COPACABANA PALACE
Most of the daytime action ar the sun-soaked Copacabana Palace, located across the street from Rio de Janeiro's popular Copacabana Beach, takes place around the hotel's majestic swimming pool. Reclining in chaise longues, guests sunbathe and sip caipirinhas on the expansive pool terrace. When night falls, they trade swimwear for evening attire, but they often reconvene back at the terrace, where a band plays samba and bossa nova under the stars.
Opened in 1923, the Copacabana Palace has changed hands only once, in 1989, when OrientExpress Hotels acquired it 6:om Rio's Guinle family. A refurbishment in the early 1990s updated the hotel's tower and main buildings and added executive and penthouse suites. Last year, the Palace completed. a $5 mil.l.i.on renovation of its Casino, restoring the marble staircase, tobacco-wood floors, and 1,500- pound chandeliers of the venue's three ballrooms.
New this year is a 13,OOO-square-foot fitness center and spa, where you can have a body massage to the rhythm of bossa nova.
At the height of Brazilian summer, usually in February but sometimes March, the Copacabana:
Palace serves as a home base for visitors attending Carnival. Locals, too, arrive in droves to see and be seen at the hotel's annual Copa Ball. But even those who miss the four-day festival are certain to find revelry in Rio. The concierge will arrange a number of excursions in the city, including a visit to a pre-Carnival samba rehearsal. In a hall larger than a football field, dancers practice their moves while percussionists pound out samba beats and guests eat, drink, and enjoy the views.
Copacabana Palace, +55.21.2548.7070, 800.237.1236, www.copacabanapalace.com.br
LOCATION Across the street from Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
ACCOMMODATIONS Many ofthe hotel's 225 rooms and suites have ocean views, and all feature period furnishings and original artworks. The onebedroom pool suites include sitting rooms and verandas overlooking the beach.
FACILITIES Two swimming pools, a
rooftop tennis court, a fitness center, a new spa, a beauty salon, a business center, and 13 function rooms including the 5OO-guest Salon Nobre.
DINING Gourmet northern Italian cuisine at the elegant Hotel Cipriani restaurant, and Brazilian buffet and afternoon tea poolside at Pergula.
CONCIERGE RECOMMENDS
Visit the nearby Bar Garota de Ipanema (formerly the Bar Velosa), where Tom Jobim and Vinicius de Moraes penned "The Girl from Ipanema" in 1962 while
they drank beer and watched beautiful women walk to the beach. Little has changed at the bar except
for its name.
RATES
From $510 for a deluxe city-view room to $2,760 for a penthouse suite with ocean vistas.
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