The Best Hotels in Rio de Janeiro, by the Record
The best hotels in Rio de Janeiro, by the professional record: 50 Best, Michelin Guide, and Forbes Travel Guide have all weighed in, and their honors are what rank this list. Copacabana Palace comes out on top.
Santa Teresa Rio - MGallery and Fairmont Rio de Janeiro Copacabana hold the next two places. Forbes Travel Guide and Michelin Guide show up on more of this list than any other guide.
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The gleaming white facade still lights up Copacabana Beach at night, by design. This grand hotel, a Belmond property, has been the anchor of the neighborhood since the Jazz Age, modeled loosely on the great seaside palaces of Nice and Cannes and now arguably more famous than either. Beach-view suites run steep; standard rooms face the city and cost less. The pool terrace is where well-heeled guests and locals perform for each other. It holds a spot on the World's 50 Best Hotels.
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A boutique hotel in the hillside bohemian quarter of Santa Teresa, which means you're up among colonial mansions and artists' studios rather than down on Copacabana with everyone else. The 44 rooms lean into Brazilian hardwoods, natural stone, and indigenous crafts, with a pool and full spa on hand. The terrace bar pours Brazilian rums, and the restaurant pulls its own weight. Michelin awarded it one Key.
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The elevated infinity pool hanging over Atlântica with Sugarloaf across the water makes the whole arrangement feel quietly smug, in the best way. This large luxury hotel on Copacabana's famous strip draws on the neighborhood's 1950s golden years, with flooring that echoes the boulevard's black-and-white wave tiles. Two pools, a spa, a cocktail bar, and a seafood restaurant mean you can construct an entire Rio without leaving the building, which many guests appear to do.
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Philippe Starck designed this Ipanema beachfront hotel with conspicuous restraint, which for him is a kind of performance art. The leather-and-dark-hardwood interiors lean into a sultry mid-century mood, while the rooftop infinity pool in white marble looks out over Sugarloaf and down onto the beach eight floors below. A section of private beach and the Italian seafood restaurant, Fasano al Mare, mean there's little reason to leave, though the hotel's limousines stand ready to prove you wrong.