Rio De Janeiro Airport

The new wing where TAM is located does not look too bad. Check-in counters are well-arranged with no long lines that I could see. The older wing whee Gol is located is pretty drab and depressing with few options to get anything to eat or drink after you pass security (much like Guarulhos Airport in Sao Paulo). There are some decent restaurants on level 3 of the old wing though they are not necessarily obvious from the ground floor. The airport is undergoing renovations so thinks will hopefully improve soon. For now I agree it's depressing though on the "bright" side not as bad as Sao Paulo or Brasilia though not as nice as Recife.

The international departure area here is bleak and depressing. Any joi de vivre you might find elsewhere in Brasil has been stripped away from here. If anything landside is marginally better than airside. Dark and gloomy waiting areas very few amenities and those are mostly on an upper floor not on the main floor. Really overpriced duty free shops - look at photographic or electronic goods prices if you want to get a good laugh before embarcation. Yes those are US dollar prices. It is even hard to read here unless close to the windows as the ceiling is dark and the lights though numerous seem to more like candles in the distance. Inbound the immigration queues can be slow particularly for non nationals from outside Latin America. It is not that the agents are particularly rigourous but that they are not very numerous.

Flew out of GIG on BA flight to London: depressing grey concrete bunker. Very poor shopping and nowhere to eat. Staff let us through the security with a 1.5L bottle of water in our hand luggage though at check-in all restrictions on liquids and safety info is clearly displayed. One proper duty-free shop with overpriced goods - one of the worst airports I have ever been to.

Drab grey concrete buildings with not a lot of amenities in regards to shopping or entertainment. But for those of you fortunate enough to visit the newer terminals although you probably won't be doing this with Varig given their current predicament you will find a refreshing change. The newer terminal is much better and offers far better services and amenities. When leaving the airport taxi desks are available on the right hand side although personally I prefer to pre- book with Rio Airport Transfer as I then have someone to meet me on the concourse and assist me with my luggage.

I flew out of the international airport GIG (terminal 2) on a TAM flight to Buenos Aires. It's almost completely empty probably due to the Varig collapse and feels very strange - a big terminal with about ten departure gates for a handful of flights per day. The facilities are really poor - there's not even a cafe airside and prices in the "duty free" shop are much higher than in the city. There is also no information desk and almost no announcements made so when our plane didn't turn up there was no way to find out what was going on.

Terminal 1 is really old-fashionable where most of the international flights are concentrated making the queues for the check-in counters huge and a big mess as the terminal is not wide enough between the check ins and the outside doors. It is the second time in 4 months I depart from the international lounge in the terminal 2 to Sao Paulo as the flight continues to Buenos Aires and I have to say that around 6 PM the line to the passport control and X rays is really huge with many foreigners completely astonished with such delay. There are about 2 cabins for the passport control and 2 X-rays and both foreigners and the Brazilians have to stay in the same line completely nonsense. I use international departures and arrival lounges in Sao Paulo and despite having four times the number of international passengers than Rio it works better even in the peak hours as there are around 12 and more than 20 passport cabins in the departure and arrival lounges for the passport control respectively. There are separate lines for Brazilian and foreigners helping to make this procedure more efficient and faster. Surprisingly the bags arrive quicker in Sao Paulo than in Rio even considering the huge traffic in SP. The airport really has a great potential to grow but for such a reduced international traffic it seems very inefficient.

LHR-GRU-GIG and GIG-GRU-JFK and GIG TPS2 is for sure the best terminal for international flights nowadays in Brazil. Easy to access the gates lots of space lots of sunlight place for smokers (not my case) but need more flights and options. Very good to connect to domestic flights as well as to CGH Sao Paulo Downtown Airport. Baggage returned very quickly and there are no huge lines for Check Points like GRU.

After a long overland transfer to GIG for a homeward bound flight (Iberia) I was amazed at how poor the old Terminal was. Nowhere you might want to spend your last holiday money (the bookshop sold calendars that were literally a year out of date). There was nowhere to get even a reasonable sandwich (still less a meal) though you could get a beer or coffee from the most sullen bar staff in Brazil. After a great holiday I left Rio the city that gave us carnival in a thoroughly bad temper.

I just flew from Rio de Janeiro to Paris. I was not impressed at all by GIG airport terminal 1. It is very dark and once you went threw the passport control there is really little to do. Two places for a drink and a couple of shops. To those who consider buying cigarettes from the duty shop you must know that they only accept US dollars or Euros. Don't expect to spend you last brazilian riais over there.On the top of that cigarettes at the duty free shop are more expensive than if you buy them in the tobacco store that is right accross the hallway. A carton of Marlboro Light was 17 US$ at the duty free shop only 11US$ at the tobacco store. Still can not figure out why !

I just returned from my second trip to Rio in as many years. Both times I flew in and out of the (older) Terminal 1. Having not done much foreign travel I found even the older Terminal 1 fairly easy to manoeuver around in. We had a long line for immigration but 3 operators for foreigners had us all through in 20 minutes. Customs had long line as well. Again we were through in 10 minutes. One through there were plenty of friendly Terminal Porters giving information and assistance in their dark blue uniforms one exchanged currency for me even on Sunday. I checked in Rio and the porters were giving the same rate as the banks in Rio. You do get constantly hassled by taxi drivers trying to take you to Rio. We followed other comments (above) and went upstairs to departures and hooked a taxi into Rio. It was only R$ 67.00. Getting out of the country was easy as well. I did have my luggage searched once. It only took 10 minutes and I was immediately placed to the front of check in and actually got through check in before my companions who were not searched. OK shopping upstairs. There is an old 70s-ish restaurant and buffet which was actually kinda fun if you want to see what interiors were in the 70s. Terminal 1 is kinda old and dingy - maybe could use a sprucing. I didn't mind though. It was cool stepping back into the 70s.