In a city shaped by its landscape like Rio de Janeiro, there are reasons to enjoy the views at every moment, and one of the best ways to take them in is with a drink or a meal in hand.
I was born and raised in Rio, and these are the best rooftop bars and restaurants in Rio de Janeiro I’d send a friend to, chosen for the view first.
Not every place on this list is strictly on a rooftop. A couple are terraces, and one is a restaurant floating in Guanabara Bay. What they have in common is a view worth planning your evening around.
I’ve organized them by what you’ll see: the bay and Sugarloaf Mountain, the ocean, and Lagoa with Christ the Redeemer. Most are open to everyone, and for the hotel rooftops I explain how it works if you’re not staying there.
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Rooftop bars and restaurants in Rio de Janeiro with views of Guanabara Bay and Sugarloaf Mountain
This is Rio’s most famous postcard: Sugarloaf Mountain rising from the bay. These three places show it from very different angles: from Downtown, next to Santos Dumont Airport; from a rooftop pool bar in Botafogo; and from the water itself, in Urca.
Xian Rio
🍜 Asian · 🌇 Sugarloaf Mountain, Guanabara Bay and Christ the Redeemer
Xian Rio sits on the rooftop of Bossa Nova Mall, right next to Santos Dumont Airport. From there you get Sugarloaf Mountain, Guanabara Bay and Christ the Redeemer in a single view. Flying in, it’s a meal that makes you fall for Rio before you’ve even dropped your bags. Flying out, it’s a stylish way to say goodbye.
You don’t need a flight to justify the trip, though. Pair it with a walk along Aterro do Flamengo, the waterfront park that begins just a few minutes away, and you have a full afternoon by the bay.
Besides the main dining room, there’s the Varanda Lounge, an open-air terrace with the same view that turns into a dance floor from Thursday to Sunday, starting at 6 PM.
Where to stay nearby: Prodigy Santos Dumont, right next door, is an excellent base if you want to stay downtown, with public transport at your door. Check rates →
📍 Bossa Nova Mall, next to Santos Dumont Airport
YOO2 Rio de Janeiro, Tapestry Collection
🍸 Rooftop bar · 🌇 Sugarloaf Mountain, Christ the Redeemer and Botafogo Beach
The rooftop at YOO2, in Botafogo, has one of the most complete postcard views in Rio. Sugarloaf Mountain rises over Botafogo Beach, and Christ the Redeemer looks on from Corcovado on the other side. This one is more party than dinner, with a lively bar and a long list of cocktails, wines and cachaças.
There’s also something happening every day of the week. On Mondays, sparkling wine comes with a board of cold cuts. Thursdays bring live bossa nova with a batida tasting (batida is a creamy, fruity cachaça cocktail). On Saturdays, there’s feijoada at lunch with a caipirinha class.
The pool and its private cabanas are reserved for hotel guests and day-use visitors. The rooftop also hosts a New Year’s Eve party, which I cover in my guide to the best New Year’s Eve parties in Rio de Janeiro.
For the same view on a smaller budget, the top floor of Botafogo Praia Shopping has several restaurants looking straight at Sugarloaf Mountain. It’s a terrace I keep coming back to, and it shows up in my guides to the best breakfast in Botafogo and to live samba in Rio de Janeiro.
Where to stay: if you want that view as your own backyard, the rooftop belongs to the hotel itself, a good base in Botafogo with the metro nearby. For other options in the area, see my guide on where to stay in Botafogo. Check Yoo2 hotel rates →
📍 Praia de Botafogo, 242, Botafogo
Flutuante Rio
🐟 Seafood · 🌇 Sugarloaf Mountain and Guanabara Bay
Flutuante Rio is a restaurant on a floating barge in Guanabara Bay, off the Urca waterfront, with Sugarloaf Mountain right in front of you. It became famous in the city for its breakfast buffet, but I’ve been and I’ll be honest: it gets packed, and the food doesn’t live up to the hype.
Lunch and dinner are a different story. The seafood-based menu is where it shines, and late afternoon is a great time for sunset drinks on the water.
Getting there is part of the fun. A boat takes you from the Urca pier to the restaurant for R$5, paid separately. You can also add a catamaran ride around the bay. The restaurant is open Tuesday to Sunday.
Where to stay nearby: Urca is one of Rio’s quietest neighborhoods, with few hotels but a lot of charm. I cover it in my guide to alternative areas to stay in Rio de Janeiro.
📍 Urca pier, across from Av. João Luiz Alves, 338, Urca
Rooftops with ocean views: Ipanema, São Conrado and Copacabana
On the Atlantic side of the city, the sunset is the main event. Ipanema and São Conrado face it directly. Copacabana faces the other way, so instead of the sun dropping into the ocean, you get the whole curve of the beach lighting up at golden hour.
Belmonte Ipanema
🍻 Brazilian bar · 🌅 Ipanema Beach and the sunset
Belmonte is a chain of bars with locations all over Rio, but the Ipanema one stands out for the ocean view, with the sunset as the main event. The building has four floors, and the terrace at the top is the one everyone wants, so arrive early to get a table there.
The menu has full meals, but the real draw is the bar food. Order the shrimp bolinhos (fried dough balls stuffed with shrimp) and the empadas (small savory pies), two Rio bar classics, and share a few portions around the table. It’s also on my list of things to do in Ipanema as a dinner pick.
Where to stay nearby: Hotel Arpoador, my favorite hotel in Ipanema, is about 800 meters away, besides city’s most famous sunset spot. Check Hotel Arpoador rates →
For more options at every budget, see my guide to the best hotels in Ipanema.
📍 Avenida Vieira Souto, 236, Ipanema
Masi Rio
🍣 Asian and seafood · 🌇 São Conrado Beach, Pedra da Gávea, Rocinha
Masi sits on the 31st floor of Hotel Nacional, in São Conrado. The menu leans Asian with a strong seafood focus, but the real reason to come is the view, one of the most complete in the city. São Conrado Beach stretches out below, Pedra da Gávea rises on one side, Rocinha, Rio’s largest favela, climbs the hill on the other, and Christ the Redeemer watches over it all in the distance.
The building itself is part of the experience. Hotel Nacional is a cylindrical tower designed by Oscar Niemeyer, with gardens by Burle Marx, and it’s one of Rio’s architectural landmarks. Time your visit for the afternoon and you might see hang gliders landing on the beach after flying from Pedra Bonita. If that makes you want to try it yourself, I cover hang gliding in my guide to what to do in Rio.
Where to stay nearby: Hotel Nacional, for this view from your room. Check rates →
For more about staying in São Conrado, see my guide to alternative areas to stay in Rio de Janeiro.
📍 Avenida Niemeyer, 769, São Conrado
Fairmont Rio de Janeiro – Spirit Copa Bar
🍸 Rooftop bar · 🌊 Copacabana Beach and Sugarloaf Mountain
Spirit Copa is the rooftop bar at Fairmont Rio de Janeiro, at the far end of Copacabana, with the whole curve of the beach stretching out toward Sugarloaf Mountain. It’s open to non-guests, but reservations are required.
There’s live music, with an artistic cover charge of R$45 most nights and R$65 on Mondays, when the stage is run by Blue Note. On Fridays and Saturdays, an after party keeps things going from 10 PM to 2 AM (R$100).
Sundays are about feijoada with live samba, a very Rio way to spend the afternoon. The menu sticks to sandwiches, bar snacks and pizzas. For a proper meal, Marine Restô, the hotel’s restaurant, serves regional cuisine built around Brazilian ingredients.
Where to stay nearby: Fairmont itself, if you want this view as your backyard. Check hotel rates →
For more options, see my guide on where to stay in Copacabana.
📍 Av. Atlântica, 4240, Copacabana
Christ the Redeemer, Lagoa and the green side of Rio
Away from the beach, Lagoa Rodrigo de Freitas and Jardim Botânico show a calmer side of Rio, with Christ the Redeemer on top of Corcovado and forest-covered mountains all around. These are my picks for a relaxed dinner or happy hour after a day at the beach.
Wamo Steak House
🥩 Steakhouse · 🌇 Lagoa Rodrigo de Freitas and Christ the Redeemer
Wamo has a few locations around Rio, and I usually go to the one at Bossa Nova Mall, the same mall as Xian Rio. The Lagoa location, though, has something the others don’t: a rooftop looking out over Lagoa Rodrigo de Freitas, with Christ the Redeemer on top of Corcovado. It’s an especially pleasant spot in summer.
The menu is all about meat, with a long list of special cuts and the classic sides of a Brazilian barbecue: garlic bread, farofa (toasted cassava flour) and fried polenta, which is my go-to order every time. For more places to eat meat Brazilian-style, see my guide to churrascarias in Rio de Janeiro.
📍 Avenida Borges de Medeiros, 1111, Lagoa
Vista Bar – Maguje
🐟 Seafood · 🌇 Christ the Redeemer, the Jockey Club racetrack and Jardim Botânico
Inside the Jockey Club, on the edge of Lagoa, Maguje serves seafood in a more sophisticated setting, for lunch and dinner, with a view few places in Rio can match. The racetrack stretches out in front, the greenery of Jardim Botânico fills the background, and Christ the Redeemer watches from above.
Upstairs on the terrace, Vista Bar is the place for happy hour and parties, with a good cocktail list.
If you’d rather have meat with the same view, Rubaiyat, also on the Jockey Club grounds, is one of my picks in my guide to the best churrascarias in Rio de Janeiro.
📍 Rua Jardim Botânico, 1003, Jardim Botânico
P’alma Horto
🍸 Rooftop bar · 🌇 Christ the Redeemer and Botanic Garden
P’alma Horto is the rooftop bar of the group behind Casa Horto and Pátio Horto, two well-known restaurants in Rio, all in the same complex in the Horto area of Jardim Botânico.
From up there, Christ the Redeemer rises above the greenery of the neighborhood. The cocktails are elaborate, and the food goes well beyond bar snacks, from sandwiches to some delicious risottos. There’s live music from Thursday to Sunday nights.
📍 Rua Pacheco Leão, 696, Jardim Botânico
Tips for visiting the best rooftop bars and restaurants in Rio de Janeiro
Timing is everything with a view. Sunset in Rio happens around 5:30 PM in winter and closer to 7 PM in summer, so plan to arrive at least 30 minutes before, especially at popular spots like Belmonte, where the terrace fills up early. Hotel rooftops usually ask for a reservation and some charge a cover for live music, so check before you go.
Some of the city’s most famous rooftops aren’t on this list for a simple reason: they’re for hotel guests only. Fasano’s rooftop pool in Ipanema is the best-known example.
Other hotel rooftops, though, are open to everyone. Sky Leme, at Novotel, and Isabel Lounge, at the Hilton, are both in my guide to the best restaurants in Copacabana. Moon Lounge at JW Marriott, Vizta Bar at Grand Mercure Copacabana and Kozta Rooftop Bar at the new Sofitel Ipanema are also open to non-guests.
If staying in a hotel with a view is part of your plan, my guide to luxury hotels in Rio de Janeiro covers the ones worth booking. And for sunset with no rooftop at all, the city’s natural viewpoints are hard to beat. The cable car up Sugarloaf Mountain, the Arpoador rock at the end of Ipanema and Mirante Dona Marta are all in my guide to best places for sunset in Rio de Janeiro.
Plan the rest of your trip to Rio de Janeiro
Where to stay in Rio de Janeiro
The best neighborhoods for every budget and travel style.
What to do in Rio de Janeiro
The best experiences in the city, from mountains to samba.
Best restaurants in Rio de Janeiro
Food is part of the experience and Rio doesn’t disappoint.
Best romantic restaurants in Rio de Janeiro
Where to go for a special night, from candlelit terraces to cocktail bars.
Rio de Janeiro nightlife
Where the night goes after sunset, from samba to clubs.
Day use in Rio de Janeiro
Hotel pools with a view, no overnight stay needed.
Best New Year’s Eve parties in Rio de Janeiro
Boats, rooftops and parties to welcome the new year.
Best time to visit Rio de Janeiro
Rio is warm all year, but never the same. Find out what each season brings.
Written by Karina
Born and raised in Rio de Janeiro, Karina spent over a decade working in the tourism industry, with experience in some of the world's leading travel destinations. She created Going to Rio to bring that same standard of practical, traveler-first guidance to visitors exploring Rio de Janeiro. Learn more about Karina
From Sugarloaf to Christ the Redeemer and the ocean: 9 rooftop bars and restaurants in Rio de Janeiro with the best views.