Safety Tips for Saunas in Sao Paulo and Rio

[Grahm1eta]

New to post but have ready many of the posts on this forum. Am also a newbie to the Brazil sauna scene and would appreciate some tips if anybody has any for places like Lagoa. I read some concerning reviews online that make me wonder if it's safe enough to even check it out... thoughts? 

[Primeone385]

Hey @Grahm1eta. When you get there, it will be overwhelming. So make sure not to think with your little head. No matter what sauna you go into, there will be guys waiting for potential clients. They will smile and try to engage you in conversation. Most times, the guys are bold, and they will grab your hand and place it on their cock. Which if you are looking at a sexy stud, can catch you off guard. In my case, it made me forget what I was talking about to the person I went with. LMAO. Get settled and get a drink. While you are waiting, guys will try to get your attention. During this time, I look and see how many guys, if any, I want to go with and for what. During this time, since many of the gartos will try to get you to pick them. They will lift up their towels, show off what they offer. If you do not desire to spend time with them. BE POLITE this cannot be stressed enough. Because they are people that offer themselves as a service. But it garners respect from them, which can pay off in the end. Trust me, reading @Latbear4blk   , @Novarunner, @NoGagSuckerSF, @floridarob has shown. You might get more with a nice smile, not right now, and maybe later. However, if the guy has not approached you that you like, then go up to them. Discuss the price and what you want during your time with them. Some have suggested that you write on the phone screen shot it and save it so if there is any disagreement, it does not happen. You can point to it and prove what was agreed to. Which have saved us guys from paying for bad service. But in most cases, the guys working in the sauna want to give you the service you want. So you will come back and pick them. Or off them, aka take them out that night or during the day in some cases. Also, phones can be used to translate in the saunas. But not to take pictures of everyone in the sauna in general seating areas. But the best thing for me to tell you is to relax and take your time. Get there early enough to pick the best guys. Because some come early to get one or two programs, and they may bounce. Also read the guys that I referenced. They have a great deal of knowledge; they aren’t the only ones. But they have explored many countries and have great experience. It’s been helpful to me. For my previous two trips, and it still helps me as I get a third time this coming May. 

[Latbear4blk]

I have not published an English version, but I think you may benefit from this article if you can read Spanish or use a translator:

https://sopla.substack.com/p/los-saunas-gay-brasilenos

 

[babybear2]

Inside the sauna, it is perfectly safe.

Make sure to take a Uber/Taxi to go there at night.

Going out with the boys, wandering the streets at night are not so safe in Brazil 

[12is12]

Last time I stayed at Vila Gale Paulista hotel, 4 short blocks from Lagoa. No prblms walking there or back at night.

I also had no concerns IN the sauna... 

[Latbear4blk]

I never had any issue walking at night in Copacabana, escorted or alone. As usual in here and in Company of Men, the concerns about safety are overblown and a symptom of lack of cultural diversity literacy. 

Are there security concerns? Of course, as there are in any big city in the Western world. I have been robbed in Buenos Aires, Paris, New York, and Washington DC. After 8 years traveling to Brazil often and having long and short stays there, I never suffered a security threat. 

Just be aware of your surroundings and empathetic to the local culture and you will be fine.

[Keithambrose]

3 hours ago, Latbear4blk said:

I never had any issue walking at night in Copacabana, escorted or alone. As usual in here and in Company of Men, the concerns about safety are overblown and a symptom of lack of cultural diversity literacy. 

Are there security concerns? Of course, as there are in any big city in the Western world. I have been robbed in Buenos Aires, Paris, New York, and Washington DC. After 8 years traveling to Brazil often and having long and short stays there, I never suffered a security threat. 

Just be aware of your surroundings and empathetic to the local culture and you will be fine.

When I was last in Rio, at the beginning of Covid, I stayed at the Copacabana Palace. I asked the concierge if it was safe to go for a walk. He said no! I pointed out that i did not have an expensive watch, and wore a t-shirt and jeans. He said, ok, but turn right, not left! I did turn right, and no issues, beach bars, music dancing, etc. All very friendly.  When I was in Rio years before, I always thought that turning left, and left again, into the back streets was a little risky, but there were some gay bars there then, where you could pick up some very attractive  boys! There was also the Sauna Leblon, which in those pre HIV days, was a hive of gay BB sex! Does anyone remember that place?

[Latbear4blk]

1 hour ago, Keithambrose said:

When I was last in Rio, at the beginning of Covid, I stayed at the Copacabana Palace. I asked the concierge if it was safe to go for a walk. He said no! I pointed out that i did not have an expensive watch, and wore a t-shirt and jeans. He said, ok, but turn right, not left! I did turn right, and no issues, beach bars, music dancing, etc. All very friendly.  When I was in Rio years before, I always thought that turning left, and left again, into the back streets was a little risky, but there were some gay bars there then, where you could pick up some very attractive  boys! There was also the Sauna Leblon, which in those pre HIV days, was a hive of gay BB sex! Does anyone remember that place?

Of course there are unsafe areas, as there are some in all US big cities. I said the concerns are overblown, not that they do not exist.

I envy you. I would have loved to be in RJ before the AIDS crisis! 

[Primeone385]

On 12/21/2025 at 12:53 PM, Latbear4blk said:

I never had any issue walking at night in Copacabana, escorted or alone. As usual in here and in Company of Men, the concerns about safety are overblown and a symptom of lack of cultural diversity literacy. 

Are there security concerns? Of course, as there are in any big city in the Western world. I have been robbed in Buenos Aires, Paris, New York, and Washington DC. After 8 years traveling to Brazil often and having long and short stays there, I never suffered a security threat. 

Just be aware of your surroundings and empathetic to the local culture and you will be fine.

I agree with @Latbear4blk I have been robbed in California in Oakland, San Jose, and San Francisco. I almost had my sister’s car jacked from me. That's a fun story, but so far not in Brazil. That being said, it’s about awareness in one’s surroundings. You go somewhere, look for where exits and entrances are. Pay attention to who is around you. Bring what you need. I am not going to walk around Lapa with my gold chain on or any other jewelry. But I might wear an old Apple Watch so if it gets stolen, I won’t care. Plus, I have met some really fun sauna boys that I have hung out with outside of the sauna in places within Rio that only locals know. I have gone to clubs. Yuri Gaspar took me to several clubs one night. We had loads of fun. Same with other guys. But it’s about situational awareness. Now hopefully when I go back this May 22 through June 25 I won't experience anything crazy except for sex. LMAO

[Olddaddy]

5 hours ago, Primeone385 said:

I agree with @Latbear4blk I have been robbed in California in Oakland, San Jose, and San Francisco. I almost had my sister’s car jacked from me

Bloody hell....your a walking target 

How does that happen?

[Latbear4blk]

6 hours ago, Primeone385 said:

Yuri Gaspar took me to several clubs one night.

Yuri? I wonder how many Brazilians we have shared.

[Primeone385]

10 hours ago, Latbear4blk said:

Yuri? I wonder how many Brazilians we have shared.

LOL you know him too. He is currently in Denmark or Copenhagen. He wanted to come to America and see california and other places. I told him please wait till " The Orange Buffon" is out of office. Cause we do not know what havoc he will palce on all minorities. Thank God he listened. I can't imagine that beautiful guy in a detention center. @Olddaddy when I got robbed it was usually because I was not paying attention to my surroundings and or was being a good person and trying to help people out at the wrong times of night. I have since learned and am not as naive as I once was in my late teens to 20's. But even with the best of intentions and trying to avoid every possibility of danger. You can still have shit happen.

[Riobard]

WYSIATI. The vast majority of tourism visits proceed without incident as event probability governs it. Nothing-burgers attract little to no attention unless they are positioned to counter the view that the statistically improbable does not trend to zero. The limited poorly analyzed and depicted narrative here is that a nothing-burger can consist of either an uneventful visit or some degree of risk equivalency geographically elsewhere.

Neither cancels out risk. All individual personal accounts amount to nothing-burgers and have zero predictive potential for an isolated untoward incident amounting to trip ruination. In 11 years and dozens of visits here, often extended, I have had no unfortunate incidents. That is a nothing-burger upon which I suggest nobody rely. Where two things can occur, irrespective of the metric of relative probability, the more one of them happens the more likely the other eventually will.

Similarly, assertions of risk assessment and avoidance skill along with virtue-signalling superior culture-related acumen amount to nothing-burgers and the only lead I would follow is that of my own. 

[Riobard]

Risk assessment travelling in Brazil is not unlike my playbook for HIV acquisition consultation ed with patients and their partners where relevant. If the incidence rate is low, say condomless insertive anal at 1/909 (.0011) with a receptive partner poz and unsuppressed viral burden, but comparable to the risk of victimized pedestrian robbery over the course of a single week … BTW the greatest targeted interest by felons is cellular phone … a short trip is associated with a low likelihood of mishap, but cumulative risk at 52 such fucks or one year of total visiting out and about with phone is not unsubstantial  … 5.56%. If I have been present in Rio a total of 52 weeks over the past decade, the chances of being mugged over the next weekly iteration amount to an unquantifiable probability metric between 0.11% and 5.67% because the probability of at least one robbery occurrence is now tallied at 53 weeks. But only a fool would put his money on the newbie enduring pedestrian robbery because my good fortune looks somewhat poor at 19 in 20 … except I carry a decoy phone with valued phone obscured.