Arriving! Galeao International Airport (GIG)
When arriving into any foreign airport, I make it a priority to be familiar with how we will exit the airport and travel to our first destination…more than likely our hotel or accommodation. Arriving into Rio de Janeiro at the Galeao International Airport was no different. This arrival was proceeded by a 10-hour flight from Houston, TX, followed by the typical lines to clear customs and visa control required at entry into any foreign country. That, mixed with a language barrier, concerns for the honesty of any taxi driver picking up any airport and our complete unfamiliarity with a large city, we heeded advice found on other travel blogs and websites and found the radio taxi service.
We found this service to be incredibly easy to find and easy to use upon our arrival. The “office” is to the right immediately after you exit the international arrivals area. Unfortunately, this large space was under intense construction at the time of our arrival as preparations for the Rio 2016 Olympics were in high gear so I cannot describe it to you in detail. I can tell you the radio taxi was easy to find and well-marked. Deciding to use this service was nearly a no brainer for all of the following reasons:
- The employees at the counter speak good-excellent English
- The rate is pre-arranged and pre-paid by zones.
- They take credit cards
- Once you provide your destination (I recommend writing it down on a card exactly as the hotel, in this case, provides it. This avoids any “lost in translation” event.) the employee documents your destination on a voucher in duplicate and hands it to you.
- One copy of this voucher is given to the taxi driver located immediately outside the door, just to the left of the counter.
Once in the taxi, the ride to your destination is efficient and does not require any further negotiation. We followed our driver along on GPS via a cell phone and he took a very direct route with the only diversion apparently to avoid traffic encountered on the freeway.
We stayed in the Flamengo Beach area of Rio requiring a 30-minute taxi ride.
Besides being quite an efficient method of transport, it was also quite economical. As are most services in Brazil, the ride was quite inexpensive, about US$33 for two people.