In January I was looking for a quick, local getaway with my family. Since we live in an apartment and school was still remote, things have gotten quite cozy around here with 2 kids running around. We live about an hour from Rio de Janeiro, so something outdoors with a beach and pool was high on our priority lists.
There are plenty of smaller beach towns in the area like Armação dos Búzios and Angra dos Reis where beaching and social distancing wouldn’t be an issue, but since we haven’t traveled as much over the past year we had plenty of hotel points and free night certificates to burn… so we started looking at the major chains to see what would be the best option for us.
Rio has a little bit of everything from the major hotel players. There are 4 Marriott options (a JW Marriott, Sheraton Grand, Courtyard, and a Residence Inn), 2 Hiltons, 1 Hyatt, 1 IHG (Mr & Mrs Smith), and about 30 Accor properties, including a Fairmont in Copacabana.
However, since I was considering going for Hyatt Globalist status, thanks to some overlapping promotions, the Grand Hyatt Rio de Janeiro in Barra da Tijuca made the most sense.
Let’s take a look at how my 1-night stay with a family of 4 went and how I decided to pay for it.
Hotel Location
The Grand Hyatt Rio de Janeiro is a 436-room urban resort right across the street from the beach in the Barra da Tijuca neighborhood, which is a bit outside of the normal tourist loop.
If you are arriving by plane it is about 22 miles from Rio de Janeiro Galeão (GIG) and 19 miles from Santos Dumont (SDU), both will take about 30 minutes by car with light traffic.
If you have been to Rio before, you are probably most familiar with the Zona Sul (south zone) area which is home to famous neighborhoods including Copacabana, Ipanema, and Leblon. That is also where you will find major tourist attractions such as the Christ the Redeemer statue and Sugarloaf Mountain.
Barra…
