9 Best places to stay in Rio de Janeiro

A-listers have been flying to Rio to stay at this glorious art nouveau pile overlooking Copacabana beach since 1933, when Fred and Ginger used it as a backdrop for their first film. This is Rio’s stylish grand dame hotel and the building oozes heritage – photos of guests from Orson Welles to Prince Charles adorn the ballroom gallery.

The best rooms are in the original art nouveau older building (not the ungainly modern annexe), with lovely sea views. These come in contemporary neutral tones with Juliet balconies, polished wood floors (with Persian carpets), marble bathrooms, and Belle Epoque French furniture. Suites are similar but with separate sitting rooms and the 100 metre-square penthouses come with butlers.

There are three uber-elegant restaurants, including Mee – the only pan-Asian restaurant in the city to win a Michelin star.

With its cool-as-a-breeze rooftop pool and bar (with views both of the Christ and the whole sweep of Ipanema Beach), expanses of glass, billowing Philippe Starck drapes and swinging 1960s London-meets-Tropicalia lounge bar, Fasano is the hippest hotel on Rio’s hippest beach – Ipanema.

Its shorefront location is unbeatable, its restaurant is a destination in itself, and its guest list twinkles with the rich and famous. Long, thin rooms in dark woods, creams and light yellows have designer flourishes (organic Dali mirrors, Eames chairs) but book one at the front of the hotel – it’s the ocean-from-the-bed views that have the real wow factor.

A five-star location (on the beach next to the Copacabana Palace), four-star fittings (spacious modern rooms with over-the-ocean sunrise views, a rooftop bar and pool) and a two-star price: this Copacabana beachfront is superb value.

Rooms may be business-hotel plain – wood-panel floors, cream walls and fitted desks big enough to prepare a Powerpoint presentation – but they’re modern and well-maintained and those facing east have wonderful beach views. And the location couldn’t be more quintessentially Rio: Copacabana Beach is outside the lobby, Bossa Nova was literally invented a block away and the La Trattoria restaurant, a stroll from the lobby, is a carioca institution.

Next to Pele’s house in Rio’s far south, this neo-rococo boutique with stunning views could be Gianni Versace’s Rio fantasy home.

Rooms are colour-themed (with bathrooms in natural marbles to match, including one in an astonishing shade of fuschia). They come with balconies perched over the ocean, with breath-taking and views of Dois Irmaos mountain and the wild Atlantic.

The twin pools and al-fresco breakfast terrace have been used for fashion shoots, and the Asian-European fusion food by an Alain Ducasse-trained chef is sumptuous. That’s a good thing, because alternative eateries, bars and the famous beaches are a 20-minute cab ride away.

Vying with the Fasano for the best beachfront location in Rio, this relaxed but uber-chic tower is the first hotel venture by Oskar Metsavaht – Brazil’s Crown Prince of laid back but luxe fashion, and founder of the quintessentially Carioca ‘Osklen’ label.

Rooms and a swanky rooftop pool overlook the most fashionable end of Ipanema – Leblon. Guests lounging around the rooftop pool look like off-duty supermodels and Rio’s best restaurants are literally a stroll away.

No hotel offers better views of the Sugarloaf and Guanabara Bay than this elegant, exquisitely decorated boutique in the hills of bohemian Santa Teresa.

The hotel is an intimate converted belle époque townhouse, set in tropical gardens, littered with art collected personally by the French owner – from indigenous woodcarvings to Jean Cocteau drawings.

Its seven rooms are decorated with a Brazilian or European theme (Amazon, Colette, Maria Callas) and include a self-contained apartment furnished with Bossa Nova era Brazilian furniture by famous names including Fasanello, Carlo Hauner, Martin Eisler. There are breathtaking views from most and from the swimming pool garden.

Sugarloaf out front, Christ the Redeemer on Corcovado mountain framed in your bedroom window: the Yoo2 boasts wonderful views (from the bedrooms and the expansive rooftop bar and pool area) and elegant hipster fittings, at a great price.

Rooms are modern-minimalist, with splashes of colour from funky moulded chairs, and monochrome floor mosaics which echo Rio’s famous dragon’s tooth paving.

The cablecar up Sugarloaf is five-minutes’ cab ride away and upcoming Botafogo neighbourhood has some of Rio’s coolest alternative restaurants and bars.

Self-consciously chic and sitting over the swishest patch of Copacabana beach, this designer boutique is where Brazilian celebs stay when they’re in Rio – hidden from the eyes of the hoi polloi by a giant metal filigree screen that fronts the entire building.

Everything inside is beautifully appointed – from the slick staff in their Brazilian fashion labels to the bright, airy rooms in muted, minimalist tones, which offset beautiful ocean views from the floor-to-ceiling windows.

Kingsize beds are draped in 400-thread-count Egyptian linens, award-winning chef Damien Montecer runs the kitchen, and the rooftop deck has a sumptuous infinity pool, lounge deck and cocktail bar.

Few hotels in Rio have a better location than this beachside tower. It sits right on the sand in Ipanema, affording sweeping views of the entire beach from both the upper floor rooms and the breakfast area.

The once modest rooms and public areas have had a full upgrade, with a loose nautical theme.

The once dark rooms are now bright – decked out in whites, navy blues, warm woods and wicker, offset by large mirrors and frosted glass bathroom partitions with faux porthole clear patch-windows.