Make sure you leave enough time to get to the airport!
 

We just got back from Rio and just wanted to mention to first timers, like us, to make sure you allow enough time for your transfer back to the airport. Our international flight left at 8:45pm, on a Sunday night. We left our Copacabana Hotel at 4:30pm, thinking 4 hours would be enough time to get to the airport and check-in, go through security, etc. Traffic was good, not like weekday traffic, check-in went smoothly but then we hit a brick wall.....the line to get through security was almost out the door! There were several (more than 3) international flights leaving at about the same time and it took us about 1 1/2 hours to get through the security line. They did go through the line and called passengers on certain flights that were boarding right then, but they weren't very loud and it was very crowded so I'm not sure how many people missed their flights because of the wait. We finally got through security with about 35 minutes to spare...Whew!

good advice. You just never know what you will encounter when traveling internationally. Sounds like you did better than most people as far as getting to the airport early. I always like to err on the side of "early"

We have a 10.40 flight to Iguaçu Falls on a January Wednesday morning. What time should we leave? I was hoping to have breakfast before leaving?

Ours was an international flight, hopefully the domestic flights go alot smoother. Also you won't be fighting work traffic because it will be going into Rio and you are going out of Rio. If it were me, I'd still get there early, you wouldn't want to miss your flight to Iguacu Falls! It's an amazing falls, enjoy your trip!

hiya, right I take a lot of people to catch this flight and I always leave the hotel 2 hours before flight is due if clients are in copacabana or ipanema, at that time in the morning. You will need to join the queue for international flights at TAM although it is a domestic flight, this is because Iguacu is at the border and goes thru special x-ray system due to loads of contraband jumping the border at paraguay. However you will go through domestic departures. So when you enter the airport it's the check in desks to the right, the first ones you come to, the further ones away ae for domestic. The first counters are for varig (left hand side, and TAM international right hand side. )
have a good time, enjoy !

Hi Gypsy

Thanks for the info!

This is true all over the world. I would recommend to check with your hotel ahead of time. Also to order for transportation the day before.
I learnt the hard way one morning in Torino, Italy we called for a cab only a couple of hours before to go to the train station but SURPRISE...there was a convention in town and NO taxis available AT ALL.... finally we arrived a few minutes ahead only enough not to miss the train but it was an ordeal.