Our family (wife and two boys ages 10 and 8) had a lovely stay in Maria's beautiful 2 BR apartment in the heart of the Leblon neighborhood. The apartment is actually bigger than it appears in the photos. It is 2nd floor apartment overlooking Rua Dias Ferriera - a lively street with bars and restaurants literally at your doorstep. The gelato store was a particular favorite of ours. It is especially busy on the weekends and futbol games, however it was never loud enough to disturb us. If you close the windows, the noise decreases a lot. We never felt unsafe in this neighborhood. There is a 24 hr grocery store (Zona Sol) two blocks away with everything you may need including ready made food and a buffet. The beach is about a 4-5 minute walk and Maria has beach chairs in the apartment you can take with you (or you can rent them at the beach). If you have never experienced drinking a caipirinha made on the beach, it's Heaven on earth! The apartment is well equipped with dishes and cookware. There is a high capacity washer and drying lines available (it's highly uncommon for apartments in Rio to have dryers). We had a considerable amount of laundry to do from our journey through the Amazon so the washer came in handy. Maria is very easy to contact and was responsive to our needs. Kudos to Maria on such a well-kept and central place. We would definitely stay here again.