Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

La Suite by Dussol

Price per night from$185.06

Price information

If you haven’t entered any dates, the rate shown is provided directly by the hotel and represents the cheapest double room (including tax) available in the next 60 days.

Prices have been converted from the hotel’s local currency (BRL923.81), via openexchangerates.org, using today’s exchange rate.

Style

Modernism outside, maximalism inside

Setting

Brazilian Beverly Hills

Located in exclusive hilltop neighbourhood Joatinga, cliff-side retreat La Suite by Dussol has all the design requisites of an intimate boutique hotel, and a world-class ocean view. Rooms are light and spacious; there are two outdoor pools set in tropical gardens, and there’s a private beach within walking distance. Massages, hairdressing and manicures are yours for the asking, too.

Smith Extra

Get this when you book through us:

Two Caipirinha cocktails on arrival

Facilities

Photos La Suite by Dussol facilities

Need to know

Rooms

Seven.

Check–Out

Noon. Check-in, 2pm. For early check-in or late check-out, please contact the hotel in advance.

Prices

Double rooms from £153.90 (BRL970), including tax at 5 per cent. Please note the hotel charges an additional government tax of 10% per room per night on check-out.

More details

Rates include breakfast. If you'd rather a different setting, sample the hotel's floating breakfast for R$80.

At the hotel

Library of books, CDs and DVDs, WiFi, chauffeur service, and massages, manicures, hair stylist by arrangement. In rooms: air-conditioning.

Our favourite rooms

The Black Suite has yards of windows, surrounding you with views of ocean, mountain and city, and two bathrooms. The Purple Suite is the most spacious, with an amazing marble bathroom and giant lovers’ shower. The Grey Suite is ideal for a couple with a child, since the room is divided into two.

Poolside

La Suite's all-new infinity pool is surrounded by pea-green palms and modern scluptures, and looks out over the ocean and neighbouring islets. There's a private beach in walking distance too.

Packing tips

Flip-flops, sunhat and cangas for the beach.

Also

Smoking allowed. The hotel also offers an insiders’ tour of Rio de Janeiro for R$265 an hour (minimum five hours). Oh, and it has its own helipad, too.

Pet‐friendly

Small pups below 6kg are welcome too. Just let the hotel know when booking. See more pet-friendly hotels in Rio de Janeiro.

Children

Under-fives stay free, with baby cots provided. Over-fives: R$400 (excluding tax) for an extra bed, in some rooms only. A babysitting service is provided by the hotel maids (a small tip is suggested).

Food and Drink

Photos La Suite by Dussol food and drink

Top Table

You can dine on your own private terrace; otherwise we love the views from the main deck.

Dress Code

Slinky and stylish sunwear.

Hotel restaurant

Chef Pascal Joly, former chef of the Plaza Athénée in Paris and second chef at Joël, is now responsible for the delectations served on the terrace or poolside, or in the dining room with its hip Seventies furniture if you choose.

Hotel bar

Exotic-fruit caipirinhas, taken on the terrace, are a speciality.

Last orders

Request lunch by 11am, dinner by 6pm, choosing between meat or fish. The bar stays open till whenever.

Room service

There’s hot food (based on what’s being prepared in the kitchen) and drinks available from 8am till late.

Location

Photos La Suite by Dussol location
Address
La Suite by Dussol
501 Rua Jackson de Figueiredo, Joa
Rio De Janeiro
22611-000
Brazil

Planes

Both of the city’s two main airports are within easy reach of the hotel. International visitors will most likely arrive at Galeão Airport, a 30-minute drive away. The drive from Santos Dumont Airport will take roughly the same amount of time.

Trains

The nearest metro station is General Osório on Line One of Rio’s underground, a 20-minute drive away.

Automobiles

The hotel is to the south of the city, west of Ipanema and Copacabana. Driving to Ipanema will take around 20 minutes. There's a taxi rank situated nearby or the hotel can arrange transfers from the airport for R$360 and to the airport for R$270, or R$610 both ways (prices exclude taxes).

Worth getting out of bed for

Surfing on Joatinga beach, waterskiiing, jetski, kite-surfing, paragliding, trekking, golf.

Local restaurants

For an insider's travel guide to Rio, including great recommendations for eating and drinking, as well to get tips on what to get up to while you're away, from the best beaches to how to get around, click here for our destination guide.

Reviews

Photos La Suite by Dussol reviews

Anonymous review

This is the final weekend of a month-long trip through Brazil – a luxurious sign-off before returning to our real lives. As expectations go, ours are at ‘ridiculously high’. Security guards set a VIP tone and motion our driver through to a quiet residential street. We fall out of our cab, dusty and travel-fatigued, in front of a large, faceless, nondescript grey door – disappointment looms.

Our casually dressed host, Rodrigo, opens the door and swiftly La Suite’s seductive charm and sweeping sea views come to the fore. It’s a clifftop villa in Joatinga – the Beverly Hills of Rio – where floor-to-ceiling windows and a huge grandstand terrace give way to a panorama of Brazil’s high-drama megalopolis. To one side, the turquoise blue of the Atlantic encircling the Cagarras islands; to the other, a jungle-fringed swathe of Rio’s trademark beaches – Leblon and Ipanema. Sugar Loaf Mountain with Christ the Redeemer is in the distance – Baz Luhrmann couldn’t have created a more magical backdrop.

La Suite is a guesthouse rather than a conventional hotel, belonging to charming Frenchman François-Xavier Dussol and his Brazilian partner Rodrigo Harold. Dussol fell in love with Rio a decade ago and moved here permanently from Paris to set up Rio’s first boutique hotel, La Maison, and, more recently, La Suite. Both are styled with his unique blend of contemporary LA chic and classic Gallic elegance, imbued with red-hot Brazilian passion. Louis XV chairs in rich vibrant colours, a Murano-glass chandelier and local graffiti art add flair to this modern residence. What makes François and Rodrigo the perfect hosts is that they are as excited about their city and pool-party paradise as us newcomers. Between them, they know Rio’s every secret – invaluable when you have only one weekend to get under the skin of this larger-than-life destination.

All seven of La Suite’s guestrooms are themed by colour, and we’ve plumped for purple. Rodrigo shows us to our elegant, wood-floored suite; it’s decorated in bold stripes, complete with walk-in wardrobe, antique French dresser and sumptuous pillow-covered king-size bed. All of this is almost eclipsed by the bathroom. Resplendent in opulent amethyst marble, it comes with a two-headed lovers’ shower – though, in truth, it’s so huge that any amorists in there might not even find each other in all that steam.

On François’ recommendation, we take a cab along the coast to the city centre. We hop on a tram up cobbled streets to the bohemian hillside hangout of Santa Teresa – a maze of crumbling former colonial residences and favela-supplied arts and crafts boutiques. We’re here outside of carnival season, but the bars and cafés are packed with locals and tourists spilling onto the streets, live music pouring from every window and doorway. A local band keeps the crowd on its feet – just a typical Saturday afternoon in Rio. We find a free table at Espirito Santo, and soak up the views of Lapa and Copacabana beyond before our next adrenalising activity. In any other circumstance, a soccer game would be the last thing optioned on a romantic getaway, but this is Rio: normal rules don’t apply. We have tickets for Flamengo v Botafogo at the Maracanã stadium. We arrive having never heard of the teams but, after a dose of the samba drums, flares and fireworks – staple accessories at every Rio match – we leave hoarse, arm in arm with new amigos.

Rio has restaurants for every taste, but dinner back at La Suite is the most beguiling option. We cosy down on velvet sofas in the sitting room and Rodrigo brings us a couple of caipirinhas – Rio measures. We sip them, entertained by Jolie, the lady of the house – La Suite’s pet dachshund. It feels as though we’re staying with close friends, and dining here just reinforces that. You’re simply asked if there’s anything you don’t eat (my list is extensive: allergic to this, intolerant of that) – and are served the most deliciously imaginative, tailor-made delights from La Suite’s resident French chef. We tuck into salads of mixed greens, warm figs and strips of Parmesan (a real rarity in Rio), then fillets of mahi-mahi, topped with peppery shrimp pieces, and creamy mashed baroa potatoes. All is enjoyed at a private table on the deck overlooking the twinkling lights of Rio. There is no months-in-advance booking required and, even better, our bedroom is but a wobbly walk away.

Breakfast, eaten on our private terrace the following morning, is most soothing. Just-squeezed exotic juice, fresh fruit, cheese and cold cuts, home-made pastries and scrambled eggs – is this fair in the land of the world’s skimpiest bikinis? After a dip in the Playboy-mansion-worthy circular pool (regulation swimming attire donned; tummies sucked in), we head for the beach. Posto 9 on Ipanema? That is so last summer – Joatinga beach is where those-in-the-know top up their perfect tans. It’s only a 15-minute walk but our ‘could he be more lovely?’ host François insists on driving us.

Word-of-mouth exclusivity gives Joa an unspoilt charm and we skip over the rocks to the white sandy cove to join the only other person – an Adonis running lengths (no Rio beach is complete without one). We slap on the factor 20 and get supine. A word of warning – in our blissed-out state we didn’t notice the tide coming in. Suffice to say, no one looks sexy in a too-small bikini, panicking, clambering from rock to rock with beach bags aloft. In the drama, we were hoping we’d miss our flight. No such luck. Like old friends, François and Rodrigo give us hugs goodbye with promises of an invite to their next pool party. We’re back home saving up for our next trip already: they’d better have meant it.

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Price per night from $185.06