Santa Teresa

Santa Teresa Hotel RJ MGallery

★★★★★

The Santa Teresa Hotel is the place to stay for travellers who want Rio's art, history and views rather than its beaches on the doorstep. It sits on Rua Almirante Alexandrino, the main street of the hilltop neighbourhood of Santa Teresa, in a group of restored buildings on the site of a coffee farm dating from 1850, and the decor draws on the golden age of coffee and cocoa: dark woods, colonial furniture, natural fibres, Brazilian art and plenty of greenery. The hotel belongs to Accor's MGallery collection of characterful boutique hotels, and its scale is intimate, a collection of rooms and suites spread across the buildings and gardens rather than a tower, so it feels more like a private estate than a city hotel. The centrepiece is the open-air swimming pool, set on a terrace overlooking Guanabara Bay, which may be the most beautiful pool view in Rio. The Tereze restaurant serves local cuisine with a Latin American twist and is one of the more romantic dining rooms in the city, while the Bar dos Descasados has a panoramic balcony that is the place to be at sunset with a caipirinha. Le Spa offers treatments in a calm garden setting. Around the hotel, Santa Teresa unfolds in cobbled streets of mansions, galleries and studios: Largo dos Guimaraes, the bars and restaurants, the Parque das Ruinas viewpoint and the Chacara do Ceu museum are all within easy reach, and the Selaron Steps lead down into Lapa. The hotel describes itself as less than ten minutes from the Santos Dumont airport, and Christ the Redeemer, Sugarloaf and the beaches are all a ride-hailing car away.

Choosing a room: ask for a room with a view over the bay or the gardens, and consider one of the suites for more space and a terrace. Rooms vary in size and layout because of the historic buildings, so read the descriptions carefully when booking.

What the stay is like: slow mornings by the pool, an afternoon wandering the galleries and studios of Santa Teresa, sunset at the bar and dinner at Tereze. The neighbourhood is steep and quiet in places, so use ride-hailing cars to come and go after dark, and wear comfortable shoes for the cobbles. The Santa Teresa tram has run only a limited service in 2026, so do not rely on it for transport.

Who it suits: couples above all, and design and art lovers who prefer character to a beachfront. The trade-offs are distance from the beaches (around twenty to forty minutes by car to Copacabana or Ipanema, depending on traffic) and a neighbourhood that is quiet at night. For a romantic, atmospheric stay in Rio, it is the strongest choice.