I note that I cannot put a review in the hotel section.We have just returned and were very pleased with this hotel. It is 3 years old and on the first block from the beach. We had a junior suite which was very spacious and had a nice bathroom. Room was kept spotless. There is a small rooftop pool. Breakfast had everything you could want. We did not eat there in the evening as there were too many restaurants we wanted to try but we did have lunch there a couple of times. The area around it is mainly residential and we felt quite safe wondering around( although I did as someone suggested here and locked my jewellry in the safe). We would definitely return to the hotel- I also liked the area better than Copacabana.

Hello.Agree with you that Ipanema is much better than Copacabana. I do feel safer and enjoy it lot more. Do you have the hotel web site, email address and or phone number.
Miguel (in Miami )

Thanks Fiona for writing about this hotel. We are considering it for our trip to Brazil in September. I have a couple of questions and hopefully you can help me out:

Did you book your room directly with the hotel or somewhere else? Did you pay the rate listed on the web site or were you able to do better? What was the view from your room?

Was the hotel walking distance to good restaurants? Any restaurant recommendations?

Did you visit any other cities in Brazil during your stay? If so, where did you stay? Any chance we can get a trip report out of you? How many days did you spend in Rio? What did you do? Any special recommendations?

Thanks so much.

the hotel website is www.ipanemaplazahotel.com
We did not book through their website but I cannot remember which one I used. We had a junior suite which would be USD200 through them but we got for USD135. Our room view was of Christ the Redeemer! We only had 7 days so did not have time to visit any other city. If I had had time I would have gone to the Iguacu Falls and Salvador. Still, there's always next time. We did the total tourist thing of Sugar Loaf and Corcovado. We also went on a day trip to the Tropical Islands with a cruise. To be honest, that was average but we enjoyed the coach journey of an hour and a half to get there as we saw the surrounding countryside and the many favelas(sp?). The town we started the cruise from was also interesting(Itacuraca)
We also spent Sunday morning at the Hippy market. I was surprised by the amount of high quality goods there.
Restaurant prices compared to UK ones are ridiculously cheap. You can't go to Brazil without eating at a churrascaria. For one price you get all you can eat of meat,salads, side dishes, sushi and other seafood. Porcao restaurant was less than 10 minutes walk from our hotel. We went twice as it was so good. Try the Picanha meat. Waiters circulate with the skewers of meat and you have a disc which you turn to green if you want more meat and red if you want a rest! Carretao is a similar restauarant but about half the price- still excellent though. Via Sete grill and Bar de Beto are also worth going to - particularly Bar de Beto as it was smaller and mainly locals went there, the service couldn't be faulted.Both were close to the hotel. Five minutes away is the Gorota de Ipanema which is where the " Girl from Ipanema" was written. We went several times for a caipirinha( traditional Brazilian alcoholic drink- strong and lethal if you have more than one!) By the way, the bar never once played the song!! We didn't eat there but the food looked very good.
Hope that answers some questions!!

Thanks Fiona. I really appreciate your response. If you remember with whom you booked your room, I'd appreciate it if you'd post the name or website. You certainly got a great rate and I'd love to have the same. Thanks again.

http://www.bookings-americas.com/br/...golden-ipanema
this was the web address I used, however they are not advertising the same rates now! I think it is just a case of looking around to see who has the best rate at the time.

The restaurants that Fiona had mentioned are all great restaurants but also the Ipanema Plaza being on Rua Farme de Amoedo has just on the next block to the hotel about 12 restaurants one right after the other. Just across the street is a really fine Itailan restaurant called Mio's and many many little Brazilian type places all over. It is in a great location that hotel and you can get ocean view rooms as it is only one block from the beach and many rooms face the ocean.