Great place to spend the Holidays.
Submitted: February 1, 2011
Stayed: December 2010
My wife and I spent a month at Bob and Dalva’s apartment over Christmas and New Year 2011.
I couldn’t agree more with Steve’s and others’ previous comments about how nice the apartment is. By any standards it is huge and by Brasilian standards it is opulent. As for the beaches, you have a choice of 3. Walking ten minutes to the south will put you on Candeias Beach. This is a quiet, local beach with a small fishing boat harbor. At Candeias the tide is not an issue. Here you will find vendors that will offer seats, shade and refreshments. The walking vendors who sell the beach snacks vary by the crowd volume, i.e. low volume crowd means few vendors. Restroom facilities are not available except at the restaurants nearby. Walking about the same distance north will place you on Piedade Beach and here you will find similar services to those on Candeias Beach. Most of Piedade is protected by the coral reef but at high tide, there is very little beach. Also, much of the protected area is in the shade in the afternoon due to the high-rise buildings blocking the sun. If you really want to see the beach action, take the bus down to Boa Viagem and find a place to claim in the sea of humanity that you’ll find there on the weekends. Here you will find vendors selling everything from soup to nuts, quite literally. There are also public restrooms along the stretch of Boa Viagem. Using common sense and discretion, you can enjoy many of the beach offerings including char-grilled cheese, shrimp and oysters. Make sure the shellfish are fresh and that they can pass the “sniff” test. I must disagree with Steve’s remark about the necessity of a car. First of all, Brasilians are the nicest people on the planet on a personal level but they are the most lawless people behind the driver’s wheel of a car or motorcycle. That being said, if you are in Recife on a holiday, you will find that nearly every place that you will want to go is readily accessible by public transportation. Augment that with an occasional taxi and you have a perfect world. Never the worry of theft, vandalism and where to legally park or violent thoughts when you get pushed off the road. Here are a few suggestions for use of the public busses. All busses are privately run enterprises in Recife. We used only the Borborema busses. Tariffs are marked in the front window and you get half-price on Sundays. Continued on next posting.
Recommended for:
Age 55+,
Adventure Seekers,
Girls Getaway,
Tourists without a Car,
Sightseeing,
Families with Teenagers,
Families with Young Children,
Romantic Getaway
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