A Tale of Two Rio Hotels-the Princess versus the Atlantico

The Princess Copacabana and the Atlantico Copacabana are two of the most frequently mentioned hotels in Rio. I very recently spent three days at the Atlantico and six days at the Princess so I thought I would do a commentary/review of both hotels in order to help others decide if either hotel will suit their needs. Both hotels are for sure girl friendly. Both hotels check the girls ID and make them register which over all seems a good idea. Neither charged for guests. The Princess will allow only one girl at a time-don't know the policy of the Atlantico on multiple girls at once.

The desk staff of both hotels speak ok English and are a mixture of maybe 70% friendly and 30% cold acting. Maid service was excellent at both hotels. One time at the Princess I left my safe wide open with American and Brazilian currency equal to several months pay for the maid in full view-nothing was stolen even though I was shocked at my carelessness. The maids at the Atlantico had a kind of programa girl look to them and did give off some vibes whereas those at the Princess were matronly. The Princess also has a head of house keeping that stops by to ask you if all is ok. Both hotels provided an adequate amount of towels though one would have liked to have more. At the Princess I was right next to the linen closet so I helped myself to a bunch of extra towels.

MY biggest complaint about both hotels concerns the small showers. If you like to have fun in the showers with your girls you are pretty much out of luck in both of these hotels. Both have pretty good supplies of hot water and provide shower caps, and such.

A picture of part of the bathroom at the Hotel Atlantico Copacabana



The Shower Stall at the Princess Copacabana



The bed at both of the hotels was less than one would hope for. The bed at the Atlantico was a mattress on a wood frame-a little hard but not real bad



The Bed at the Princess Copacabana Hotel was a problem-it was two single mattresses on a double foundation-the singles were bound together of course but there still was a crack between them that made it undesirable. The hotel said they had no other options for double rooms. I found this to be a bad set up as you are worried you will fall between the cracks and it makes it hard for you and your garota of the evening to snuggle together



Both hotels had wall air conditioning units, the Atlantico had two of them. The bed room unit at the Atlantico had the controls removed form the unit-it could be turned on or off from a switch in the bed head board-it was set on maximum cold.. The a/c in the Princess was effective only at the coldest setting. The TV is better in the Princess but you probably did not go to Rio to sit in your room and watch TV!

A free breakfast buffet is included at both hotels, the one at the Atlantico is a lot better and the staff a lot friendlier. Personally I would rather grab a small breakfast at one of the nearby juice bars. The Atlantico has a number of good inexpensive non tourist restaurants including Kilo and meat places within a few blocks. Unless you like eat your lunch while you check out the garotas the Atlantico area clearly has better dining options. Both places have nearby ATMs and internet shops. The Princess Copacabana has internet access in the business center at four times the price of a café. A nice bonus to the Atlantico location is that it is with a half block of the therma L' Umono for fans of that place. I went there four times. The lobby at the Atlantcio is much bigger and more interesting than the Princess. As to which location is safer, well the received wisdom is don't walk more than a block or so at night in Rio and I have no reason to go against this advise. The area around the Atlantico seemed safer to me in that it is in a real nontourist area of Rio and thus doesn't have the people around who live form preying on tourists.

Both hotels have adequate minibar with enough room to but your own outside drinks in also. The prices for drinks are maybe double retail. I would suggest you go to a nearby store and stock oup on water and water else you will want to drink. Both hotels have nearby stores and both also seem to have pretty good security.

As to which Hotel is better, well both are adequate for short stays even though both have their faults. The faults of neither of these hotels would motivate me to move to the Marriot to pay 200 USA plus a day. The Princess has better furniture, a micro wave, a stove and kitchen utensils.
The Atlantico is in a more interesting location. The room safe is bigger at the Princess, but neither one would hold a lap top. The Princess has pretty good and fast room service, I never tried room service the Atlantico. I cant give a clear victory to either hotel. I have not considered an apartment as I like hotels. I would stay at either hotel again but would also like to see other hotel options reviewed in some detail.

Yodcha...thanks for the update

When did you stay at the hotels? What was the rate per night at each hotel?

Thanks!

Solid

Yodcha, what was your kind of room, standard, Jr.SUite?
I go back to Rio in April and maybe i will stay at Atlantico (i was in Princess las time and loved the place, according to your pictures the room in Atlantico seem a little bit older than in Princess).
What about the internet access in the room, usefull to check escorts sites.
Thanx

Loubi.

I think I had a junior Suite-yes the Atlantico is older-it appears to me neither Hotel has internet access in the room. I simply printed out the escort web pages for Karla Girls and one other agency. If you dont speak Portugese you might ask the freindly desk staff at the Atlantico to call for you-tip them a bit of course-the Atlantico rooms are not fancy at all but perfectly servicable and I liked the location and would stay there again.

As a past proponent of the Atlantico, I can attest that there is, in theory, broadband Internet in each room. The fee is one real per four minutes, about double the internet cafes but not too bad, taking into account convenience.

However, I stayed at the Atlantico for five nights earlier this month and it was an absolute fiasco. I was actually down for work this time, so I needed in-room internet access, decent phone service, etc. It was a disaster for me.

The first night in, I was given the little room on back side. The bedroom was no larger than 9x12 and there was zero space to walk around. The bathroom was small but functional but the room was just too fucking small. Also, the bed was two twin mattresses on the wood bedframe, it felt like I was sleeping on two sacks of potatos.

After one night I moved to a Jr. Suite, it was a big improvement but the internet access to that floor was out. I moved to this room on a Saturday and distinctly told them I would need it by Monday, and was informed by their outside techie that he knew what the problem was and would have it fixed Monday morning. So, Monday came and the techie called and said the hub was fried but he would get a new one, but of course being Brasil, never did. Also, I was on a con call to the US when the phone switch went down - 3 times.

So, with no phone nor internet access, I was moved to another Jr Suite. The mattress on the bed was so bad the GF called reception and made them swap out the mattress for the one in the room we just left! At least the new room had internet access but on this day the phones were again up and down. I was talking to a customer when the phones went dead so I was fucked again. Luckily my Blackberry worked but it was a pain in the ass (and expensive) to use instead of using a land line and calling card.

The final pluck to the nuts was on the day I checked out, both elevators were out of commission just as I was leaving. I had a car waiting to go to Santos Dumont and the bell hop fuckers never did show up, so the GF and I had a great time lugging our shit down the stairs from the 10th floor. Of course, as soon as I got to the lobby three employees ran up "to help". Hey, who cares if you didn't help on the 10-story deathmarch down the stairs, you can certainly get a tip for carrying the bags the last 10 meters to the car! Fucking nimrods.

Basically, I had a crappy experience at the AC. If you're going down to monger and don't need internet access or phones, it's still ok, although I noticed that the quality of the beds has gone down. I guess they don't replace mattresses down there that often. Since the AC is a monger favorite, expect that whatever room you get has seen a lot of monger action, i.e. the mattresses have gotten a good workout over the years, and may be pretty ragged out. However, if you are in town and need to do any business or work at all, I recommend someplace else.

Since Cat has taken the lead on this, let me share my one bad (and my last) experience at the Atlantico Copacabana. I had a reservation for a stay in the jr. suite of about a week, and when I first checked in asked if I could extend it since my plans had changed. I was told the jr. suite was booked on the days following my scheduled check out, but to wait a few days to see whether it freed up. To be safe, I asked them (specifically, Rene at the front desk) to make a reservation in the deluxe rooms but was told there was no need because they would have deluxe rooms available if the suite was not. EVERY FUCKING DAY after that, I spoke to either Rene at the front desk, or on a couple of occassions another person to see the status of the jr. suite and to confirm I wouldn't need a reservation for a deluxe in the event the jr. suite was available. Every day I was told the jr. suite was not available, and as we got closer in time my attempts to get them to simply put my name down for a deluxe room were rebuffed with there was no need, it would be available.

Well, the day of reckoning came, and I was told by Rene, who knew me well and who I even spoke to once at Vila Mimosa (haha!) the hotel was SOLD OUT!. Basically, he said since he knew I had previously asked for a room, he would try to find something for me and I should wait around in the hotel until he could get me into something. After waiting for about four hours (yes, that is what I go on vacation to Rio for, to wait in a hotel for four hours for a room to open up) I was put in the room (or a comparable one) to that describe by Catocony: it looked more like a maid's quarters than a guest room, and certainly was not the deluxe room I had requested and been promised. When I confronted Rene about this at the front desk, he was too busy with other customers to even acknowledge my presence. I left immediately and have not been back since.

Ever since, I have regreted starting the Atlantico Copacabana thread (see my trips snips there) and only hope I have not therefore been responsible for giving this hotel any business. And if anyone here goes there and Rene is still working, please give him my very unkind regards, and you might want to ask him whether he still hangs at Vila Mimosa, hopefully while others are present.

The Atlantico screwed me too. I was thinking of extending a stay after reveillon (with the reveillon rates), and they quoted me 190R (when it was 3 plus reals to a dollar) for a deluxe suite. When my day of reckoning arrived, they quoted $110. When I heard that, I checked out and haven't been back since.