Need to know
Rooms
76, including 13 suites.
Check–Out
Noon, but flexible, subject to availability. Earliest check-in, 3pm.
More details
Rates include a breakfast of muesli and fresh fruit, French and Portuguese viennoiseries, cold cuts and cooked-to-order items like eggs, bacon, pancakes and chia pudding.
Also
The hotel’s interiors and layout may be new, but the café first opened its doors in 1923, making it the historic heart. If its early 20th-century styling has you hungering for more, stop for a drink at the Majestic Café on Rua Santa Catarina, where the interiors have been painstakingly restored.
At the hotel
24-hour gym, library, free WiFi throughout. In rooms: flatscreen TV; minibar; Nespresso coffee machine; tea kit; free bottled water; Eight & Bob bath products.
Our favourite rooms
Even the entry-level rooms have sumptuous art-deco furnishings and bathrooms decked in gleaming marble. If no expense is to be spared, book Le Suite Monumentale, spread over several rooms and styled like a lavish apartment. For something marginally less indulgent, try one of the Suites Audacieuses, each of which has a spacious bedroom and an adjoining lounge, both sporting polished furniture and striking prints.
Poolside
There’s an indoor pool in the spa area, surrounded by walls clad in trompe l’oeil tiles and milky white marble. The loungers look more like chaises longues than pool furniture, and the lights are shaped like oversized seashells, adding a final art-deco flourish to this decadent grotto.
Spa
The Grand Bleu Spa uses products from Ignae and Augustinus Bader. Limber up in the sauna or hammam before sampling a luxurious body scrub or glow-giving facial.
Packing tips
Tote a novel by a Lost Generation writer – who knows, perhaps you’ll get a literary salon going among a few fellow enthusiasts in the lobby.
Also
All of the common areas are wheelchair accessible, and there are adapted rooms with larger bathrooms.
Children
All ages are welcome, but under-16s won’t be able to use the spa or pool.
Sustainability efforts
The hotel uses eco-friendly cleaning products, efficient lights and green bath products. Water saving measures and a recycling programme are in place and priority is given to local business partnerships.