Casa Marambaia Hotel

Burle Marx Gardens in Brazil's Imperial City

Casa Marambaia Hotel occupies a mountain property in Petrópolis, the Rio de Janeiro state city that Dom Pedro II built as the Brazilian royal family's summer retreat from the heat of the capital. Guests and reviewers point to landscaping attributed to Roberto Burle Marx, the Brazilian designer whose gardens define much of the country's modern landscape architecture, as one of the property's defining features. The twelve rooms spread across nine categories, from 25-square-metre standard rooms to garden and lake-view cottages of up to 170 square metres, several of them with their own jacuzzi.

Why It Works

The Burle Marx connection is the first reason the hotel earned its place in our selection, a credential few mountain hotels in Brazil can claim. From there, the property backs it up with two pools, one outdoor and one indoor, a spa offering massage, facial and body treatments across two treatment rooms, and a steam room and Turkish bath for the cooler mountain evenings. Dining runs from a wood-fired restaurant and pizzeria to a wine-paired dinner served in the cellar, giving guests more than one reason to stay on property after dark. The hotel also welcomes dogs and describes itself as LGBTQ+ friendly.

Why This Location

Petrópolis earned its nickname, the Imperial City, when Dom Pedro II made it the monarchy's summer residence, and the Catedral São Pedro de Alcântara still holds his tomb and that of Empress Teresa Cristina. The Museu Imperial displays the royal family's former collections inside landscaped grounds in the city center. German-style chalets and French-influenced palacetes line streets laid out after European spa towns, and the mountain climate keeps temperatures between roughly 10 and 22 degrees Celsius from April to September, a register closer to Europe than to the beaches most visitors associate with Rio de Janeiro state.

• Prix: €€€€ (Luxe)

• Vibe: mountain, garden-led, imperial-era charm

• Chambres: 12 rooms across nine categories, including garden and lake-view cottages up to 170 sqm

• Best For: couples and dog owners seeking gardens, spa time and cooler mountain air

• Our Favorite Thing About the Hotel: the grounds attributed to landscape designer Roberto Burle Marx

• Dining: wood-fired restaurant and pizzeria, wine-paired dinners in the cellar, buffet breakfast

• Amenities: outdoor and indoor pools, spa with two treatment rooms, steam room, Turkish bath, in-room jacuzzis (select rooms), charcoal grill area

• Attractions: Museu Imperial, Catedral São Pedro de Alcântara, Petrópolis historic center

A Spa Built for Mountain Evenings

The spa's two treatment rooms cover massage, facial and body treatments, manicure and pedicure, bookable in advance, while a steam room and Turkish bath extend the wellness side into the cooler hours that define a Petrópolis evening. Several of the hotel's luxury rooms and garden cottages add their own jacuzzi, a detail that matters more here than in Brazil's beach destinations, where a mountain chill after sunset is the whole point of the trip.

Twelve Rooms, Nine Ways to Stay

The spread from 25-square-metre standard rooms to 170-square-metre garden and lake-view cottages gives Casa Marambaia a range uncommon at a twelve-room property, suited equally to a couple's weekend and a small family taking over a cottage with its own outlook. The variety also reflects the grounds themselves, landscaped with the same attention reviewers credit to Burle Marx, where a cottage's garden or lake view is as much the point as its square footage.

A City That Keeps Its Festivals

Petrópolis carries its German heritage into events such as the Bauernfest, alongside a broader cultural calendar built around the Festival de Inverno, and the city's mild climate keeps outdoor dining and walking tours comfortable through most of the year. For a hotel built around gardens and a wine cellar, that calendar gives guests a reason to time a visit around more than the grounds themselves, extending a Casa Marambaia stay into the city's own seasonal rhythm.