"Not your typical plain vanilla hotel"
The Snob is an independent hotel with 6 floors and 2 elevators, although the elevators serve only the first five floors (keep this in mind if you happen to get a room on the 6th floor, you have to use a staircase). Built sometime in the 70s, its infrastructure is somewhat used, but still running and clean. I assume it was a love-hotel in the past, so don’t expect the plain vanilla Hilton interior. Instead, you find mirrored walls, a huge bathroom with jacuzzi, steam bath and sauna. Also, you will get a flat-screen television, safe [laptop compatible], WiFi connection, air conditioning, mini bar etc. Also, there is a nice breakfast buffet with available.
Not all staff at the 24-hour reception is able to speak/write in English. Regardless the language barrier, the staff was friendly and helpful and doing their best to handle any issue. E.g. on the day before our departure, the air conditioning in our room stopped working and the hotel manager offered us immediately to switch the room.
The Snob Hotel is located in Lapa, and there is a bus station just a 2-minutes’ walk away, brining you to the ‘Central’-terminal (on Avenida Presidente Vargas, one of Rio’s most important streets), where you can catch buses for all directions or using the Metro. Going to Copacabana or Ipanema will take you between 20-50 minutes, depending on your choice of transportation (taxi, bus or metro). Also, there is a huge supermarket (‘Mundial’, Rua Riachuelo) just a 7-minutes’ walk away from the hotel.
Meripin1 from Zurich, Switzerland
