Sauna Leblon in Ipanema

[Funseeker 22]

I was taken to this non commercial location by a local 30 year old phys ed teacher I had met the day before and who hated the rent boy saunas. Location is in a very upscale area a block away from the H.Stern jewelry factory.

Admission charge was R$25 and you got a key to a locker and any purchases from the bar etc were billed. There was no charge for cabine use and the facility was spotless covering 3 stories. Two steam rooms plus two dry saunas, large lounge area with big screen TV plus upstairs porn video room and even a dark room with glory holes etc.

Clientele was local, all ages and very friendly and appeared to be affluent.Very large crowd on Sunday and the place is open daily until 4am and reopens at 7am. I met three Americans from NYC who were staying in Ipanema. My late afternoon was spent in cabine with the teacher and later with another of his friends who was a Rio Cop. Enjoyed some of the other activities, had three beers and left three hours later paying a total bill of R$42 which included the admission charge. That was $15 worth of fun with no rent boy pressure.

Just another satisfying Rio experience

[escorpion]

Thanks for the useful info. I'm planning to visit Rio in early 2004 and am somewhat of like mind - sure, I'll try the commercial saunas (they sound WONDERFUL ) but also enjoy going to lower-key places with a better of chance of meeting / meating }( some real Cariocas or other guys in other places. If anyone has any info / experiences on non-commerical sauna in Rio or elsewhere - please post. Muito obrigado.

[grweyers]

Do you have an address for this Sauna, please?:

[+ Lucky]

My visit to this sauna last year was pretty disappointing. Not much was happening, but more importantly, all of the staff displayed huge attitude. I was there for huge dick!

Not recommended!

[Funseeker 22]

Funny how things are different for each person. I found the staff extremely friendly with no attitude at all. The 2 locker room boys would replace wet towels freely and the barman would check and deliver drinks with a big smile.

I don`t remember the specific address since I came by taxi but it`s in the center of Ipanema in a very nice area.

[Mike_M]

I was in Rio the first week in October and tried 2 non-hustler scenes. The first was the bar "O Cuevo" or something like that. It's a long-time bar that was operating during my first trip to Rio in 1976. It's a basement location and was jammed when I visited after midnight on a saturday night. I felt like basically going to an American type gay bar where I could have a couple drinks before going home (having already gone to the sauna and not in the mood for Corujinha's). It was too crowded to enjoy and, as has been noted in other posts, is basically for older guys and the young guys you are looking for them. That night there didn't seem to be any young guys looking. The clientele seemed to be mostly 40 or 50 something and seemed more like groups of friends hanging out and really enjoying each others company. Lots of dancing and laughing groups of rather white, middleclass looking guys. Did not seem to be heavily cruising. Might be a good place to network with Rio peers. Maybe would be more cruisy on a slower night.

 

I also went to Le Boy and met a goodlooking young (early twenties) guy who seemed to be cruising me! (a mid fifties, not in the best or worst shape, bald, white-haired guy) we ended up going to the sauna upstairs from the club which was getting ready to close soon. I did notice several guys roaming the halls, not bad looking at all. As has been noted in this forum before, Brasilians don't seem to be as ageist as we are and I plan in my future travels there to try more non-commercial sex venues.

 

I also went to a porn theater (in Flamingo) and a bookstore arcade (behind Praça Floriana) and found them exactly like New York - dirty and awful smelling and full of trolls.

 

Addresses for all these places can be found on Carlo's website and Netgay as well as other gay tourism sites.

[+ Axiom2001]

The bar to which Mike M. alluded is called Le Cave or La Cave; it's posted on Carlo's site, and he himself recommended that I go there after 11 pm one evening during my stay in Rio. Unfortunately, for the experience, my schedule did not allow me to visit.