"Selected by Elle Deco as one of the 86 nicest hotels in the world"
Rio's French connection strikes again to stunning effect. It’s a commonplace by now that Rio tourism is big business — it’s been a long time since Brazil was truly exotic or undiscovered, and the archetypal visit involves a stay at one of the the massive high-rise hotels that blot out the sun along Ipanema or Copacabana beach, an experience you’ll share with at very least several hundred if not several thousand neighbors.
So if you stop to think about it, the concept of a hotel in Rio called La Maison — the house — is profoundly against the grain. It’s little more than a guest house, just five rooms, and it’s as cozy and intimate as the big hotels are grand and teeming.
And what rooms they are, every one completely different, all elegantly outfitted in themes ranging from the local (the thoroughly Brazilian Copacabana room) to the global (rooms in French, Chinese, even Indian styles).
It’s not exactly the lap of luxury — only two of the rooms come with air conditioning or bathtubs, the other three making do with ceiling fans and showers — but the seclusion, in a residential neighborhood less than two miles from the big-name beaches, is a luxury in its own right.
Where La Maison really outpaces the grand hotels is in its personalized approach. There’s no fawning butler, but you’re in the able hands of your dedicated hosts, Francois-Xavier, Jacques and Rodrigo, any one of whom is as capable as any hotel concierge — if you can’t enjoy Rio with their expert help, then you just might be a hopeless case.