Pousada Casas Brancas, Búzios

Location

Armação de Búzios (Búzios, Brazil)

Description

In the fashionable coastal town of Armação de Búzios, 2½ hours by road north of Rio. The inn overlooks a beautiful harbour and the 27 sandy coves spread around a peninsula, most with lovely beaches, are easily reached by hiring a buggy. Shops, bars and restaurants are close by.

Activities

The hotel can help to organise a wide variety of activities: diving excursions and courses, sailing, cycling and riding as well as a range of water sports. There is also a golf course nearby.

Accommodation

All of the 30 rooms have private bathrooms, air-conditioning, television, minibar, safe, music and telephone. The 24 standard rooms have ocean or garden views, some have balconies. There are also 2 bedroom apartments for families. 4 deluxe rooms have ocean views, a living room and balcony, and 2 suites are larger still. Breakfast can be served in your room on your own terrace. The restaurant is also open to non-residents and serves international and Brazilian cuisine. There is a bar and small swimming pool.

Our comments

One of Búzios's most attractive pousadas with fantastic views, well decorated rooms and free parking. Not on a beach but almost none are, and buggies are the best way of getting around. The village centre, with its profusion of bars, shops and restaurants is only a 3-minute walk away. Búzios is the best beach destination close to Rio.

When to go

It can be quite cool from July to August, and hottest from December to February (also the busiest time of year and more expensive with national holidays).

Client comments and reviews

Others have waxed lyrical about the location of Casas Brancas, and the great views from the pool deck. I would agree, it?s truly magnificent. However, what will make or break your experience of the hotel is the room you are allocated to. We booked two 'superior ocean view' rooms for our family and were allocated two rooms at opposite ends of the hotel. While we were there, we were not the only guests with issues - the front desk staff were clearly quite weary from dealing with them, but it was the manager's uncaring attitude that appalled us - quite unprepared to do ANYTHING, even a small gesture to make us feel more comfortable and welcome at the hotel. The restaurant on the lower level was expensive for what it offered and served us an uncooked pasta dish. Breakfast was OK, but decaffeinated coffee was not and we also had to pay $1 for fresh beach/pool towels! - JM (December 2010)

Excellent, great location, really nice helpful people. We had a brilliant room. - DO (November 2009)

Casas Brancas in Buzios was gorgeous - a really relaxing end to the trip. - LR (March 2007)