Help! My boyfriend and I are going to Brazil for 7 days for a friend's wedding. The first 3 days/2 nights are in Rio at the Copacabana Palace. The next 4 days/3 nights are at the Pestana in Angra dos Reis (where the wedding is being held). Then, we are back in Rio for 1 night/1 day at the Marina All-Suites. Any suggestions on must-see things in Rio and Angra dos Reis? We are on our own and I am lost as to how to plan this trip!

Take it easy, you really don't have that much time in Rio to worry about this. Just do the basics, trip to top of Sugar Loaf mountain, trip to top of Corcovado where the Christ statue is, dinner at a Chuascaria like Porcao's in Flamengo or in Ipanema and maybe one night a Samba/Folklore show at a place called Plataforma. Angra I have never been but I think it is a resort area.

Thank you so much for the advice. I wasn't sure if I needed to cram a million things into one trip to Brazil or if I should just relax and see the most important sights. You've put my mind at ease!

Just a thought....I went to Corcovado first, and when we got to the top we could see Sugarloaf down below. It seemed kind of anticlimactic after that to go to Sugarloaf! So if you're pressed for time but want a view from a mountaintop, I guess I'd choose Corcovado over Sugarloaf (although I guess it's hard to say since I didn't do both).

If you are there on a Sunday, take in the Hippie Fair, which features local crafts and products......It's kind of overwhelming so when I did it the 2nd time, I strolled around the whole thing first (it doesn't take long) to see what was available and what was being sold in duplicate. And then I went back around to actually shop.

If you like music, one very relaxing thing that we did was take in a free bossa nova concert. We had gone to a music store in Ipanema called Toca do Vicinius, on Rua Vicinius de Moraes (he's the guy who wrote "The Girl from Ipanema&quot. The clerk told us that the were having a free concert at 8 that evening. So we came back and found the street & sidewalk PACKED with people. We had to stand, but we enjoyed a really good free concert. You might want to go to this store early in the trip so you can find out when their free concerts are. This is not a "must do" but it was a nice touch since the guys I was with were slugs and needed pushing to get to activities!

I second Dondiega's recommendation for Porcao, we loved it! You'll probably want to eat feijoada as well, the traditional black bean stew. It's not served every day at most restaurants, but you can find it daily at Casa de Feijoada in Ipanema. If you go there, you'll have a whole list of meats to choose from for your meal. If I had to do it over, I'd probably limit it to bacon and the 2 kinds of sausage, maybe the salted pork as well.

p.s. here's a &quot;must-do&quot;--wear <b>lots</b> of sunscreen!! My friends got really sunburned and were grossly peeling by the time we went home!