Which are the best luxury hotels in Rio de Janeiro with executive club lounges? Our list includes Grand Hyatt Rio de Janeiro, Hilton Rio de Janeiro Copacabana, JW Marriott Rio de Janeiro, Sheraton Grand Rio Hotel & Resort.
Rio de Janeiro is a famous seaside city in Brazil with a glorious beach. This fantastic city sits between beautiful mountains and white sandy beaches and is renowned for its rhythms and its people wide open smiles. Famous landmarks include its Copacabana and Ipanema beaches and the 38m Christ the Redeemer statue on top of Mount Corcovado. Sugarloaf Mountain, the sprawling favelas, and the world’s largest Carnaval festival also make this a must-visit city.
It is worth noting that the best luxury hotel in Rio de Janeiro does not include the Four Seasons Rio de Janeiro as there is no Four Seasons hotel in Rio de Janeiro. You can see the best Four Seasons in South America, but none of these three hotels offer executive club lounges.
Most luxury hotels do not have executive club lounges or concierge floors, with lounges offering complimentary food and drink. It is worth picking a hotel with an executive club lounge so that you can benefit from all the free food and drink offered up in the lounge, as well as the luxurious rooms, setting, and service offered by these wonderful hotels.
1. JW Marriott Rio de Janeiro
JW Marriott Hotel Rio de Janeiro is conveniently located on the beachfront. This Copacabana hotel features elegant rooms and suites, upscale amenities and a variety of dining.
The JW Marriott Rio offers a free towel and beach chair service for guests on Copacabana Beach. After a long day in Rio, visit the Moonlounge Rooftop Bar & Truck and indulge in international street food prepared with fresh and local ingredients.
Maintain your workout routine in the fitness center, located on the rooftop, or go for a swim in the rooftop pool.
Marriott Bonvoy Platinum and Titanium members can choose between the complimentary breakfast in either the hotel’s Executive Lounge or in the hotel restaurant. The restaurant’s buffet is almost always better than the breakfast in executive club lounges.
That said, the breakfast at this lounge is fairly decent, with cut and whole fruit, cereals, bread, pastries and muffins, jams, sweets, cheeses, and cold cuts. There are also two heated dishes with scrambled eggs and bacon in one dish and chopped-up sausages and chip-style fried potatoes.
During the day, there is free tea and coffee from the machine, soft drinks from the fridge, and fruit, biscuits, and nuts.
In the evenings, the lounge offers complimentary wine and local beer as well as a couple of hot dishes, canapes, and desserts.
The executive lounge’s look is pretty nice for a lounge with a shiny wood floor, a triple-height ceiling, and an enormous triple-height window overlooking Copacabana Beach. There is a variety of seating, including wooden cafe-style tables and chairs, high-tables with stools, and a bench with chairs with views out to the beach.
You can see what we have experienced in terms of food and drink at the club lounge at JW Marriott in London which will give you an idea of what to expect. This is undoubtedly one of the best club lounges in the city, with a substantial hot and cold buffet at both dinner and breakfast, plus evening canapes and alcoholic drinks.
2. Grand Hyatt Rio de Janeiro
Grand Hyatt Rio de Janeiro overlooks the natural reserve and has a spa retreat for relax and rejuvenation and inspired gastronomic options. Step out of the resort and explore Barra da Tijuca, one of the most exclusive areas in Rio, famous for paradisiac beaches and urban attractions.
This luxury 5-Star, 436-room oceanfront hotel is about 30 minutes drive from popular tourist attractions in Rio, but as a result, it provides less crowded beaches, safer surroundings, and beautiful views of the Ocean and Marapendi Lagoon.
This resort hotel offers sweeping views of the lagoon with mountains in the background. The beaches in this area are also less crowded, and to get into Rio, Uber and taxis are cheap.
The downside of this hotel is that the pool area is rather small, but there is a beach across the street, so you will not be short of places to sunbathe or swim. The poll area might be smallish for the resort size, but it is rather lovely, with lots of parasols, wood decking, and plenty of loungers. The beach here is absolutely stunning and wide, with a golden sand beach.
The rooms are fairly generic Hyatt, but they have nice views over the reserve’s greenery, the lagoon, and the beach.
The Grand Hyatt club lounge is excellent, with a huge balcony area with seats and tables on as well as plenty of seats inside too. The lounge looks out upon the verdant green reserve and the lagoons.
Breakfast is laid out on a large table backed by windows with fantastic views, so this is a fantastic place to help yourself to the buffet, which includes; cereals, yogurt, cut and whole fruit, cold cuts, cheese, smoked salmon, and olives. There are also hot bowls with scrambled eggs and bacon.
In the evening, there is a happy hour that offers complimentary wine and liquor as well as appetizers. Food includes two hot items, one is soup, so this offering can be filling enough but is not a restaurant substitute in terms of variety or quality. Delivery of food and drinks is also reportedly slow.
While this lounge is pretty lovely in design with the big windows and balcony, and the food is good enough, you will probably need to eat out in the evenings.
3. Hilton Porto Alegre
Hilton Porto Alegre is a high-rise hotel in Rio de Janeiro. The rooms are air-conditioned but have no balconies but it offers a good, if basic, base to explore Porto Alegre.
170 comfortable rooms and suites offer high-speed Internet access, plush bedding, flat-screen TVs, a work desk, and thoughtful amenities. Stay in shape with their free fitness center and swimming pool. Food-wise, try the Porto Alegre Bistro or 24-hour room service.
There is a Hilton Porto Alegre Club lounge on the 15th floor with a continental breakfast, which also offers hot eggs and a happy hour in the evening. If you are looking for good-value food, you might prefer to buy food at the mall attached to the hotel, which is really nice and has a good food court and a few restaurants. This is probably better value and offers more variety than the food and drink in the club lounge. It is probably not worth paying to upgrade your room to include a club lounge because this mall provides an excellent alternative.
4. Sheraton Grand Rio Hotel & Resort
Sheraton Grand Rio Hotel & Resort is a Marriott Bonvoy hotel located between trendy Barra da Tijuca and famed Ipanema Beach.
The nice thing about this hotel is the colorful, tropical setting. There’s also a complimentary shuttle that will take you to local beaches, Leblon, and Rio Sul’s shops, which is needed as there isn’t anything much in the hotel’s immediate vicinity. In fact, you are unlikely to want to go for much of a walk due to a busy road and a nearby favela,
The renovated Sheraton Grand Rio Hotel & Resort is the city’s only beachfront resort with an extensive recreational area, spa, and amenities. Its lush, landscaped grounds are set above a white-sand beach fronting the tropical South Atlantic and flanked by towering mountains. Often, there is live music by the pool, guitar playing, and singing, which adds to the party atmosphere.
There is a pizza place on the grounds by the pool, and they have a BBQ buffet which is worth a try.
538 guest rooms and suites feature comfortable “Sheraton Signature Sleep Experience” beds as well as private balconies overlooking the sea. This is a much better choice for tourists than the other Sheraton in town because of the balconies and resort atmosphere.
Club Level accommodations include access to the Sheraton Club Lounge and an exclusive area for breakfast. The club lounge can be found on the 26th floor and offers breakfast and evening canapes and alcoholic drinks.
5. Hilton Rio de Janeiro Copacabana
Hilton Rio de Janeiro Copacabana Hotel
offers the largest number of ocean-view rooms in the city, two outdoor pools overlooking Copacabana Beach, beach service with exclusive activities, a wellness spa, fitness center, restaurant, and three bars. Unfortunately, it gets fairly bad reviews and, at least for now, is not a great hotel choice in Rio de Janeiro.
This Hilton is located near most of Rio attractions, at the edge of Copacabana and Leme districts, facing the ocean and within walking distance to Shopping Rio Sul.
They have an executive lounge that can be found next to the VIP reception on the ground floor. You get free water during the day and alcohol (wine and soft drinks mainly) in the evenings with limited snacks and one or two hot items. Not a huge spread. The breakfast is good, and the club lounge has good views, but this appears to be a conference hotel lacking in love, and it does not offer one of the best club lounges in Rio de Janeiro.
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