Rio Othon Palace

Rio Othon Palace, listed as Othon Palace Copacabana, is one of the largest hotels on the Copacabana seafront. It stands at Avenida Atlantica 3264, a thirty-floor tower with 579 rooms, and the hotel lists Copacabana Beach as a two-minute walk with direct beach access. The room choice is wide: the hotel lists sixteen types, from Classic rooms and Studios to Executive rooms with ocean views, Junior and Classic Suites with sea views, a Panoramic Suite and a Family Room with a mountain view, many of them ocean-facing or beachside. All have air conditioning, a safe, a minibar and twenty-four-hour room service. A free buffet breakfast is served daily from six to half past ten in the morning, and the hotel has three restaurants, Bossa Cafe, Restaurante Estancia and Skylab, as well as two bars, a beach bar, two cafes and a snack bar. Other facilities include an outdoor pool, the Rio Spa with sauna and steam room, a gym, a free children's club, a playground and more than fifteen thousand square feet of conference space. Free wifi is available in all rooms. Some reviewers mention a rooftop pool and restaurant, but they do not appear in the hotel's own list, so ask before booking if that matters to you. Guests score the hotel 8.4 from nearly twelve hundred reviews.

Expect crowds in the lobby at peak times, and note the optional facilities fee and the fact that late check-out costs extra. Check-in runs from three in the afternoon until half past eleven at night, minimum age eighteen, and covered valet parking has height limits. Christmas and New Year's Eve gala dinners are offered for an additional charge.