We stayed at the Marina Palace Hotel last December , and we have a great experience . The staff is fantastic and very helpefull . The location is the best in Rio - Leblon beach . The rooms are large and with all the facilities. Very nice bathroom , and with a fantastic shower . Breakfast is very good and we can get a beautifull view of de "Cal?ad?o ", and the beach . Very nice food with variety. Near the Hotel , we can get everything - nice shops and good restaurants and bars . The satff on reception is real helpfull and gives us all the information . On the last floor there is a small but very nice poll were we can find some snacks . But the beach in front of the Hotel is realy fastastic and with security - Beautifull !!!

I was at the Marina Palace during one week . This is the best location to saty in Rio ( Leblon ) , fantastic beach in front of the hotel - with security. The room was great - well decorated and with all the facilities . All the best resturants and bars are arround the hotel , and we can get a nice theater . Beautifull shops an mals around. The Hotel Staff is fantastic and help you with all kind of information. Next December i will be once again stay at the Marina Palace or to the other hotel - Marina All Suites

Marina Palce hotel is a basic tourist hotel but location in Leblon and closeness to the great Leblon beach and to restaurant and shopping makes the hotel above average. The rooms with a view high up is also great we woke up by the waves. Breakfast is also very good, fresh fruits pineapple, mango, papaya, bacon, croissants, cereals and many other things. You eat breakfast facing the sea. Staff is nice but taking the private car of the hotel is sometimes 2x as taking a yellow cab... Even though they will try to convince you that this is not the case. Our deluxe room was very basic nothing special, clean and small table with chairs facing the ocean which was nice. View was really good and 18th floor made noice from street bearable you could actually hear the waves more than traffic in the morning (early). Pool at the roof is small nobody uses it since beach is great and closeby. We had problem with our toilet and notified them 2 times and they fixed the problem temporarily but problem reappeared.. Restaurant suggestions: Porcao, rua Barao da Torre 218, excellent meat, waiters walk around carying swords with meat that is very tender and tasty. When you want more you flip a sign and 2 minutes later one of them ask you to try a different meat. We had lamb, tenderloin, sausages and all sorts of meat and it tasted great. Aprazivel, rua Aprazivel 62 in Santa Teresa, food was 4 stars but view was 5 star very cosy setting ask for a table with view on the terrace. Polis Sucos for great juices and actually hamburgers and sandwiches. I understand all nomination they have received. Favela tour was very interesting we went with [-] and they were knowledgeable and very familiar with area. Carioca da Gema, Rua Mem de Sa 79 in Lapa if you like brasilian music. Here you can experience it live in a nice bar/restaurant. Food is average but music is great. We had a nice evening here. Lapa is full of bars and restaurants but beware of small dark streets. We also had sushi at [-] good fresh sushi 4 stars on a scale of 5.

Marina Palace is a good beachfront hotel in Leblon, one of the best area of Rio. The hotel is a little bit "fan?" and sometimes it seems to come back to sixties... anyway the price is good, breakfast is above average (with a wondeful view off the ocean), rooms are pretty small but ok, there is a very small swimming pool on top floor so avoid it and go directly to the beach, in front of the structure. Position is fantastic also because it is in the heart of Leblon, ten minutes to Ipanema by foot.

We stayed at Marina Palace in mid February ‘08. We found it to be a quality hotel but only on par with an old La Quinta here in the USA. Clean, small, nice, but old. If you want a newer hotel you will need to go elsewhere and pay more. The front desk staff was great! Most spoke English really well and were very attentive to any question we asked as there was no concierge. The beach staff was also great in helping with umbrella and chairs. Definitely ask for a room on the higher floors (18!) facing east. The view was great! We could care less about the breakfast. And the pool and bar on the top floor was nothing special. Don’t speak Portuguese? Then take the hotel cabs. Yes, they are way more expensive, but safer. If you are ok with the language then walk a block or two and take a yellow cab. They are a lot cheaper. English was an option on the HSBC bank ATM machines. They were within walking distance of the hotel and took most American ATM cards. About that famous elevator. We got stuck between floors and didn’t move for a good ten minutes. Finally another passenger physically opened the elevator doors and hopped out as claustrophobia got the best of him. We hopped out behind him. The elevator was out of order for several days afterwards. We had no issues with the air conditioner or the wireless internet ($15/day). We used both of those all day long with no problems. The cable TV system had CNN international and a couple of other channels with American shows in English. Nice location. Nice beach. Nice staff. It’s nothing special, but I would definitely stay there again for the price.