Rio No Carnival for Unwary Travelers : But Brazil’s famous metropolis has a new hostel, and low-cost tours are available.

There’s a popular saying used on tourist literature for Brazil: “It took six days to create the world and the seventh was devoted exclusively to Rio.” Another equally appropriate saying appears on T-shirts sold in this city’s colorful Sunday afternoon crafts market: “I left my heart in Rio--and my ring, and my watch, and my camera.”

Rio is blessed with a beautiful setting. The city is fronted by miles of white sandy beaches and surrounded by dramatic mountains. It’s also a city where five-star hotels share the same beautiful view as seaside shacks.

Budget travelers now have a new clean, cozy, 65-bed international youth hostel that provides economical accommodations in the center of the city. It offers a comfortable haven to foreign travelers on tight budgets in a colorful but sometimes intimidating city. The rooms are small but the ceilings are high, and guests have use of a TV room, kitchen, courtyard and individual lockers.

Bunk rooms are shared by up to five people. The rate per person is about $3 for members of Hostelling International, and about $6 for non-members. Breakfast is available for about $1.50.

The hostel, known as the Alberque da Juventurde, is at Rua General Dionisio 63, Botafogo, CEP 22271, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It’s best to write for a reservation. There is a seven-night limit during the busy summer months.

When visitors to Rio are out walking, especially if they are going to the beach, they are continually warned not to carry valuables, wear jewelry or take a camera. It’s good advice.

Cynthia, a petite woman from California, learned the hard way. She was jogging on a sidewalk near her five-star hotel when a young man bumped her from behind and knocked her off the edge of the sidewalk, causing her to fall 10 feet to the beach. At the bottom, another young man was waiting to grab her small packet of valuables.

“It must have been a setup,” she told me.

Most novice budget travelers would be better off picking an easier area of the world for their first foreign experience, or joining a group of like-minded adventurers.

Top Deck, the British company that pioneered overland travel from London to Katmandu, and Tucan South American, which has been running expeditions in South America since 1979, have joined together to offer 19- to 73-day camping tours under the name Adventure South America.

For example, a 37-day Rio-to-Manaus tour, which coincides with the four-day Rio Carnival, costs about $1,200, plus an extra $215 for food and $210 for hotels when the group is in large cities. For details on Adventure South America programs, contact a travel agent or Campus Holidays, 242 Upper Bellevue Ave., Montclair, N.J. 07043, (800) 345-2775 or (201) 744-8724.

The seasoned budget traveler who is considering tackling South America independently would do well to invest in the recently updated, 626-page second edition of “Brazil--A Travel Survival Kit” (Lonely Planet; $17.95).

Staff members at the Rio youth hostel recommend that independent travelers investigate airline fares within Brazil before departing the United States. Although bus travel is popular with travelers on tight budgets, it helps to keep in mind that Brazil is about the same size as the continental United States. Some special air fares can be purchased only before departing the United States.