I was there in 94 mate with the RN so Hotel wise not a clue.
The usual tourist haunts are well worth it and most usually eat anywhere along the coppacabana but the usual rules dont go anywhere empty and if possible where the locals are eating.
In terms of names mate we'd been at sea about a week when we got alongside so the 5 day visit is still quite blurry but i do remember the local "chav" element carrying machine guns when we took a wrong turn on our way to play footballl against a local amateur team!!
The locals are very friendly some TOO friendly keep yer hand on yer wallet im sure RTN can give the names of places.
A great place but stacks you dont see on "Wish you were here"!

They never tell you about the pickpockets in Barcelona either



Thanks for tips. You were in the RN ? Respect

....All I ever wanted to do at secondary school was to become a pilot and fly RAF Harriers. I failed the medical

and had no contingency plan.

Should have stuck to my original primary school dream to be a zookeeper: Johhny Morris being my young impressionable inspiration

Sort of. My cynicism about the rampant profiteering, corporate whoring and the attempts LOCOG have made to destroy the Olympic ideal remain intact.

However, luckily the athletes arrived after much waiting around. And they've been amazing. Not just the British ones. It turns out that when you get literally thousands of men and women turning up to pursue dreams of glory and sportsmanship in return for no money, not even the attempts to sell that spirit to McDonalds, Coca Cola, Samsung and Procter and Gamble can stop it being remarkable.

I would still prefer it if more than half of the 80000 who witnessed first hand those unbelievable events in the stadium on Saturday and Sunday had been members of the public who acquired those tickets by applying for them like everyone else.

The socio-economic debate will rage on. In sporting terms the Games have been sensational. May it continue.

The jury is still out for me.

Its not about the sport, the sport is superb and I am loving it, it was always about the cost and the tangible and the huge untangible legacies.

Of course I'm not naive enough to believe that sports funding in GB would ever have benefitted from a £10bn tidal wave of money, and I'm cynical enough to think that if Paris had won these Olympics then sports funding in GB would have continued to have been cut as I believe Seth has pointed out in the past so to suggest that his organisation would have been better served by just having the money instead of the Olympics is fanciful.

The real tangible benefit will come next year when (from memory) 1800 apartments get released to a housing association with an instruction to rent them out at "affordable rents" and the same number are released to the market to be sold at full valuation, the association are currently inviting applicants to apply for interviews with a view to start occupying in the summer of 2013 - whether the definition of "affordable rents" match the max capped housing benefits for London remains to be seen, if they don't then we know where the housing association are coming from.

From what I read of the scheme they have some quite radical ideas for what will basically become council house tower blocks (to put it crudely), with a resident caretakers living on site to handle day to day problems, if they can achieve a good balance of private/social housing and maintain the estate as it looks now then that will be a huge tangible benefit and a blueprint for every local authority to follow...

...and be incredibly ironic that the government in charge of re-introducing the concept of social housing was a Tory government.

I love your ideals but you need to be a little bit more pragmatic about who this big wonderful event you're so enjoying is paid for.

Yes. But, it has been pretty flashy hasn't it? It's a bit socialist of me, but I do have to wonder whether you could have staged a less showy (but still sportingly excellent) Games with considerably less corporate wonga, for the same public/lottery wonga. I appreciate that this is not the way the Olympics roll nowadays.

You could, let's face it, still make an awful lot of money in sponsorship without making over half the seats for the men's 100m final unavailable to the general public.

I'm a playa. I like bling.

Braap braap.

Not really. It's Livingstone's scheme, no matter how many times Boris pops up on television.

He won't have been anywhere near the setting up of the admin team for the handover and over-seeing of the housing association though, not for several years.

Anyway ... [urlhttp://www.eastvillagelondon.co.uk/[/url
Triathlon Homes ... [urlhttp://www.triathlonhomes.com/[/url

If they invite Cameron along to open the first "affordable rent" apartments you'll see a man smiling with his mouth but with his ears ringing from Thatchers bollacking that morning

The big test of the "legacy" will be in 10/15 years time when we see the amount of GB athletes competing as they will have been the kids inspired by these games

when do they decide on the 2024 games

They don't decide on 2020 until next year, so 4 years after that, probably.

I think a better legacy would be the number of kids participating in sport. Preferably instead of playing computer games and getting fat.

I think that's what the "Inspire a Generation" thing is really all about. Of course if you increase the talent pool and keep going with the elite performance programmes it's quite likely that will have a knock on effect at the elite level.

Quote ="Road To Nowhere"I have and been to the Estádio João Havelange which will host the Athletics and the Maracanã where the opening ceremony will take place. Get in touch, I can tell you loads if you need it.'" www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/18804464 Looks like the Olympic ideals are alive & well in Rio. Read the last para: www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/olympics/19110769

Quote ="Road To Nowhere"I have and been to the Estádio João Havelange which will host the Athletics and the Maracanã where the opening ceremony will take place. Get in touch, I can tell you loads if you need it.'" www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/18804464 Looks like the Olympic ideals are alive & well in Rio. Read the last para: www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/olympics/19110769

I think this may interest some on here: www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-19144983

I think this may interest some on here: www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-19144983

As GCH mentioned, I've been down for 5 days and saw loads of different sports, most of which I haven't seen before. The handball was something I really enjoyed, but nothing could top Friday night in the Olympic Stadium, cheering on anybody British but most especially the lovely Ms Ennis.

Tickets were hard to come by, there's no denying that, but they were available. A bit of patience, a bit of pre-planning and in some cases luck allowed us to get to 7 events over 5 days.

One of my most abiding memories will be of the "Games Makers". Tens of thousands of volunteers who are the most pleasent, happy, charming people you could wish to meet. Also, once inside the venues there's no advertising anywhere. Sure there's a McDonalds (well 4 to be precise) inside the park, but there's numerous other food outlets as well.

Overall one of the greatest sporting experiences of my life. I agree that the legacy bit will take a few years to determine but at this moment in time I'm a complete believer.

www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/olympics/19171008

www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/olympics/19171008

To be honest, I've ended up finding the availability of tickets at short notice for events I applied for ages ago quite annoying.

It will have been lovely for people who could head to London at short notice or on the off chance, but I have a 6 month old baby and no family to babysit within 100 miles. Pre-planning is exactly what the ticketing prevented for me.

Government today cut compulsory 2hrs a week pe in school, our task gets even more challenging. Good work Gove you tool!

I suspect that cuts to funding will see any legacy scuppered long before then.

I was there the same night, got tickets into the stadium in the initial ballot.
Fantastic.
For me the only downside to the whole experience was the food, everything else was brilliant.
Having known the site from when much of it was an industrial wasteland, the transformation is amazing, I have never seen people photographing the flowers at any other sporting venue.

Going back again for this Saturday.

Hey, he sent them all a shiny new bible. What more do you want?

If the schools wont provide us with the FUTURE olympians we have to stand up and be counted - Encourage your child to take up a sport and back him all the way.

Tennis, running, football, rugby, swimming - A Playstation event does not appear to be in the London 2012 games.

Great point HS but this cuts at schools stinks and will put so many out of sport who cant afford to join clubs etc etc.