Partying at the Carnival of Rio its just an amazing lifetime experience. Having the chance to attend the Carnival itself its on many travellers bucket list (including us) but you can’t really understand the magnitude of the event until you’re there. The whole city just seems to go into “party” mode, everyone takes out their quirky outfits from the closet and get ready to dance at the sound of samba music invading the streets.
Nevertheless, most of the people who gather here to party are mostly tourists (both nationals and internationals) and the real cariocas often decide to head out of Rio to enjoy some tourist-free peace and quiet. And how could you blame them, every year the world’s biggest carnival sees at least the beauty of a million people only ready to… party!
The block party “Las Carmelitas” which takes place in Santa Teresa
Samba Parade & Block Parties
Before thinking about going, there’s something you’d really have to know. Generally speaking there’re are two big categories on how people decide to party at the Carnival of Rio de Janeiro: (1) samba parade and (2) block parties (or blocos). The two are completely different ways of enjoying the carnival but equally fun for a fist-timer.
Samba Parade – The main event of the carnival is the samba parade that takes place inside a big building in Rio’s city center called the Sambadrome. The parades last a week and on each day certain samba schools show off their best in order to win the award of the “best samba school” which is given out at the end of each day. You need to buy tickets well in advance to attend the parades.
Block Parties – During the month of carnival street parties are a very common sight all throughout the city. These block parties, usually called blocos, are free to join and bring together all the people that wish to bring out their party spirit on the streets of Rio. Some block parties have become so famous over the years that times and locations are now listed to make sure everybody knows.
NOTE: The famous blocosderua.com is a great place to check out timings and such, be aware though that the website is not always available!
One of the samba schools parading inside the Sambadrome
Booking accommodation for Carnival
After a quick google search, you’ll see that the carnival dates for Rio are already set for the next couple of years. For that reason, accommodation for the carnival period is not only extremely expensive but also gets booked a lot in advance. To give you an example, normally a bed in a hostel in the center of Rio would cost around 10-15$ but during carnival times you can also pay up to 50$!
Thankfully, even though most accommodations options tend to be more expensive during those dates, we found out that houses or apartments in AirBnB tend to cost the same. So if you wanna have it cheap, that’s the way to go! As mentioned earlier, most of the cariocas will go out of town for the celebrations so a lot of house will be available during the carnival month.
Obviously, as expected, you’ll also have to take into consideration that the neighbourhoods around the center like Santa Teresa or Gloria will be much more expensive than staying in Copacabana or Ipanema. That said, make sure to think about safety when booking your accommodation and check out whether its in a safe neighbourhood.
The spirit of the carnival is REAL!!!
Safety for the streets
Walking around the city of Rio is often considered pretty dangerous but thats not quite right.
Likewise to many capitals around the world, around the city there are several places where its not advisable to go at night and others to avoid completely, especially if you’re flash around an expensive camera/jewelry/phone. In Rio you can’t just walk around randomly but you always have to make sure to know where you’re going to avoid ending up in a favela.
During carnival, given the great amount of people partying and not being fully aware, pickpocketing is fairly common so make sure to carry the minimum if you plan to go out party. Nonetheless, with a little bit of care, you can easily bring along an expensive reflex camera at a block party and nothing will happen (we always brought ours).
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