Going out in Rio de Janeiro

Rio Scenarium, in Lapa, is the best night place to go here. At fridays and saturdays there are gafieira show, then samba show, then forró show. During the other days there are only gafieira and samba.
Shows house, the best is Canecão, on Botafogo. There you can see musical and theatre spetacles.
Restaurant there's a good one to eat sea foods that is Berbigão, on Catete. And there's another excelent one to eat shrimps, O Camarão, on Grajaú.
But the speciality in Rio is Feijoada. The best ones you can eat on Samba Schools. But each Samba School have a day to serve their Feijoada, you have to look it on the web site of them, by looking for the names of the Schools. There are Acadêmicos do Salgueiro, Estação Primeira de Mangueira, Portela, Viradouro, Unidos de Vila Isabel, Unidos da Tijuca, União da Ilha do Governador, Acadêmicos do Grande Rio, and a lot more...
If you like discoteca, you must go to Nossa Sem Hora, on saturdays (I don't know about the other days), in Copacabana. If you like national or international pop rock, you must go to MELT BAR, on friday, in Leblon. If you want to know brasilian funk, you must go to Salgueiro funk, on Salgueiro Samba School, on Friday, in Andaraí. And if you want to know all different kinds of samba that we have, you must go to the neighbourhood called Lapa, where you have a lot of options during all the night, every day.
That's all for now...
I hope it helps someone.
Hugs
Auridélia

Hello Auridelia.  What part of Rio De Janeiro do you reside?  I have been to Rio a few times staying on Copacabana beach, however I would like to visit other places when I come back.  I love coming during Carnaval, but it much more expensive during this time.   Via Show has been the furthest I have been from Rio.

Because I love to visit Rio de Janeiro, I have been studying some Portuguese.   I also would like to learn Spanish because that is the second most spoken language in the U.S.A.  It is my experience that most Brazilians understand Spanish, however, most Spanish speaking people don't understand Portuguese.  Is this true?  I would like to be fluent in both languages.  Which should I study first?

Ben
www.brazil4life.blogspot.com

Hi, Ben.
I live a little bit far from Copacabana (kind of 30km), but there is a nice place to stay. Things in Copacabana are more expensive, because it is a typically touristic neighbourhood.
Carnaval is the most expensive period of the year, but you can have lots of fun and the best carnaval you have ever had without spending so much money!
I've never been at Via Show, but people say it is a very good place to go, despite of being an environment known also to be more dangerous, and according to what I heard, more frivolous also. But I don't know,I'm just speculating about that.
If you want to choose between Spanish or Portuguese, I suggest you to learn Spanish, cause there are more countries that speaks that language.
Brasilian people understand something about spanish only because a lot of things are similar, but most of brasilian population dont even know a lot of portuguese... Hehehehe... It is more difficult for spanish speakers to understand brasilian ones, because we have a lot of words that we put together (like "wanna" for you in US), and because a lot of brasilian people talk fast and dont speak correctly the portuguese.

For more information, a little bit about other places to visit in this wonderful country:

You have much much more fantastic places to know here.
For example, Pantanal Matogrossense, a tropical wetland and the world's largest wetland of any kind. It lies mostly within the brasilian states of Mato Grosso and Mato Grosso do Sul and it also extends into portions of Bolivia and Paraguay as well.
The Lençóis Maranhenses National Park (Parque Nacional dos Lençóis Maranhenses) is located in Maranhão  state, in northeastern Brazil, and it is an area of low, flat, occasionally flooded land, overlaid with large, discrete sand dunes. It encompasses roughly 1000 square kilometers, and despite abundant rain, supports almost no vegetation.
There's also Chapada dos Guimarães, a kind of county and mountain range located in central Brasil, at Mato Grosso state. It is surrounded by savannas (we call cerrado) and the Amazon rainforest. Many people travel to see the wildlife, waterfalls and canyons in the area.
Rio Grande do Sul state has a great potential for palaeontological  tourism, with many palaeontological sites and museums in the geopark of paleorrota. Ecotourism is very popular in the cities of Gramado and Canela (wich have the best chocolate in Brasil); their cold weather is among their attractions for internal tourism. Tourism is also high in the wine regions of the state, principally Caxias do Sul and Bento Gonçalves. The pampas of the native Brazilian gaúcho are both a national and international curiosity to tourists and their customs are alive in the capital city of Porto Alegre as well as in the cities of the "interior" or western Rio Grande do Sul such as Santa Maria and Passo Fundo.
In the city of Nova Prata, in way the native bush, there is a park thematic, with sources that gush out thermal waters in a temperature of 41°C, which possess excellent medicinal properties and therapeutical.
The state of Rio Grande do Sul and its cities have developed a series scenic routes to appeal to tourists. The Rota Romântica is a popular scenic drive that exhibits the diverse Germanic culture of the mountainous regions of the state referred to as the Serra Gaúcha. One can visit the state's Italian settlements through Caminhos da Colônia, tour the wine country through the Rota da Uva e do Vinho and visit a subsection of the Rota Romântica called the Região das Hortênsias, the region filled with beautiful blue hydrangea flowers each spring. In the far western area of the state are the remnants of Brazil's 17th century Jesuit missions or reductions (aldeias) to the Guaraní Indians.

Wow!   That's a lot of information.  I would not know where to start.  I was thinking of visiting Salvador, Bahia.  I hear there is a lot of cultural significance here.  Whats your opinion?

Ben
brazil4life.blogspot.com

Try Barril 8000 Friday or Saturday.  Go see Banda Revelacao.  They are just a great band to see live.  The cost is about BR$25 cover charge.  The food is good, but don't expect "French cosine" it is better then your average bar food. Try Barril Recreio.  The one Downtown (Barra) is very good as well.

http://www.barril8000.com.br/http://www.rio.com/restaurants-night-life/barril-8000-1