We redeemed 5,000 Avianca Lifemiles per person plus $9.66 in taxes (30,000 Avianca Lifemiles plus $57.96 total) to fly from Sao Paulo to Rio de Janeiro and we booked the Sheraton Grand Rio Hotel and Resort in Rio de Janeiro right on the beach for 5 nights over Christmas using 12,000 Starwood SPG points per night (if you book for 4 nights, you get the 5th night free...48,000 SPG points for 5 nights). It was a good location for us, very close to Ipanema Beach, but removed enough that we essentially had our own private beach right outside the hotel without all of the crowds from Copacabana and Ipanema. The hotel had some huge pools and a newly renovated kids club that the kids enjoyed and was nestled between the black cliffs and the beach. You had to take a taxi to get anywhere, but Uber was very cheap and it was easy to get around.
The hotel was in full Christmas mode with a giant gingerbread house in the lobby.
A view from the lounge at the top of the hotel.
Hotel pool.
Beach right outside the hotel.
We decided to do a couple more escape rooms (family favorite activity) in Sao Paulo and we found Escape 60. We did 2 separate themed rooms: "Death Row," where we were unfairly imprisoned for a murder we did not commit and have been sentenced to death and must break out before we get the electric chair; and "Save our Souls," where we had been invited to a dinner by a former classmate to celebrate our 10 year reunion, but we find out he had died a year ago and we find ourselves locked in the house and have to break out. We did pretty well on getting out of both of them with only minor clues.
We also visited Copacabana Beach for a bit.
Family picture at Copacabana beach.
Copacabana beach is huge and the weather was so hot during the day that we thought it would be miserable to be there. There were tens (if not hundreds) of thousands of people on the beach, each one with their umbrella. The weather was hot and humid with the sun beating down. There are no places to find shade on the beach. We drove and walked past a few times, but could only bring ourselves to visit in the late afternoon when it started to cool off.
Ryder and Sawyer at Copacabana.
Copacabana boardwalk.
Smashing the lounge each morning to get our drinks.
The kids built a sandman on the beach instead of a snowman.
We visited a beautiful park and botanical gardens on our last day in Rio de Janeiro.
Kids at the park.
Great views of Christ the Redeemer.
Yummy sorbet for the kids...
Acai smoothies...my new favorite.
We redeemed 10,000 British Airways Avios miles plus $36.23 in taxes each (60,000 Avios plus $220.38 total) to get home from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil back to Santiago, Chile flying on LATAM in economy class.
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