Review - Rio de Janeiro
A few weeks ago I visited the new resort from Lifestyle Inc, Rio de Janeiro, along with my friend and fellow blogger Harmony Sandalphon.
Lifestyle Inc has a track record of opening themed resorts in SL. Over the past year there has been Wonderpark (which I never got around to visiting), two Dubai themed places and the Safari themed Makanyi.
With Lola Bailey having done the landscaping for Rio and having seen her excellent work before, I was keen to visit Lifestyle Inc's new Rio resort, to see what they had done.
Introduction
The first thing to say is that I’ve never been to RL Rio, but like most of us have seen plenty of pictures and videos.
Recreating an RL destination in SL is hard, especially with a city. For one thing you are severely confined by what you can put in one or two sims. As a result, this shouldn't really be thought of a replica of Rio, more of a Second Life resort which pays loose homage to it.
So, you get a Christ the Redeemer statue, and also what I guess is a Favela-themed old town. You also get a beach and marina.
Then you have the SL resort staples of a restaurant, spa, puff and paint and a games room.
Accommodation
The villas range from 1750-6500 for a group villa.
We paid 2500 a night for an Oceana Waterfront villa. Lifestyle Inc does have a promotion going on at the time of writing and it's worth checking their Facebook page for these.
Our villa was small, being open plan and part open air. But it did include a bedroom, living room, bathroom and private pool.
It was also arranged on the roof of a waterfront commercial building, which was a nice touch. Overall I rate design over space, and so it worked for me.
Amenities and overall impression
We took part in both a spa session and RP dinner, both of which were enjoyable with staff who knew what they were doing when it comes to the relevant RP.
We also explored the old town / Favela, which was nicely done.
I personally was not such a fan of the beach area. Maybe I've now been to too many SL beach resorts, but for me this didn't offer anything different than what you can see elsewhere, neither in terms of design or facilities.
However, it could well be that other guests do expect to be able to lie on the beach or take a jetski on their SL break, and if so you will find what you need here.
Finally, there is a small underwater diving area to explore.
Other considerations
Arrival is at an RP airport terminal, which is a nice introduction to the resort, after which you get a taxi tour before being taken to your villa.
Note that RIo is a closed resort sim. You need to book on the website, you then get your group tag on check-in.
Overall
I liked it here, parts of it were really well done. However, as mentioned other parts such as the beach and marina didn't wow me as much.
RIo does has stiff competition in the 1500-2500 price bracket, and I'm thinking in particular of Ibiza. But if you go as a couple and go for the penthouse with the private pool, like we did, you'll have a good experience here.
Recommended
Scores
Overall look and feel - 3.5/5
The rooms - 4.5/5
The facilities - 3.5/5
The animations - 4/5
Huge thanks to Harmony for coming with me, please follow her on Flickr and check out her blog!
