Tips to enjoy your vacation and the city of Rio de Janeiro with safety

Rio de Janeiro is a beautiful city filled with friendly people, great food, beaches and fantastic views, bigs events like Carnival, New Year’s EVE, Rock in Rio and many others. But like any other city in the world, there are some things you need to avoid. Check out this Do’s and Don’ts’s that Fun World Tours created for you.

1- Avoid the dark streets and isolated areas, and the beach in the night. Also, avoid going to ATMS at night by yourself. Keep in mind that ATMS in Brazil inside the banks closes and get turned off at 10:00 PM for a reason. So you cannot pull money.

2- Avoid Downtown Rio on weekends. It is not a safe area. Downtown Rio at night and on the weekends is dead with dark isolated areas. There are lots of drug addicts and small robbers. Be careful.

3- Do not use fancy watches, rings, jewels, cameras on the neck, big bags and keep your money on a special wallet. You may wear it when you are going out at night with us to the clubs, but keep your valuables things in the safe deposit box at the hotel if you are on your own.

4- Go for a private tour in Rio de Janeiro than a group tour. It is always more safe than do tours on big groups. Call less attention. Fun World Tours offers private bilingual guides to the parties for a reason. So you can feel safer and not worry about a thing.

5- Do not pick any taxi driver in Rio de Janeiro. Not trying to generalize, but always choose Uber instead of Taxi drivers. Over the past years, like any other major cities, Taxi Drivers are notorious for trying to take advantage of foreigners and Brazilian tourists.

6- Only go to the Favelas if you are doing an official Favela Tour. But if you must adventure to one on your own, don´t go to the favela take to pictures of the kids and the houses inside. Please respect the area. Some Favelas is ok to you alone walk alone, others not.

7- Don’t throw any garbage or cigarettes on the streets because if the police sees you doing this you will need to pay a fee to leave the country.

8- Be careful when visiting the Lapa area. A lot of drugged people and small robbers around the area. The Selaron Stairs is a famous attraction but is not the safest place in the city. If you go alone try to get an Uber. Also in the night try to stay after the archs where are located the main bars and restaurants in Lapa. The main thing is do not walk alone in isolated areas.

9- Take care if your flight is on the night because it’s always indicated on the rush time (5:00 pm to 08:00 pm) leave your hotel to airport at least 3-4 hours before your flight.

10- Do not bring too much attention to yourself. Somehow at place, try not to have the spotlight right on you, as they say, the nail that sticks out gets hammered. Always keep in mind that you may bring vulnerability to yourself and some people may try to take advantage of that. Especially if you are drunk.

11- Be careful who you bring to your place. If you don’t know that person or if you have only met that day, always ask a Brazilian or a Fun World Tours if it’s ok. Bad things happen when you least expect or when you drop your guard.

12- Always use common sense and don’t break the law. Don’t try to do in Brazil something you would NOT do in your country.

13- Do not rent cars if you are staying in Rio de Janeiro only. Try not to drive or rent cars. The traffic in Rio de Janeiro could be a nightmare. The signs are different and people in Brazil are more careless than developing countries. Keep in mind that after 10:00 PM, it is OK to run the red lights for example.

14- Don’t lose your consumption card. Most places in Brazil uses the consumption-card system. Each customer is given an individual card on entry to record food and drink orders and you pay at in the end. Failure to do so can lead to some extremely large fines and angry security staff, so keep an eye on it.

The best advice anyone can give wherever you travel is to be smart and always use common sense. Stay in populated well-lit places and never go anywhere with a stranger. And most important of all, remember to have fun and enjoy your vacation!