We'd never been there. Where does one stay for one night in Rio de Janeiro prior to a cruise? My mother --nearly 82 years old-- and I were scheduled on Samba Rhythms, Oceania Cruises' pastoral retreat down the southeastern coast of Brazil, from Rio to Buenos Aires, on the line's elegant Insignia. This was a dream trip for us; I had wanted to get my mother on an Oceania cruise ship since the company's inception five years earlier.

So. Starting in Rio. Our excitement at arriving in their January mid-summer was coupled with practical considerations. Could we find a place where we could just get out and walk, and would it be a safe neighborhood? Could we find a hotel with a view and (hopefully) a balcony? Breakfast included? Reasonably priced?

Sheraton Resort, Rio

We did want to stay near the beach; after all, that's what iconic Rio in summer is all about. Cariocas in their thong bikinis playing frisbee and beach volleyball up and down the beaches, all of which are fronted with Roberto Burle Marx's mosaic sidewalk design. Writer Dwight Brown had recommended the Sheraton Rio Hotel and Towers in an article he wrote for this publication, but it seemed too far, and we didn't need a resort. Just a hotel, just one night, reasonably priced, with breakfast, in a safe location.

I had heard that the area around Ipanema Beach was safer than and more upscale than Copacobana, and that Leblon, actually part of Ipanema, was even more so. A small canal separates quiet, tony Leblon from its more exuberant neighbor to the north but in fact, Leblon is barely distinguishable from Ipanema.

The Mercure Apartotel Leblon is fairly new to the Mercure label, having just recently been transferred to Mercure for management. Mercure itself is one of the tiers of Accor Hotels, its marquee brand being Sofitel. I like Accor hotels, especially upscale Sofitel, but I've experienced most of Accor's different property styles over the years: Novotel, Pullman, Mercure, Ibis, Motel Six. The French company is most prevalent in Europe but has made inroads into the U.S., South America, and Asia in recent years. While I usually decry cookie-cutter chains in foreign locations, it's nice to know that when you are visiting a city for the first time with your nearly-82-year-old-mother, there is a brand with which you are comfortable. It could be a Hilton, a Holiday Inn, a Sheraton. In this case, it was Mercure.

Because it was new to the Mercure family there really wasn't much information about the hotel. I knew that there were 19 floors, that there were verandas, and that the Mercure Website said that there were 39 accommodations. Breakfast, while not included in the hotel rate, was available for about $6 USD. According to the booking Website, there was a small pool and the hotel was about two blocks from the beach. The cost? A reasonable $80 USD for a Friday night in Rio's summer high season. I was in.

I booked online but at one point I had to phone the hotel with a request. It was very, very frustrating to find that not one person spoke English at 10 a.m. Rio time on a Tuesday morning. I don't speak Portuguese at all, so it was a communications black hole.

One of my requests was to be waitlisted for a twin-bedded room, which was sold out on the Website for the night we were planning on staying. There was a slightly higher rate for the room with twin beds, which we were willing to pay, and I was hoping to be able to move to one if there were a cancellation. The other request had to do with arrival time and the possibility of early check-in, for which we were also willing to pay. Since we couldn't communicate with the front desk during our call, we took our chances and just ... arrived.

Our taxi driver at Tom Jobim airport in Rio also didn't speak English, and he had no idea where the Mercure Leblon was located. I had conscientiously tucked the address into a pocket of my carry-on tote, but it had ended up in the trunk with the rest of the luggage. We were at the mercy of the driver, who, after taking us to Leblon Inn and driving around a bit, finally found Mercure Leblon.

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BOOK MERCURE LEBLON