Budget accommodation in Rio de Janeiro
Finding affordable accommodation in the city of Rio de Janeiro is no mean feat, as many of you will have already found out first hand. I had wanted to post this entry for quite some time now, but the lack of useful pointers made me postpone the post several times. Now I think I’ve gathered enough material to give you some tips on how to find a place to sleep in Rio that won’t blow your trip budget.
BUDGET HOTELS
The Accor hotel chain, present in other parts of Brazil (it has a strong base in São Paulo) only landed in Rio recently, with three budget hotels located in the centry of the city:
- the Formule 1 Rio de Janeiro Centro at Rua Silva Jardim, 32.
- the Ibis Rio de Janeiro Centro right next to the previous one, also at Rua Silva Jardim, 32.
- the Ibis Rio de Janeiro Santos Dumond, right next to the domestic airport and a few hundred yards from the centre of Rio.
An outstanding feature of the hotels mentioned above is that they don’t hold any surprises – a bonus in the context of Rio hotels. They are simple, to the point of being spartan. You won’t find charm or glamour in them. But in return for that, their fares are more friendly than the ones charged by most hotels in town. Their rates do not include breakfast. If you have stayed previously at a Formule 1 or Ibis hotel you know what to expect.
BED & BREAKFAST
There are three networks providing Bed & Breafast accommodation en Río.
- The first one is Cama e Café. At its website you can check details of the houses providing accommodation. All the houses are located in the Santa Teresa neighbourhood.
- Rio Homestay is the upper market version of Cama e Café. Most of its apartments are located along the corridor that links Copacabana to Leblon, passing through Arpoador and Ipanema.
- The third organization is Bed & Breakfast Brasil. It has 60 houses in Rio, on the most popular neighbourhoods (Copacabana, Ipanema, Leblon, Santa Teresa) and on places slightly more unusual for a hotel (Cosme Velho, São Conrado or Urca).
YOUTH HOSTELS
On Youth hostels in Brazil we listed all the Brazilian hostels affiliated to Hostelling International. There are three in Rio:
On top of those, there is a long list of hostels you can check out at Hostelworld.
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We haven’t stayed on any of the hotels listed here and for that reason we can’t give first-hand accounts. What we wanted to do here is to empower you to carry out your own searches.
A final tool on your arsenal is the hotel meta-search engine we have incorporated to the blog. It searches through dozens of hotel search pages and brings together the results. There is always a chance you might find an unexpected bargain. The results open on a new page.
| Rio de Janeiro Hotels by HotelsCombined.com |
Don’t forget to check out this blog’s post on Rio: Destination: Rio de Janeiro.
To find good hostels in Rio, there are at least 50, you´d best off checking out http://www.hostelworld.com. Most of them are listed there and you can read reviews. In order to book with them there is a fee of 10%, contacting the hostel straight away would save you the money.
Hakan Almerfors from http://www.gringo-rio.com
There are plenty of great affordable hostels in Rio and the the HI ones listed above aren’t among the better ones. Check out a site like http://www.hostelworld.com for a list of over 50. My recommendation is Mellow Yellow Backpackers in Copacabana. Found it through a guardian review that rated it the best hostel in South America.
Hank, Anna, many thanks for your advice. It’s a hectic week for me but as soon as I have a minute I will add your information to the post.
Youth (below 26) can also take along an International Youth Hostel Card which will enable them to stay at youth hostels across Brazil and get discounts at major attractions as well.
Thanks for the info, Travel Posh.