Frommer's Portable Rio de Janeiro

My own two trips to Rio have been in the latter half of June 2008 and the same period in 2006, that is to say in what passes for mid-winter there. This obviously does not make me any kind of comprehensive expert on the city nor on the various outlying spots I was able to get to, but I had expert guidance from a resident travel writer and I packed quite a lot into my time there, so perhaps I can be of some assistance. Frommer's portable guide seems rather a good little book to me. It is a handy pocket size, it covers a lot of topics and the advice offered is concise and sensible. It hardly needs saying that the remarks on currency-exchange are best disregarded in the present world situation. Rio was inexpensive by my standards in 2006, but a lot less so in 2008, with 5% inflation in Brazil's `tiger' economy and the £ sterling nosediving. However unless something really appalling overtakes what I am saying, it should still be affordable on a moderate income. Take good notice of what the book says about arrival. Rio airport is a bit scruffy by European or American standards, but the customs and immigration process is efficient, and they were able to clear a 450-seat jumbo jet in not much more than half an hour. On no account lose the form with the green printing, or you will face problems when trying to leave. Battle your way through the innumerable taxi-touts and get a prepaid taxi from one of the women yelling at you from behind the glass panels. It will cost you twice what your taxi from a rank will cost on the way back, but just go along with that. Carry a reasonable amount of reais for immediate purposes, but a good rule in Rio generally is not to carry more cash than you can afford to be robbed of. Other good advice in the book is to take more than one credit/debit card, as the card-reading machines are temperamental - I had a nightmare experience with them at the bus station (rodoviaria) and unpredictable difficulties in other places. Tap-water is probably safe, but even the restaurants make their ice from bottled water, and you can relax over your caipirinhas to that extent. Don't miss those, but if you want to make your own use a downmarket bottle of cachaca rum, not the kind that you can drink straight. There is always a risk of dengue fever, I gather, and no inoculation, but at least the dengue mosquitoes don't bite after dark. The book even offers pert modern advice on the best condoms, so be careful as Brazil has a very high rate of HIV infection. Even in winter, this is still the tropics and the temperatures are usually high. They were tolerable in flat Ipanema on my first visit, but the fearsome hills of picturesque Santa Teresa, where I went this year, will tax all but the fittest. I am not from choice a hotels person, but the survey of Rio hotels seemed at least plausible from what I remember of the look of them. For a self-catering apartment in Ipanema I had excellent service from Gringo Management in the USA, and in Santa Te

Has all the basics you would expect. Definitely worth a buy - along with THe Partier's Guide to Rio (this has some of the other "must do/see" items like particular foods that you've gotta try).