December 25, 2022

We were able to sleep in a little later on Christmas Day. It was our last day in Rio – but our flight didn’t fly out until later in the evening. We had called to see if we could get a late check out – and it was not possible. It was a real bummer – because after going to the beach we wanted to be able to shower.

We adjusted our plans and hit the beach first. Finally – the world famous Copacabana beach! We had been walking by it – but hadn’t gotten a chance to go into the water.

Our hotel provided a free umbrella, beach chairs, and towels for hotel guests. There were plenty of other stands though, if you weren’t staying at the Hilton and wanted to rent them.

The beach was littered with a lot of different stands that sold different drinks – so we ordered two and sat back and relaxed. It was a great beach for people watching – and the water was really warm.

One of the fun things was watching the vendors walk around with these large fixtures to sell bikinis and sarongs – I ended up buying a few colorful sarongs to take back as souvenirs. I think you technically can bargain – but I’m not very good at that!

After our time at the beach, we made our way back to the hotel room to freshen up and finish packing. We still had Christmas brunch at the hotel – so we left our bags at the front desk and went to enjoy our meal.

It was an impressive spread – similar to the Christmas Eve dinner. Once we were full, we decided to make our way to the airport. There was a hotel attached to the airport that was really affordable – we wanted to be able to get some rest before our long flight sitting up right. It was basically the same price as an airport lounge, but there was a bed.

After taking a nap, we made our way to security and made our way home. We loved Brazil and definitely would want to go back at some point!