Rio Carnival: Sequins & the Sambadrome (Hostel Experience)

Traveler Reviews

• MM

  Morgan2.5•February 2018
  The nature of the Rio Carnival tour was different than most of the tours offered by G Adventures since it stayed in...
  The nature of the Rio Carnival tour was different than most of the tours offered by G Adventures since it stayed in one place so I am trying to take that into consideration. The tour was not great. Our guides were really nice and definitely competent and made me feel safe while in Rio (which was a feat since I knew so many people who were mugged and pickpocketed) but the tour overall was lacking. I was traveling alone so I went with the Rio tour because I thought it would be good to be with a group since Rio can be dangerous and Carnaval is a hectic time. Looking back, however, I feel as though I could have just stayed in a hostel and met people there and saved a TON of money. There were not many activities organized by the tour group (one main party and then they would escort us to public blocos, which are street parties) so I did not really see where all the money I paid was going to. The hostel we stayed in was well-located which was really nice but it was horribly run. The AC was off the majority of the day (which, granted, is common for hostels) but we had opened our window when the AC was off to let in air and they turned the AC on while we were away. When they found out we had left the window open with AC on, instead of closing our window or alerting us to not do that since it wastes energy, the staff just broke our AC to teach us a lesson? It was really childish and terribly uncomfortable because it was so incredibly hot. Also, there was only 1 key for a room with 6 people so constantly you would be locked out of the room and the staff were not remotely helpful and there would be lines at the reception for basic issues. When it came to the actual tour and the events that the tour promoted, it took so long to wield a group of 60 people that we would wait up to an hour before we left to go places and when you got to the locations or blocos, we would kind of just stand there. Overall I thought the tour guides were lovely people but the tour was simply not worth the money I paid for it. I would have had just as good of a time if not better if I had stayed in a hostel than paid a fortune to be on a Rio tour where I'm basically doing field trips with 60+ people, staying in a bad hostel.Show more
  Traveled in February 2018