A lot of locals will tell you winter is not a good time to visit Rio de Janeiro. I couldn’t disagree more.
The high temperature floats comfortably throughout the low eighties (high twenties celsius) and it drops just below seventy each night (twenty celsius). The majority of the days are sunny, as the winter doesn’t bring much rain and of course it never snows.
I think the Cariocas (local Rio people) are just used to much warmer weather and so crazily their bodies think you can’t go to the beach unless the temperature is in the nineties (thirties celsius). I’ve been to the beach twice this week and both times is was plenty hot outside and the sun was definitely toasting my skin.
Best of all, it is not popular to travel to Rio in the winter, which means all of your travel costs are much lower if you make a visit this time of the year. Flights, hotels and tours are all significantly cheaper.
If you have a little extra vacation time, why not book a last minute trip to my favorite city in the world this winter? The endless beaches, beautiful people and delicious caipirinhas will surely be very distracting, but make sure not to forget to cross the Rio Panoramic View AV off of your list!
I’ll be in Rio for the next two-weeks. The plan is to split time between working on AbsoluteVisit and exploring my favorite city in the world from more of a local perspective. I’m staying with a local friend (Paloma), in a very local neighborhood (Tijuca) and trying my best to do very local things (like attempt to speak Portuguese…attempt).
Today I took my local host Paloma on a several hour afternoon street walk through the historic neighborhood of Santa Teresa. The narrow, cobblestone streets are dotted primarily with old school colonial buildings from when the Portuguese ran the place. The walk can be tough at times, but you are handsomely rewarded for traversing the steep hills with some of the best views I have found in Rio, including the view of Pão de Açúcar from Parque Das Ruinas shown in the photo below.
Since I planned out the tour and dragged my Carioca (Rio de Janeiro inhabitant) friend with me, I’m not sure this was really a “local” thing to do, but it was far away from the sun-soaked beaches of Copacabana and Ipanema – good enough in my book!
It is often said that when one door closes, another one will be opened. Over the past month, we have had to reach deep to evaluate our very own business and dream – our open door. It is with weeks of thought, hours of discussion, and the most humbled feelings that we announce today that the AbsoluteVisit trip has come to an end. We will not be continuing on to visit the rest of the Top 100 Places as we originally had planned.
Although this door has closed, we will not simply let it slam behind us. To our avid support group, we would like to help you understand why we came to this decision and what’s next for AbsoluteVisit.
[AbsoluteVisit is NOT going away. Read on to see what why we are making this change and what's up next!]
Continue Reading The Full Post >
Wow, it has been over three weeks since we have provided an update! Apologies for the delay, but on to the madness . . .
After we last wrote an update from Siem Reap, we spent a few days in Bangkok before heading to the Philippines for 11 days. Here we traversed the metropolis of Manila, saw our seventh AbsoluteVisit (The Banaue Rice Terraces, #33), and explored two amazing Philippine islands – Palawan and Boracay.
Continue Reading The Full Post >
Two weeks ago we visited AbsoluteVisit #25, Borobudur! This was our 8th AbsoluteVisit of the trip and was one that we had never seen before, but were both very curious to explore and compare to the other incredible temples we had seen in the region.
Unfortunately the weather gods delivered us clouds for our entire visit, but we were still able to enjoy a decent sunrise and sunset from the top of the temple. All in all we had a great time and really enjoyed spending hours trying to take the perfect photos of the bell-shaped stupas from the top!
[Don't miss our favorite PHOTOS and a VIDEO from our trip to Borobudur!]
Continue Reading The Full Post >
OK, now that you are done laughing about Brad and I in our hard hats and skirts (uh uhm – they made us wear them!), we can carry on. Prambanan is a 9th Century Hindu Temple and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The site was originally made up of 240 different temples, but what stands today are roughly a dozen with the remains of the others surrounding them.
Continue Reading The Full Post >
Well, as the saying goes, “everything good must come to an end.” Our time in the Philippines is now over and it’s time to say goodbye, but let’s change that to see you soon!
We had a thrilling 11 days in the Philippines which took us to Manila, Banaue, El Nido, and Boracay. I’m exhausted when I think back on it, but a smile always comes to my face with the incredible memories that were made. My only regret, not staying longer. There were many places on the trip that we could have easily stayed an extra day or two. Add to that several more islands that are now on my must see list and it seems like we could have, and perhaps should have, visited for a month! I will return.
Continue Reading The Full Post >
A little over a week ago, we visited AbsoluteVisit #33, The Banaue Rice Terraces! This was our 7th AbsoluteVisit of the trip and was one that we had never seen before, but had always dreamed of. We were able to conquer the terraces of Banaue, Batad, and Hapao in an incredibly action-packed 48 hours that included two overnight buses, hours of hiking, and thousands of pictures. This crazy little trip to one of the world’s most beautiful places left Brad, Anne, and I astonished and equally exhausted!
Continue Reading The Full Post >
