Staying at one of - No, THE worst hostel I’ve ever stayed at in my life - somehow still didn’t spoil a memorable time in Rio de Janeiro.

I had booked a 5 night stay at the Rio Nature Hostel with Daniela, a girl I met in Porto Alegre (I first talked about her during my stay in Curitiba here). From the pictures on Booking.com, it looked like a pleasant hostel perched high up a giant rock face in Botafogo.

Long story short - it was horrible. The toilet was constantly blocked, the bathroom rarely cleaned, the water was always cold and they didn’t have any towels to rent. The staff were rarely present and if they were, very unhelpful. But I won’t go on any more about the hostel. Daniela and I had an amazing time over the Easter long weekend, and sampled some of Rio’s best coffee, food and sights.

We both arrived Thursday evening, and took a walk to the Humaitá district to have dinner at Pizza Park. The food was alright, however the location was quite nice - sitting down in a packed gastronomic area outside, we had a nice view of Christ the Redeemer perched atop Corcovado mountain.

On Saturday we ventured into Centro and stopped at the famous Confeitaria Colombo for some coffee and cake. At night, we had some drinks looking across Ipanema beach, then had an amazing dinner at Giuseppe’s Grill. This place came highly recommended from a local and we weren’t disappointed.

A weekend in Rio wouldn’t be right without a day at the beach, so on Sunday morning we sat under an umbrella at Copacabana beach and took in the beautiful weather - and got burned. In the afternoon we picked up some chocolate for Easter and watched a movie (Rio - how fitting!) at the hostel.

On Monday we went for breakfast at Terzetto Café. Somehow it was my first experience eating a papaya and it was amazing. We stopped at Shopping Leblon for some lunch, then had another superb dinner at Tragga in Botafogo.

Unfortunately, the weekend had come to an end and I had to say goodbye to Dani. On top of that, the weather was horrible and we had to run to the bank to get some money to pay for our stay at the hostel. We got out of there as quickly as we could, then had a nice breakfast a few blocks away at Le Dépanneur.

The last thing on my to-do list in Rio was to take a tour of the Maracanã, then take a trek up Pedra Bonita for this view of Rio de Janeiro:

It was truly breathtaking, and a great way to spend my last afternoon in Rio.