The top 10 Brazilian hotels for every kind of traveler

Take some of the finest nature-spotting on the planet, add thousands of world-class beaches, and throw in top-notch city break potential, too. That’s Brazil—one great gumbo of bucket-list travel, a country where you can go from remote rainforest to a crowded beach from one day to the next. South America’s largest country is certainly larger than life, and with an excellent domestic flight network, it’s easy to hop from Rio de Janeiro to Iguaçu Falls to the Amazon—and then over to Salvador and the beaches of Bahia, too. Whatever your bucket list looks like—wildlife-spotting, swimming along the Rio Negro, or living it up at Carnival—Brazil has world-class hotels for every type of traveler. Here, in no particular order, are 10 of the best.

(The essential guide to visiting Brazil)

Fairmont Rio de Janeiro Copacabana, Rio de Janeiro

Best for: Brazil first-timers
Slide open the door, step out onto your balcony, and enjoy Copacabana’s best view. From the Fairmont—two conjoined 1950s beehives straddling the Arpoador peninsula between iconic Copa and trendy Ipanema—the world’s most famous beach unfurls, the Atlantic lapping at its sands as Sugarloaf Mountain towers from behind. Across the street is Tropik Beach Club, with guest-only sun-loungers on the sand, and caipirinhas and fresh shrimp skewers on tap at the restaurant. As for the rooms, their elegant midcentury style harks back to Rio’s Bossa Nova-era heyday. City views glimpse the water between Ipanema’s high-rises, but the Copacabana views are worth the upgrade. On a budget? You still get the knockout view from the main, infinity pool (there are two). The superb breakfast buffet is served beside it.

Good to know: Rio’s best sunsets are from the Arpoador peninsula, right by the hotel.

(A guide to Ipanema, Rio de Janeiro's lively beach neighborhood)

Anavilhanas Jungle Lodge, Amazonas

Best for: An Amazonian escape
It’s when you’re floating in the Rio Negro, 90 miles upstream from where it joins the Solimões to become the Amazon, that you’ll fall in love with Anavilhanas. While Brazil is famous for its uber-luxury hotels, this eco-resort strips everything back to its essence. Rooms are wooden, stilted chalets, with babaçu leaves on the roofs and hammock-equipped terraces. Meals are a buffet of Amazon fruits and enormous, meaty river fish, while a “floating bar” serves cocktails and caipirinhas cantilevered over the Rio Negro, where you can swim in the muddy waters if you’re brave enough. Only three hours’ drive from Manaus, it still feels like a true Amazon immersion, surrounded by a thick rainforest canopy, and facing the 400-island Anavilhanas archipelago, home to a plethora of wildlife including pumas and armadillos.

Good to know: This is a year-round destination but it’s most atmospheric from March to June, when frequent rains create a watery wonderland called “igapós” or “flooded forest.”

(A tree fell in the Amazon—and revealed mysterious urns of ancient human remains)

Casa do Amarelindo, Salvador

Best for: City slickers
As Brazil’s first colonial capital, Salvador’s cobbled streets and colorful architecture are intrinsically tied to its history of slavery. Today, it’s the center of Afro-Brazilian culture, and the streets of the historic center, Pelourinho, echo with the sound of the percussion groups that take to the streets. This canary-yellow, LGBTQ+-friendly hotel—its name a play on words for “love is beautiful”—is the only place in Pelourinho to have a plunge pool with a view of the Bay of All Saints; from the rooftop, the city unfurls towards the water as you sit, caipirinha in hand; spring for a Deluxe room and you’ll enjoy those views from your sprawling balcony, too. Behind the beds, carved orixás, gods of the Candomblé religion, stand watch; downstairs, Pelô Bistrô serves moqueca, Bahia’s traditional seafood stew.

Good to know: You’re a two-minute walk from the Museu Afro-brasileiro, whose collection spans over 1,100 Afro-Brazilian and African pieces of art and craftmanship.

(The inside guide to Salvador, the cradle of Brazil's Afro-Brazilian heritage)

Hotel das Cataratas, a Belmond Hotel, Foz do Iguaçu

Best for: A bucket-list splurge
Steaming over the precipice at a rate of 461,244 gallons per second, and over a mile and a half wide, Foz do Iguaçu (Iguazu Falls) is one of nature’s finest spectacles. Just behind them, and within Iguaçu’s national park sits this grand, pink mansion. Expect olde-worlde vibes, with glossy carved wooden beds, antique-style furniture and Portuguese azulejos tiles in the bathroom—plus, in the “Falls View” rooms, water spray gusting past the window. Restaurant Y does a modern take on Brazilian classics (try the banana leaf-wrapped fish with manioc), and the hotel can organize walks and wild boat rides around the falls, but the main draw is the ability to wander quietly down outside the national park’s opening hours for a private view of sunset over the water.

Good to know: The falls are more spectacular from Brazil, but if you have time, also visit the Argentinian side, where waterside walking trails offer a more intimate experience.

(10 iconic experiences in Brazil)

Uxua, Trancoso

Best for: Beach bums
On Trancoso’s Quadrado, the grassy main square ringed by colorful fishing cottages,  kids are playing football. Crickets hum as fairylights spark up in the sea-almond trees and the air fills with music. Sleepy, hippie Trancoso—a small town in Bahia, 400 miles south of Salvador—morphed into a celeb magnet with the 2009 opening of Uxua, a collection of 16 fishing cottages just off the Quadrado, lovingly refurbished and ringed with over an acre of lush gardens. But this is one place that tourism didn’t ruin. Pick your cottage—maybe one with a private pool, right on the Quadrado, or swaddled by the palms and plants. Whichever you choose, you’ll get rustic-luxe décor (the owner is Diesel’s ex-creative director Wilbert Das) and a key to Trancoso’s still-authentic heart.  

Good to know: Trancoso’s beach is a steep walk below the Quadrado. Luckily, Uxua has a guest shuttle from the hotel to the white cabanas at its beach bar.

Casa Turquesa, Paraty

Best for: History buffs
The clue’s in the name. Bright turquoise shutters signal the way to Casa Turquesa in the 17th-century heart of Paraty. The seaside town has barely changed since Portuguese colonists settled here in 1597 on the thickly forested coast midway between Rio and São Paulo, in a spot already inhabited by Guaianás people. This refined little inn has just nine rooms, all of which are meticulously put together with Brazilian hardwood floors, woven rugs, and of course, that turquoise palette set against gleaming white walls. There’s a plunge pool, and suites have Jacuzzi tubs, but when you have the warm Atlantic on the doorstep, there’s little need to soak inside.

Good to know: Paraty is famous for its cachaça, distilled here for over 300 years. Try it at Alambique Engenho D'Ouro, which offers tours and tastings.

Quinta das Videiras, Florianópolis

Best for: Surfers and adventurers
The southern state of Santa Catarina has thick-sanded beaches for miles—nearly 350 miles, to be precise. It’s capital, Florianópolis, sits on Santa Catarina island, hovering just off the mainland. No ordinary city, it has 42 beaches, some of them backed by Brazil’s east-coast Mata Atlântica rainforest. Quinta das Videiras sits in the heart of that nature, outside ‘Floripa’ on the Lagoa da Conceição, a vast lagoon taking a wide bite out of the island. A pink palace harking back to the 19th century, its retro rooms are styled with patterned parquet flooring, canopy beds, and oodles of antiques. Sete Ais Bistrô serves perfect pasta (Santa Catarina saw major Italian immigration) in a stained-glass solarium. Beach breaks don’t get more sophisticated.

Good to know: With its huge Atlantic rollers, Florianópolis is a surf hotspot. Thirty miles south is Guarda do Embaú, Brazil’s only World Surfing Reserve.

Caiman, Pantanal

Best for: Nature lovers
For nature lovers, there’s more than the Amazon; the Pantanal region is the world’s largest tropical wetland, home to elusive jaguars, tapirs, ocelots, parrots and the caimans that give this 130,965-acre cattle ranch its name. Eighteen suites in the main lodge make the most of the wildlife-spotting with floor-to-ceiling glass. Settle with a book and you might see any of the 500 types of fauna and 350 bird species that haunt this area. The focus during the day flits between game drives and poolside hammocks, while evenings are for drinks around the firepit under the glow of the Milky Way. There’s a separate six-room villa with private pool available for groups.  

Good to know: The rainy season, from November to May, is best for birdwatching, but it’s the dry season (June to October) that’s good for wildlife-spotting.

(The Pantanal wetland is Brazil's jaguar country—and a wildlife photographer's dream)

Hotel Unique, São Paulo

Best for: Design buffs
Where other top-of-the-range Brazilian chains like Fasano and Emiliano go for a brooding, masculine feel, Hotel Unique is exactly that: a one-off building shaped like a watermelon slice, suspended over the ritzy Jardins neighborhood. Designed by the late Paulistano architect Ruy Ohtake, its porthole-style windows give a vaguely space-age vibe, though the minimalist, wood-filled rooms and peekaboo bathrooms rocket it into the 21^st century. Impressively for a city hotel there are two pools: a lurid lime-colored one in the spa (entered via a slide, no less) and a scarlet-tiled rooftop pool. Sharing that rooftop is Sky Bar & Restaurant where São Paulo’ssee-and-be-seen crowd join guests for a menu that reflects the city’s waves of immigration, from arancini and gyoza to sushi and ceviche.  

Good to know: Ibirapuera Park, São Paulo’s answer to Central Park, is two blocks away.

(A guide to São Paulo, the Brazilian city defined by its creative subcultures)

Cristalino Lodge, Alta Floresta

Best for: Amazon immersion
Immersed in the never-ending rainforest canopy of Brazil’s southern Amazon, this upscale lodge sits within a private reserve of over 27,000 acres, home to jaguars, anacondas, howler monkeys, harpy eagles, giant river otters—and you. Despite the remote location, Cristalino feels like a real hotel, from the four-to-a-block standard rooms to the wood-clad bungalows which have a real feel of stripped-back luxury. On the restaurant menu is everything Amazonian, from açaí gazpacho to tambaqui (a meaty riverfish). Hiking trails lead off from around the lodge; more are accessible by boat, including the “Brazil nut trail,” home to a tree that’s said to be 1,000 years old. Afterwards, retire to the floating deck on the Cristalino River.

Good to know: Cristalino is especially popular with ornithologists — if you’re here for birdwatching, the dry season is best.

Julia Buckley is a former travel editor for UK newspapers. She followed her Tuscan and Ligurian family roots back to Italy, where she has lived in Venice and Sicily, writing about Italian culture, history and food. She also specializes in South America, especially Argentina, Uruguay and Brazil.