by Claudio Tostes


Anybody who is unfamiliar with travel in Rio de Janeiro should learn about some essential things when you are on your vacation. One critical lesson to take note of is the difference between hotels and motels when it comes to Brazil. From an American viewpoint, you likely would think that the difference is price and quality of these kind of rentals and you may keep this idea for some time as you stroll the beaches of Ipanema and Copacabana. But you will soon recognize that to Brazilians, there is a difference. A big difference.

What on earth is this difference you ask? Well, to put it blunt and easy, hotels are for slumber and motels are for intimacy. There really isn't any other way to put it and this is a very simple fact in Rio de Janeiro as well as the rest of Brazil. So when you are taking a holiday here, it is definitely something that you should know about. If you're sipping that martini in a quaint little bar of Copacabana or Ipanema and a person mentions a motel, you'll know precisely what they're referring to

One may be interested as to why this is. While in the United States, motels are generally rest stops for people who are looking for low-cost quarters for the night. Just a place to rest. In Brazil, you need to look at things from a cultural outlook. Most people live in close quarters. It's not typical for Brazilians to have their own apartments, rentals or flats. Usually people can't pay for these kind of accommodations alone, so it's very common to live with their families.

Now this may change gradually as Brazil becomes economically more important. As apartments and flats are popping up all over Rio. But then again, not likely since this concept is so imbedded in the culture. Privacy is certainly something scarce. Usually people in Brazil who are travelling on business are going to move toward hotels anyway. Though, as infrastructure becomes more enhanced, you could have more people who have lower budgets. This lower middle class will likely be the kind that may make use of motels as a less costly alternative and bring about a cultural shift.

Even so, right now, at the time of this writing hotels mean slumber and motels mean making love. Simple enough right? Shouldn't be any more errors as to the reason for this type of real estate. Hopefully this has solved some uncertainty to anyone who might be coming to Rio de Janeiro and help them avoid a potentially uncomfortable situation of which accommodations to use. But then again, perhaps you should look at some apartments instead.




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