Top 10: the best five-star hotels in Rio de Janeiro
An expert guide to the best five-star hotels in Rio de Janeiro, including the top places for rooftop bars, swimming pools, beaches, sumptuous spas, tennis courts, rooms with sea views, and butler service, in Zona Sul, Copacabana, Ipanema, Barra, Santa Teresa and Leblon beach.
• The best hotels in Rio de Janeiro
Hotel Fasano Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
9Telegraph expert rating
The Fasano has usurped the Copacabana Palace as the A-listers’ Rio stay of choice, bringing a much-needed touch of contemporary cool to Ipanema's surprisingly stale hotel scene. If the hotel's understated luxury isn’t reason enough to justify the price tag, then its prime location in the heart of affluent Zona Sul and on the boundary of the wonderful Arpoador and Ipanema beaches will. Entry to the guest-only, open-air infinity pool is so sought-after that São Paulo's high-flyers book rooms on weekends just for a Saturday afternoon's lounging across the state border. Read expert review From £557per night Check availability Rates provided by Booking.com
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Belmond Copacabana Palace
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
8Telegraph expert rating
The Palace may have been lording it over Copacabana for nearly a century, but it is a rare example of how to grow old gracefully in this anything-goes beach neighbourhood. From its fetching pool and excellent restaurants to the rooftop tennis court, everything about the hotel has been designed with the guest in mind. Don't miss the Ken Hom-directed pan-Asian restaurant Mee, with its Malaysian curry, Peking duck and impeccable sushi. Expect king-sized beds and marble bathrooms in the sleeping quarters. Read expert review From £247per night Check availability Rates provided by Booking.com
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Sheraton Grand Rio Hotel & Resort
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
8Telegraph expert rating
The Sheraton juts out majestically into the ocean at the end of Leblon beach. An injection of style has accompanied a new look, and the inviting lobby now has an elegant bar overlooking the sea. Below, the pool area’s swaying palms instill a genuine rustic tropical charm, so that despite being in the heart of the city, you could almost be in a Bahian hideaway up the coast. Facilities include two tennis courts and spa; the latter is the height of luxury, attracting local celebrities as well as guests in search of pampering. Read expert review From £180per night Check availability Rates provided by Booking.com
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Grand Hyatt Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
8Telegraph expert rating
Rio’s first self-styled 'urban resort' brings a touch of dependable Grand Hyatt quality to Barra’s rather hit-and-miss hotel scene. Expect a beachfront location and vast pool complex. The basement spa is pure escapism and there are joyous weekly samba classes. Staff await on the sands with towels, umbrellas and water, where lessons in most beach sports, from surfing to beach volleyball, can be booked. With well-considered touches like decent-sized balconies, lake-or-sea views and big bathrooms boasting a separate shower and bath, even the standard rooms feel like a treat. Read expert review From £124per night Check availability Rates provided by Booking.com
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Hotel Santa Teresa
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
9Telegraph expert rating
A former coffee finca set in the undulating landscape of the ever charming, bohemian neighbourhood from which it takes its name. This hotel has the air of a hillside retreat, but packs in all the amenities of a five-star hotel, including one of the city’s best spas. The pool is a good size and includes a soothing sun terrace for a daily Vitamin D hit. Rooms are casually elegant, with reclaimed wooden furniture and some boast four-poster beds. The hotel's Térèze restaurant has collected a raft of awards for its Franco-Brazilian fusions, drawing customers from all over the city. Read expert review From £181per night Check availability Rates provided by Booking.com
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Caesar Park Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
9Telegraph expert rating
The Sofitel group has successfully created the sort of easygoing place Rio’s sassiest neighbourhood always deserved. Grab a spectacular window seat at the Galani restaurant and you could almost be enjoying the huge breakfast buffet on the beach itself. Beachside service means you don’t have to fight for a deck chair and there's complimentary water and fresh fruit, but it will be a struggle to leave behind the luxurious pool with views of Dois Irmaos mountain. Read expert review From £195per night Check availability Rates provided by Booking.com
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Hilton Barra Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
8Telegraph expert rating
This iconic hotel is the most advanced and conceptual hotel in the city and epitomises the Miami-esque Barra neighbourhood’s recent boom. In the rooms, hours could be lost in the window-side armchair gazing out at the lake (odd numbers) or mountains (even numbers). Breakfast and lunch are buffet affairs, with a huge array of local fruits and breads as well as eggs and bacon, while a broad dinner menu covers classic Brazilian and Mediterranean cuisine. The public areas are awash with curated artworks, and there's a gym and rooftop pool. Read expert review From £87per night Check availability Rates provided by Booking.com
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Gran Meliá Nacional Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
9Telegraph expert rating
The Nacional – resurrected after decades of closure and beautifully refitted – is the most resolutely carioca of the city’s luxury hotels – from its Jetson-age styling to its sumptuous beach location. Rooms are housed in a 1960s cylindrical tower built by Latin America’s most celebrated modernist architect Oscar Niemeyer. There’s a first-class spa, pillow and aroma menus, butler service and two restaurants. These are Rio’s rooms with a view. There’s nowhere else in the city where you can see the Christ, the mountains and the ocean from your bed. Read expert review From £189per night Check availability Rates provided by Booking.com
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Miramar Hotel by Windsor
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
8Telegraph expert rating
Copacabana may not have the glamour of yore, but once you’ve walked inside the discreet entrance of the Miramar Hotel and been met with a glass of champagne, you will discover there is still plenty of glitz to be found here. Nice touches abound, from the butler for each floor to Nespresso machines in every room, and the beach service goes above and beyond by offering complimentary fruit and water as well as the usual towels and deckchairs. At 16 floors up, the swimming pool and poolside bar come into their own at sunset, and the small gym and steam room offer spectacular views of the boulevard below. Read expert review From £190per night Check availability Rates provided by Booking.com
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Hotel Emiliano
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
9Telegraph expert rating
Emiliano not only has universal appeal, but updates Copacabana’s magic of yore with flair. Friendly, informed and eager to please, the on-call butler, room turn-downs and beach service all make for a refreshing change to Rio’s all-too frequent hospitality recalcitrance. Pop on personalised flip-flops and head to the magnificent rooftop pool that L-shapes in front of the sun-loungers to deliver a tropical refuge, or hit the compact gym with its widescreen views over the Atlantic. Opt for the sea-view room and be wowed by the panorama from your balcony, glass of caipirinha in hand. Read expert review From £460per night Check availability Rates provided by Booking.com
