 hours of revelry.

4. Stay in Copacabana. We stayed at Rio Othon Palace, a really big, generic hotel with a wonderful rooftop bar. The beach will be very convenient from your hotel and your hotel will provide beach chairs and umbrellas. It's really hot so you probably only want to spend a few hours a day down on the sand. In the evening it's relatively safe to walk to the local restaurants and bars.

5. Visit Centro, Lapa and St. Teresa during the day but not at night. Be alert, leave valuables in your hotel safe and wear a money belt under your clothes.

Our favourite stops in Centro were the Colombo Confectaria, a beautiful,  historic tea-room and the Portuguese Reading Room, one of the most beautiful old libraries in the world.

7. The view of the city from the Christ the Redeemer lookout is amazing but the selfie-taking hordes will drive you nuts.

8. Uber is fantastic and a very safe way to get around in Rio.