I’m sorry did you say your name was Cola? Oh, Lola! My mistake. Well hello Lola. You’re a show girl you say? And yellow feathers in your hair. Charming. This is my introduction to the Copacabana Palace located in Rio de Janeiro.  That one song, as awful as it is and now only played at weddings, and if you really didn’t like the person, funerals, immediately jumps into your head. Well don’t sing it while you’re there, the Carioca’s (local Rio people) are over it. But I needed to mention it, now I have so we can move on. If Palace hotels are your thing, there certainly mine, then there is but one place to stay when you fly down to Rio, or however you get there, and that’s the Copacabana Palace. It is as glamorous as it gets in this jaw dropping beautiful city surrounded by mountains and beaches.  It’s also the only place in the world you can wear white after Labor Day.  In fact it’s mandatory on New Year’s Eve.  You knew I would know that!

This eight story amazing city hotel faces the famous Copacabana beach and is a place, like the city, that one time is never enough. Shame I can’t say the same about some dates I’ve been on. It is too, dare I say it, popular with some other well  knowns.  Don’t believe me? Well let me allow you to catch these names that I am about to drop: Madonna, Walt Disney, Princess Diana, Elton John, Bridget Bardot. The list goes on and on, and they are some high-class picky people, just like me, so if they have walked through the Palace doors and showered and slept and partied here then that’s good enough for me.

Now, I have to tell you there is a 14 story Annex adjacent to the main building so if they escort you there, don’t panic and just go with it. Believe you me, you will love it. Any other time, I would be concerned but the Annex is perhaps better than the main building. Again, I repeat, do not panic. This is where the regulars to Rio stay because there all one bedroom suites with terraces and really mini-apartments. The ones overlooking the main pool and sea, needless to say, are the best.  Even better in a city that can get really hot (temperature wise) the Copa’s “quiet as a mouse A/C you can’t even hear it” is so cool!  The only suites better are the Penthouse suites in the main building.  There are only six and they’re hardly ever available.  Those people get to share a roof top pool.

The Copacabana Palace also has a  tennis court, fitness center, a 3-storey spa (cause 2 is never enough), two bars (change location, change your pick up karma), a nightclub and two restaurants. The pool restaurant, Pergula,  is especially noted for its Brazilian breakfast.  (They have fruits I never heard of) After breakfast you can alternate your day between the beach (Copacabana Palace has their own section with chairs, water and towels) and pool, hands down, the best pool in Rio.  Gourmet restaurant Cipriani is one of the most beautiful restaurants in Rio. If you can pull yourself away then there’s always a dramatic cable car up to Sugar Loaf.  From here you get the most dramatic view of the city that will make you understand why Carioca’s say God is Brazilian.

And with that I grab my blue feather, I look bad in yellow, and my dress cut down to there and off to shake my maracas.
It’s time for the Bosa Nova, Carnival Samba music and Caipirinha’s.