Courtyard by Marriott Rio de Janeiro Barra da Tijuca — Hotel in Região Geográfica Imediata do Rio de Janeiro

Me and my wife visited Rio between Jan 20th and Feb 10th 2023.|We were lucky to get a very good deal for our stay at Residence Inn by Marriot and flights from and to Toronto, Ontario.|Our small apartment at the hotel:|- clean and quiet (facing the huge empty parking lot)|- has its own mini kitchen- fridge, dishwasher, dishes, cutlery, etc. You could prepare quick supper or some appetizers for your wine;.| - has a filter coffee maker plus coffee and tea every day|- TV with many channels (most of them in Portuguese;/)||Speaking about wine: we didn't find any good local wine in the grossery stores. Mostly import from Argentina and Uruguay. The imported alcohol is very expensive. Be prepared to pay for it as much as you pay in Canada.|Pool: narrow and long (shallow, though). Just a few umbrellas with tables and chairs around, so you better go there earlier to get one.|Gym: nice with enough machines and weights|Staff: Very nice people in general, the guys from the reception desk were trying to be very helpful ||Restaurant: We had breakfast included in our deal. Very pleasantly surprised. Fresh food every day. Great variety. I am not picky at all, but the food quality was great. Amazing coffee! (I hope you are a coffee lover:) Delicious pastries.|Restaurant staff: I can't stress enough how good and polite these people were. Every morning they would stop by the table to say hello, to ask how we were. The conversation usually goes in mixed English-Spanish-Portuguese language.| Hosanna , at the omelette station spoke very good English.| With Carlos (very nice and communicative guy) we had some very funny conversations. | I definitely need to mention also Geovan, Hugh, Bruna.|The pastry cheff Danielle was checking the pastry station every 5 minutes to see if everything was in order.|By coincidence my BDay was the last week of our stay. These guys surprised me with a small cake and sang Happy Birthday in Portuguese for me. We took a couple of pictures.|Very heart touching!|I am possibly missing to mention some other names, but all of them were great.|We would like to thank everybody again. They made us feel welcome!!||A couple of remarks:||Rio beaches: If you are aiming to spend your time on the beach, this hotel probably isn't for you. It is relatively far from the beach. The closest one was Barra da Tijuca beach. To get there you will need to take BRT bus #50 to Alvorada Station ( approx. 20 min.) and from there another 8-10 min bus ride. Almost the same if you take taxi. The BRT bus has the advantage to travel in its own lanes and doesn't mix with the traffic. However, we highly recommend the Barra da Tijuca beach. Much longer, much wider and much cleaner compared to Copacabana and Ipanema beaches. Not to mention much less vendor guys selling everything, walking around and shouting.||Rio people: Friendly and polite. The women are dressed in sexy tight clothes, despite the heat. Be aware: going topless on the beach isn't acceptable, despite the fact most of the women are wearing almost invisible bath suits:))|Before going to Brazil I read many articles and watched U-Tube videos about the Rio crime. We didn't encounter any crime scene and we were not involved in any robbery attempt, despite the fact we went to many places using busses and subway (they call it Metro). But, be careful. It is up to you to stay safe!! Police presence in many places is significant.||Friendly advise: Check your insurance policy before going anywhere out of the country. Take basic medications with you. Don't forget a thermometer. |The unexpected event could happen. My wife got some bacterial infection on her thigh, most likely caused by insect bite. We didn't pay enough attention at the beginning and suddenly it became a huge, red, painful bump on her leg. My wife could barely walk. We bought a thermometer from the local pharmacy. Her temperature was over 39 degrees. We were forced to go to the ER the night before our flight. Most of the hospital staff didn't speak English, just a little Spanish. We got lucky though. At the very end my wife was examined by a young doctor who spoke understandable English. She prescribed antibiotics. It helped. I am not sure we would have been able to board the plane at all.|Coming back to Toronto we went to the St Michael's ER again. She had to stay home 5 more days until fully recovered. It may sound like a funny story now, but it wasn't funny I am telling you.|Despite all this, this was one of the best vacations we ever had. We both...

The property is clean, well maintained and convenient (almost) within walking distance of the nearby Rio Centro convention centre. Staff are polite and trying to be helpful, but often constrained by circumstances beyond their control. For other than Rio Centro related stays the location is rather quiet and remote.

Disappointments that management should address:

Check in time is quite properly advised as 3pm. However for really early arrivers management should try to ensure they get first service of rooms becoming free. I arrived at 8 am and got my suite at 2.30 pm. In the meantime plenty of later arrivers had been checked in. My recompense? A complimentary 500ml bottle of water!

At breakfast the egg station serviced by a single chef is rammed and so one queues for ages just to place an order. Also stuff such as juices, etc. run out and it takes a long time for them to be replenished.

I was advised on check in that the pool is open from 8am to 8pm daily. Disappointing for someone staying on business who is likely to be out of the hotel for most of the time in between. However EVERY MORNING at 8 when I turned up the pool door was locked. When I called down sometimes the receptionist said the pool doesn't open until 10 am, but eventually a security person was sent to unlock the door. There were rarely towels available in the pool area in the morning so I had to resort to taking my own from my room. Simply annoying and...

Staying at the Residence Inn by Marriott was one of the best decisions my wife and I made during our visit to Barra da Tijuca.||From the moment we checked into reception, the staff went above and beyond to answer any questions we had and were always willing to go the extra mile to make us happy and feel like family:)||They were so organized, thorough and pleasant to deal with, and we didn't have to worry about a single thing, as they made sure everything ran so smoothly.||All the rooms are much larger than your average hotel, so value for money is excellent and they have a full kitchen as well.||A few extra positives to point out;||- security is tight with electronic entry doors to access the hotel, so we felt 100% safe||- Fibre optic internet ( very important as we both work online )||- hotel is well insulated to the outside noise, so peaceful & quiet||- plenty of food, shopping and public transportation options close by||- the restaurant food and staff were spectacular!||To summarize:||We’re quick to find fault and fussy about the details, so we’re impressed that the overall experience not only met our expectations, but transcended them, and our stay was far better than we even imagined:)||A special thanks to Georges Wuillaume, the facilities manager, for making sure our stay was...