- 📍 Where · Copacabana Palace, A Belmond Hotel, Avenida Atlântica, facing Copacabana beach, Rio de Janeiro
- 🗓️ The date · November 2026, following nineteen months of renovations
- 🏗️ The project · the Pool wing, a 1948 Art Deco building, completely reimagined
- 🛏️ The rooms · a wing consisting exclusively of suites, all with balconies, most overlooking the pool and the ocean
- 🍸 The additions · a new bar, a reinvented contemporary Italian restaurant, a boutique dedicated to Brazilian craftsmanship
- 🧖 The wellness · five floors devoted to the spa and wellness, a first on this scale in Rio
South America’s most famous luxury hotel is preparing for its return. In November 2026, the Copacabana Palace, A Belmond Hotel, will unveil its transformed Pool wing following nineteen months of renovations: an entirely suite-only wing with balconies, a redesigned pool, a new bar, a reimagined Italian restaurant, a Brazilian craft boutique, and five floors dedicated to wellness. One hundred and three years after its opening facing the beach, the Carioca legend is treating itself to its largest renovation project since its centenary.
Contents
The Pool wing, the social heart of the hotel
Built in 1948 in an Art Deco vocabulary, the Pool wing borders the pool and terrace that have always served as an open-air living room for the Copacabana Palace. It is this building that Belmond closed in the spring of 2025 for nineteen months, to turn it into a destination within a destination, composed exclusively of suites each featuring a balcony, most of them overlooking the pool and Copacabana beach. The pool itself is being redesigned, with new living areas created around the basin.
Belmond promises interiors inspired by the craftsmanship of Brazil’s interior, including materials, traditional techniques, and colors. The group, a subsidiary of LVMH since 2019, is applying its “slow luxury” doctrine here, which consists of reinventing its icons rather than opening new ones, much like it did at Hotel Cipriani in Venice or Splendido in Portofino.
Five floors of wellness, a bar, an Italian
The program extends well beyond the rooms. Five levels of the wing will be dedicated to wellness, making it one of the most expansive spa spaces in Rio, and the hotel’s Italian restaurant is being reinvented in a contemporary vein, overlooking the pool. A new signature bar and a boutique entirely dedicated to Brazilian craftsmanship complete the offering.
“By carefully reinventing our icons, we are building a contemporary heritage that combines relevance with legacy,” summarizes Dan Ruff, CEO of Belmond, in the project presentation. The hotel remains open during the renovation works: the main building, its starred restaurants, and its private beach continue to welcome guests.
| Wing construction | 1948 |
| Duration of works | 19 months |
| Reopening | November 2026 |
| Floors dedicated to wellness | 5 |
| Hotel opening | 13 August 1923 |
| Group | Belmond, LVMH |
One hundred and three years of Carioca legend
Inaugurated on 13 August 1923 facing a then nearly deserted beach, the Copacabana Palace was designed by French architect Joseph Gire, inspired by the Negresco in Nice and the Carlton in Cannes. Listed as a historic monument, it has welcomed everyone the 20th century counted in terms of royalty and stars, from Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, who filmed Flying Down to Rio there in 1933, to Madonna and the Rolling Stones. Acquired by Orient-Express Hotels in 1989, it is today Belmond’s South American flagship.
The hotel celebrated its centenary in 2023 with a first wave of renovations. The Pool wing is the second act, and the most visible one, as it touches the space where the house’s social life unfolds, from poolside breakfast to Carnival parties.
Our perspective
Closing for nineteen months the wing that borders Rio’s most famous pool is a costly gamble for a hotel that thrives on its image of permanent celebration. Yet Belmond’s logic is coherent: following Hotel Cipriani and its Dior Spa, the group is transforming its icons into complete destinations, where the spa and dining weigh just as heavily as the rooms. Rio has nothing comparable to five floors of beachfront wellness.
Belmond has not yet disclosed the number of suites in the new wing or the rates. We will update this article upon the November reopening, and we will go and check on-site whether the pool has kept its soul.
Practical information
- Copacabana Palace, A Belmond Hotel, Avenida Atlântica 1702, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
- The hotel remains open during the Pool wing renovation works
- Wing reopening announced for November 2026, number of suites and rates not yet communicated
Photo credit Belmond
