When Mo announced he was taking over control of our holiday to Brazil, I was worried. Really worried. One thing I knew I didn’t have to worry about though was where we would be staying. I had full confidence that he would make sure we would be celebrating my birthday somewhere grand. It may not have been the famous Copacabana hotel, but the five star Windsor Atlantica was definitely one of the nicest places we have ever stayed.
Standing tall and proud right on Copacabana beach, I knew we were in for a treat as soon as we walked through the revolving doors into the lobby. Cool marble flooring, a statement chandelier centrepiece above a beautiful exotic floral arrangement tends to say ‘top quality’ hotel in my mind.
The reception desk staff were extremely polite, friendly, we got our promised ‘Ocean view’ room upgrade and they explained all the hotel facilities and services in case we were in need of anything.
Our room was exactly how you would expect a good five star hotel room to be. Large bed, clean, spacious bathroom, wardrobe space, seating area and fully functioning electronic items. Tick, tick, tick!
And if it wasn’t obvious from my previous post on my favourite views in Rio, I love a good land/city-scape. I never thought to add my hotel room view to the list but I should have. Because it was GREAT! We could see the entire stretch of Copacabana beach, as well as the city, the forests and best of all we were on the sunrise side!
On any holiday, anywhere, no matter what (and to Mo’s avail) I love nothing more than to jump out of bed in the morning and throw open the curtains to see what lies ahead. So tip no. 1, try your utmost to bag a high room with an ocean view, it’s so worth it!
We were also booked-in for bed and breakfast, Mo’s a big fan of hotel breakfasts (it’s the thing he looks forward to most on holiday) and we had a number of very early starts, so it was definitely the right thing for us to do, to make sure we were fuelled up at the start of each day.
The breakfast buffet did not let us down. It was among one of the best we have ever experienced; everything fresh and tidy and extremely well-stocked. The Brazilian cheese puffs, pao de queijo, were a particular favourite of mine. The tea and coffee flowed, we didn’t have to ask. We always found a way to position ourselves by a window and the service was swift and friendly.
There are two pools at the Windsor Atlantica, a fourth floor family sized pool and a smaller rooftop infinity pool, which is the one we inhabited whenever we had a spare hour or two in the hotel . We even managed to catch a sunset, which, if you’re not out, you must go up there to see. To the far left of the pool is Cristo Redentor and the moment the sun falls behind him is sensational.
There’s also a spa, gym, the usual hotel suspects – we weren’t really there long enough to make use of these (like I’ve ever used a gym on holiday anyway?!?!) but we did have a walk through on the way to the pool and it looked pretty new (they use Clarins).
On one of the days, we had been awake from 5:30am and not returned until past 9pm, by which point we were so shattered we couldn’t bring ourselves to go out and hunt for dinner. So we also got a chance to experience room service. We were looking for comfort food to put us to sleep – so pizza and chips it was! The portion was HUGE and delicious! We scoffed the lot! I know it’s probably wrong to admit this, but I would have totally ordered that again, it was so good.
If you’re looking at going over for the Olympics, although the hotel isn’t near to all the action, it’s only a short ten minute walk to an underground station, Cardeal Arcoverde, where you can access all areas of the city.
The one thing we didn’t organise through the hotel was the airport transfer, Mo arranged this through a separate company – Cootramo, which he booked online and for a set price. He chose to do this purely based on price, the hotel transfer wasn’t coming out as the most cost effective option. Without traffic, it takes about half an hour to get from the airport to the Windsor Atlantica. (In rush hour, it can take a lot longer than that!) You don’t have to prebook, you can book with them as soon as you come out of baggage pick up and there’s even a whole line of them ready to take you from outside. Their service is completely reliable and they also arrived on time at our hotel for our journey to the airport.
I really hope Mo and I get to return to Rio again one day in the near future to enjoy all of the luxuries of the Windsor Atlantica again. I think the best way to describe our stay here was ‘comfortable.’ We had a seriously jam packed five days in Brazil and this was the perfect place to come home to every night.
Windsor Atlantica
Av Atlantica 1020 Copacabana, Rio de Janeiro, 22021000 BR
Booked through Expedia
