Rio Holiday Guest Amenities
We want your stay with us to be a combination of the best features of a 5 star hotel, a luxury bed and breakfast, and the comforts of home. To that end, we have provided a number of amenities that you are unlikely to find in regular Rio accommodations.
Entertainment
Sometimes, you just want to relax at home for an evening or an afternoon. We've got you covered with satellite TV in English, Portuguese, and Spanish. We have a Region 1 DVD player (US media), so feel free to throw in your favorite DVD or CD - we can play it. There are Blockbuster and similar venues in Rio and DVDs can be rented for a nominal charge. We also keep a few favorites on hand.
- 29" stereo color TV with VCR, DVD, and CD
- Philips Sky satellite service with English audio
- Cards, dominoes, various box games
You don't have to be in Rio on business to take advantage of our state-of-the-art Business Center. We provide everything you need to send and receive email, faxes, and surf the Internet. If you have a digital camera, you will appreciate your ability to download your pictures to our hard disk and then write them to CD or DVD. One compact flash cartridge or memory stick is all you need for your entire trip! Want to communicate with your friends back home - use MSN messenger. Need to do a little work - we have the latest Microsoft Office Suite. You can use our new PC, or you can plug in your own laptop (or even use our wireless 802.11b/g hub). We can print anything from instructions to proposals to photos, but if you plan to do a lot of printing, we suggest that you save money and bring your own ink cartridges and photo paper.
- Late model laptop
- 16x DVD-ROM and 16xDVD+RW, CD-RW
- HP 6110 or 6200 color printer, scanner, copier, fax
- 8 in 1 memory card reader
- Broadband Internet
- Microsoft Windows XP Pro with SP2 installed
- Microsoft Office 2003 (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Access) + Front Page
- Norton Internet Security
- Games: Age of Empires, Age of Mythology, Dungeon Siege, Rise of Nations
- Paper, pens, pencils, scissors, stapler, etc.
Bedroom and Bathroom
- hair dryers
- shampoo and conditioner
- soap
- tissue
- bottled drinking water
- single, queen, or king size beds with inner springs
- air conditioning
- alarm clock
- portable fans
- Ice bucket and glasses
Pool Items
- Lounge Chairs
- Tables
- Umbrellas
- Churrasqueira (Brazilian BBQ with wet bar)
- Pool side refrigerator
- Towels
- Floats
Beach Items
- Folding chairs
- Beach umbrellas
- Body boards
- Picnic accessories
- Ice chests
- Beach towels
Communications
We provide a cell phone that you can use in Brazil with a pre-paid calling card. We even provide you with a complimentary credit of R$ 10 and you can buy more cards from us if you like. In Brazil, the calling party pays for the call, so cell phones are widely used because the recipient pays nothing for air time. Use this phone to communicate with your traveling companions, with your Hospitality Manager, or with your driver. You can even give out this number to friends and family in the US who can dial in on this number (you cannot use this phone to dial long distance).
A popular way of communicating internationally is via the Internet. We have everything you need to send and receive email, chat via MSN, or even setup a voice or video connection to another MSN user around the world.
Unlimited FREE phone calls to the US and Canada. We now have Vonage internet telephone service with a Seattle telephone number. Not only can you call to the US, Canada, and several other countries for free, but your friends, family, and business associates can now reach you with the simplicity and low cost of a call to Seattle. Calls to other parts of the world are available at a modest cost with this system. See www.vonage.com for more details.
House Features
We've made sure that our houses have the features that you need to get the most out of your trip to Brazil. In addition to all of those mentioned in the house descriptions, we have
- Bottled drinking water
- Portable fans
- Safe in each bedroom
Pool Refrigerator
We have stocked the pool refrigerator with a variety of soft drinks and beer. Drink whatever you want and we will simply add the amount you consumed to your bill. Of course, you are free to bring whatever food or beverage that you like in from outside.
Honor Bar
For the convenience of our guests, we keep a fully stocked bar. Liquor is available by the glass or the bottle at reasonable prices - or, you can bring your own. Of course, Continuous Caipirinhas are available all of the time.
Continuous Caipirinhas
The caipirinha is the national drink of Brazil. Sort of like the margarita in Mexico, this is a mixture of fruit juice, sugar, liquor, and ice and it really packs a wallop. The traditional caipirinha uses lime juice from crushed limes, sugar, ice, and cachaça. Cachaça is a sugar cane distillate with a unique flavor. When you arrive, we show you how to make these drinks, and then we make sure that the ingredients are always available for your to enjoy this delicious concoction whenever you want - free!.