Copacabana Penthouse

The Copacabana Penthouse occupies the top two floors of a beachfront building on Avenida Atlântica, directly over the sand in Rio de Janeiro's Copacabana. It is part of Art de Vivre's Rio portfolio, and it's booked directly through the agency rather than a listing marketplace.

The honest reason to stay here is the roof. The apartment below is generous on its own terms, but what sets the address apart is a private pool that size, on a building that close to the beach, with Christ the Redeemer and Sugarloaf both visible from the same run of tile.

The space

The duplex runs to 848 square metres over two floors, with five suites and seven bathrooms between them. The presidential suite takes the top floor to itself: a black marble bathroom, a jacuzzi, and windows that run the length of the room toward the beach. Downstairs, four further suites carry their own names — Bahia, Samba, Carnaval, Ipanema — each with a private bath.

The shared rooms sit downstairs too, arranged around the marble staircase that connects both floors. The dining table seats twelve beneath it, and past it a beachfront living room opens onto Copacabana through a run of windows. A private lift opens directly into the apartment, and there is a concierge on the door around the clock.

The setting

Copacabana's beach runs for about four kilometres in a single arc, from Leme and Sugarloaf at one end toward Arpoador at the other, and this building sits directly on that curve. The neighbourhood is dense and international — long-settled cariocas, retirees, and a deep base of foreign-owned apartments — with three metro stations on Line 1 covering the length of the beach and buses running along Atlântica and the streets behind it.

Rio's international airport is about 25 minutes away by the Linha Amarela expressway outside peak traffic. Sugarloaf's cable car is a short taxi ride from Copacabana, and the beachfront promenade runs the full four kilometres of sand, past the Forte de Copacabana and the Sunday antiques stalls of the Feira do Lido.

Who it suits

This suits a group that wants one address rather than a block of hotel rooms — five separate en-suite bedrooms mean everyone gets their own door and bathroom, with the pool and the dining table as the parts everyone shares. It suits travellers who want to be directly on the sand, in a beach neighbourhood that is dense, international, and still full-time residential rather than a resort strip. It is less suited to a couple after something small and quiet — the apartment is built for a full house, not a weekend for two.