One of the nicest hotels I have stayed in.
Great staff and service
One of the greatest beaches in the world....
I WOULD recommend anyone to stay at this hotel.
Learn some Portugese as it is cheaper to take the cabs parked outside than to use the drivers waiting outside.

I thought I had sent up a review earlier but somehow it was not reflected.

I notice that a number of the reviewers are conference attendees and so was I.

Thats probably the reason to stay at the hotel. It is pretty far from downtown and during a rushhour period, I was almost late for an event.

The hotel is a 5-star and everything worked. But there are quirks. The gym opened at 8 am. Food in the restaurant is expensive; transport from the hotel is too, which is strange considering a swarm of taxis available just by walking out to them. There is no shopping there.

I would not recommend the hotel for anything beyond a conference.

Spent 4 nights at the Windsor Barra - attending a conference at the hotel. Staff were excellent. I was upgraded to a suite - excellent. But I could not get the internet to work...I had 3 staff helping to get it sorted. Then everytime they saw me in the hotel - they stopped to ask me was everything ok, was I enjoying my stay?

Pool area is great. Bar is small but fine. Breakfast is fine if you are happy with fruit, pastries, clod meat - if you like bacon and eggs well that is not going to happen here....had lunch in the restaurant one of the days - ok not great, but fine.

The locatiion is not the liveliest....but it worked for me as we were attending the conference. Check out the Barra Grill, free transport from and to the hotel just ask at reception and the meat is excellent and well priced.

I stayed three nights at the Windsor Barra to attend a conference, which was also held in the hotel. The hotel is located right across the street from the beach in the nouveau riche enclave of Barra da Tijuca, which is on the outskirts of Rio. This is not the place to stay if you want to experience the real Rio de Janeiro -- for that stay in Ipanema, Leblon, or Copocabana.

The hotel itself was quite nice -- King size bed (unusual in Brazilian hotels), ocean view, huge marble bathroom, etc. Some of the staff were not so great -- when I arrived the bellman took my bags to the wrong room and the front desk lost a Fedex box that had been sent to me. Housekeeping and room service personnel were better and my room was cleaned very early each day.