At the end of the G Adventures tour, I stayed at the Sheraton Rio. It is quite common when doing a group tour, to extend your stay in the last city and to #TreatYoSelf to a nice hotel. Sheraton Rio is situated in the Leblon area quite close to Ipanema Beach. This is a great beach to spend some time at if you’re tired of Copacabana Beach. Here is my review of this hotel.

The Good:

This is a great hotel to stay at. You get undisturbed views of the Atlantic from most of the eating spots at the hotel i.e. the breakfast lounge, the café and the restaurants outside.

As this is a resort, there are a few restaurants within the hotel, if you’re feeling exhausted after a full day of sightseeing and would prefer to not wander too far for a meal.

Rio is quite a spread-out city when it comes to attractions. Whilst, Sheraton Rio, is in relatively close proximity to some of the attractions and hot spots like Ipanema beach and Copacabana beach, it is far from spots like the Sugar Loaf Mountain. From memory, Sheraton Rio offers a shuttle to some of the closer attractions. Don’t hold me to that, because my memory is a bit hazy. Also, when I was visiting Rio, Copa America was on and ESPN had taken up half of the hotel, so it is likely that the hotel may have made more arrangements for a smooth stay for ESPN staff.

What was also good, was that I had booked a tour through an agency that advertises on Trip Advisor and unfortunately they were a no show. The concierge helped us rebook the trip and offered the best possible option to go about our day and also assisted us with getting in touch with the company that had originally booked the tour. I did manage to get a full refund of the Trip Advisor tour, however, they were adamant that the tour guide had turned up at our hotel.

The Bad:

Brazil relies heavily on tourism as a major source of income. What this means, is that a lot of the hotels charge a premium at their in-house restaurants. As my brother had booked the hotel using his points, when I arrived at check-in, I was informed that, because he’s not the one staying at the hotel, I won’t get any of the benefits. This was a bit of a buzzkill, as whilst, I can understand their notion, the room was still booked by my brother’s points and he is an Elite member. This meant, breakfast which usually comes as part of the booking was no longer included, nor did we have the opportunity to get a room on a higher floor. The latter doesn’t bother me too much, but the former does. I had gone planned that breakfast would be included and the first day that I was at the hotel, I was there quite early as the pre-planned tour was due to pick me up at about 8 am. Given the lack of options for food at 7 am, I paid to have breakfast at the hotel. This was way overpriced for a rather small spread.

As I was exhausted from the G Adventures tour, I wanted a day to just relax and not do much and decided to have lunch at one of their restaurants. Whilst, this was somewhat better food-wise, again, it was way too overpriced.

The other thing that came as a surprise was the resort fee. Most resorts have this, I know, however, I was under the impression that this is usually charged at the time of booking rather than when you stay at the hotel.

I don’t really have an ugly section for this review, as there was nothing that stood out as being so horrible that I need to write about. I would love to stay at this hotel again, if I ventured back to Rio, however, I would also like to try out one of the other fancier hotels around Copacabana or try out a different suburb.

Until next time,

MiliG