The Ultimate Singles Holiday Guide to Rio De Janeiro

Sin­gles hol­i­day fan­tasies don’t always live up to the billing, but if there was one place on earth that every­one agrees on, it has to be Rio de Janeiro.

Stand­ing grand­ly on the South Atlantic coast of Brazil, Rio is a mar­vel of life that even the most jad­ed trav­el­er will appre­ci­ate.

From beau­ti­ful, exot­ic scenery, to jun­gled slopes and giant gran­ite stones that engulf the world-famous pri­mo beach­es, Rio (and Brazil as a whole) is a nat­ur­al won­der. It is home to some of the most elec­tri­fy­ing music in the world (Sam­ba). There is a gen­er­al­ly invig­o­rat­ing atmos­phere you feel upon land­ing that invites all to take it easy and enjoy the sim­ple plea­sures of life. Be warned though, it’s infec­tious.

To say the cui­sine is mouth­wa­ter­ing is such an injus­tice, but what else you’ll savor is the sim­ple delight of a side­walk bar, or beach side kiosk, or the juice stand. And more beach, and more beach, and more beach. Rio has a cer­tain joie de vivre to it that you will rarely find in two loca­tions in this world.

And with the nat­u­ral­ly friend­ly Car­i­o­cas (locals), the best car­ni­val in the world, and absolute­ly stun­ning women con­sid­ered a nat­ur­al resource, this city lays rest to what the ide­al sin­gles vaca­tion expe­ri­ence ought to be like.

Dating Women in Rio

The women of Rio de Janeiro have dom­i­nat­ed the Sex­i­est Women in the World pages ever since they’ve been around. But relax fel­las, they are a mod­est lot who are open to dat­ing for­eign­ers. Let it come as no sur­prise if you encounter a curvy nat­ur­al beau­ty who would even make the women of Hol­ly­wood blush.

tumblr.com/tagged/brazilian-girls

Regard­less, they under­stand that mak­ing a man hap­py is the foun­tain from which flows a well-adjust­ed male-female rela­tion­ship. Go on, don’t be coy: they expect you to be direct and aggres­sive. And they’ll love you for it.

Things in Rio are breath­tak­ing to a fault: strik­ing beach­es, moun­tain­ous land­scapes (the Ama­zon too is here), inter­est­ing del­i­ca­cies, and jaw-drop­ping high-heeled women. Exot­ic city no doubt, and the onus is on you to act the part oth­er­wise luck with the women folk may be an elu­sive ele­ment here.

Speak­ing Por­tuguese is a plus, but not a must, and you have to be aware of the Gringo Fac­tor, a stereo­type that may have you mis­tak­en as one out on the prowl for the kind of love you have to pay for. Armed with that knowl­edge, it’s best to keep it togeth­er by show­ing some restraint.

Booking.com

Best Places to Meet Women in Rio

There is an abun­dance of bars and night­clubs to make your pick from and this will be dic­tat­ed by 1. your idea of fun, and 2. your bud­get.

• Nightclubs

If it’s not the Rio Sce­nar­i­um full of antiques (yes, the old kind), it is the Casa da Matriz, aka Matrix House, hap­pen­ing since the ‘90s. If it is not the Fos­fobox, an under­ground sweat­box renowned for its Elec­tron­ic, Alter­na­tive and Rock nights, it is the Espa­co Acus­ti­ca, a rooftop par­ty space.

https://pt-br.facebook.com/miroirclub

• Bars

The bars too will have you spoilt for choice in terms of venue and women. The must-vis­its include the Bar Devas­sa in Ipane­ma neigh­bor­hood that crafts its own beer, the Empo­rio, the Con­ver­sa Fia­da which is a bit more West­ern, or the Bar Lagoa if you fan­cy Ger­man, not for­get­ting the apt­ly-named Shenanigan’s Irish Pub (sor­ry Ire­landers). And if you want to pay homage to the old­est bar in Rio de Janeiro, Lord Jim’s Pub is the place to be.

While you’re at it, make a point of imbib­ing some of the local drinks for which Brazil is known for. One of the most pop­u­lar is Brazil’s nation­al cock­tail, caipir­in­has (more of this lat­er).

These spots are the Ground Zero when it comes to find­ing women, and there is no short­age of them to go around. The fem­i­nine babes that they are, the women of Rio tru­ly know that a man’s atten­tion isn’t attract­ed by a Master’s degree but rather, by their fem­i­nine, absolute­ly daz­zling looks.

• Beaches

The beach bomb­shells of Rio de Janeiro are known the world over, and they are a big rea­son why Rio is con­sid­ered to host every earth­ly delight any sin­gle sane man could ever ask for in this life.

For the ulti­mate expe­ri­ence, some of the two most famous beach­es in the world — Copaca­bana and Ipane­ma — should be high on your list.

• Online Dating

Online dat­ing can be an entire­ly dif­fer­ent ball game. Those who seek for­eign men will most like­ly speak bet­ter Eng­lish and be forth­right with their inten­tions. It’s best to start this pri­or to your vis­it so that you’ll have ready options when you get there.

Fun Things to do in Rio

• Beaches

Some of the pop­u­lar beach­es that have giv­en Rio its name include the Copaca­bana (the most famous in the world), Ipane­ma, Joa, Leme, and Bar­ra (they’re far too many to list).

• Adventure Sports

Rio is not short of adven­ture sports some of which you may already be famil­iar with.

Surf­ing enthu­si­asts will par­tic­u­lar­ly love the mas­sive swells com­mon here, and even bet­ter, the rougher, qui­eter beach­es are the reserve of ded­i­cat­ed pros. You can also try your hand in rap­pelling, or hik­ing which should guar­an­tee amaz­ing views dot­ted with unpar­al­leled nat­ur­al splen­dor. Oth­ers include cav­ing or cas­cad­ing canyon­ing.

• Play or Watch Sport

One sport you absolute­ly have to try out while in Rio is beach vol­ley­ball. It is mas­sive fun and the Car­i­o­cas are always more than will­ing to spread the cheer. And being the land of the beau­ti­ful game, the peo­ple here are obsessed with soc­cer as you will notice from the many close encoun­ters you come across.

Must Try Food in Rio

Rio has an excit­ing cui­sine large­ly thanks to its fusion of cul­tures which has spawned inter­est­ing, fin­ger-lick­ing dish­es, snacks and bev­er­ages.

The dish­es here tend to be sim­ple, yet deli­cious. It’s clear Brazil­ians under­stand that great food and drink can­not be omit­ted from the equa­tion of a good time.

The must try dish­es include:

• Acai

A bowl of acai is a must. This is a slushy puree made from acai juice (extract­ed from the acai berries), sug­ar, ice and plen­ty of guarana syrup.

• Caipirinhas

This is a tra­di­tion­al cock­tail made from lime, sug­ar and cacha­ca (sug­ar­cane hard liquor), which is the most pop­u­lar dis­tilled drink in the coun­try.

• Churrascaria

Meat-lovers will have a mem­o­ry to take to the grave when they sam­ple the chur­ras­caria, a tra­di­tion­al Brazil­ian bar­be­cue expe­ri­ence involv­ing fine-din­ing steak­hous­es and all-you-can-eat meat buf­fets. So pop­u­lar has this Brazil­ian expe­ri­ence become that it has found its way to dozens of oth­er coun­tries across the world in the more con­tem­po­rary form of rodizio.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/cumidanciki/

• Pastel de queijo

This is a salty snack of pas­try with meat and hot gooey cheese inside which you will find any­where from the street ven­dors to fan­cy restau­rants.

How to get to Rio

Reach­ing the city is easy by plane – there are direct flights from out­side the coun­try (depen­dent on coun­try) or oth­er state cap­i­tals (dai­ly). Giv­en Rio is the eco­nom­ic heart­beat of not just Brazil but the South Amer­i­can con­ti­nent as a whole, it is pret­ty much acces­si­ble from any­where in the world.

Get­ting around the city is con­ve­nient by bus with some run­ning every half an hour – com­fy, full equipped with air-con. A good alter­na­tive is the sub­way, but if time is not on your side, a cab is nev­er a bad option (just don’t insist on fixed – the timer is best here.)

More­over, you can always rely on Expe­dia to find your flights.

Where to Stay in Rio

Rio has options when it comes to accom­mo­da­tion: from swanky hotels, to mid-range lodg­ings, to friend­ly hos­tels, your bud­get will most like­ly have a say in this. To find out a suit­able place, check out Booking.com for avail­able options. 

Some of the most con­ve­nient mid-range hotels will be found in dif­fer­ent areas of the city. They include:

• Wind­sor Palace Hotel
• Hotel 1900
• Olin­da Rio Hotel
• Prom­e­nade Vis­con­ti
• Savoy Oth­on

To Sum It Up

If you’re on a sin­gles hol­i­day, you bet­ter have a good exit strat­e­gy because you can get swal­lowed by the fun here.

Two Amer­i­can uni­ver­si­ties (Michi­gan and Cal­i­for­nia) chris­tened Rio de Janeiro the World Cap­i­tal of Friend­li­ness. Rec­om­mend Mag­a­zine called it the best hon­ey­moon des­ti­na­tion in South Amer­i­ca. Trav­el and Leisure elect­ed it as the best des­ti­na­tion in Latin Amer­i­ca, and lat­er the Top 5 list of best des­ti­na­tions on the globe.

And make no mis­take about it, the gong for Best Par­ty in the World was always going here, just ask Site Fun Par­ty. Forbes also found the Home to 2016 Olympics to have the hap­pi­est peo­ple in the world. It’s addic­tive Rio, in a word – intense.

Lit­tle won­der they call it the Mar­velous City.

All this being over­seen by the awe-inspir­ing stat­ue of Jesus – Christ the Redeemer. Cristo Reden­tor they call him in these parts. It’s heav­en on earth real­ly. And it should be right up there on the buck­et list of every sin­gle male, trav­el­er or not.

Got a tip for Rio de Janeiro? Want to know more about the city? Just leave us a com­ment!