The Best Hotels to Book in Manaus, Brazil

A World Cup refurbishment in 2018 took this tower from tawdry to tidy – with the compact rooms repainted in crisp whites, furnished with soft sofas and lounge chairs and given fresh mirror-walled bathrooms in polished stone. They still feel simple but in a good way. Book an upper-floor suite facing south and your reward is a balcony with one of the best views of any hotel in Manaus: over the dome of the adjacent Edwardian-era opera house, to the vast river and the forest beyond.

The Blue Tree is a 15-minute cab ride from both the historic center and the Rio Negro beaches, but it’s well positioned for stays in the new commercial district of Adrianópolis – don’t worry if you’re a leisure visitor, as you’ll get superb levels of comfort. Manauara Shopping Mall (the city’s biggest mall, bursting with stores and restaurants) is 10 minutes away on foot. Rooms are simple but perfectly comfortable – peaceful, too, in muted creams, browns and pistachios, with chintzy bed covers and fitted workstations. There are fine skyline and forest views if you head up to the rooftop pool and deck or a lazy afternoon.

This hotel may be corporate but it’s perfect for holidaymakers, overlooking a leafy park next to Manaus’ huge industrial and warehouse district, opposite the Amazon indigenous Peoples’ Cultural Center. There’s a big pool and sun deck. Rooms are calm and inoffensive, such as you’d find in an airport hotel – cream tones with laminate floors, large desks and twin beds or doubles. If you want to hit the river, Opera House and historic sights it’ll take you about 15 minutes by cab. Note that, while there are no restaurants close by, the hotel restaurant serves Manaus’ best feijoada (the meaty national dish) on Sundays.

This high-rise overlooks a creek next to the Millennium Shopping Mall in residential Shangrillá, a lively district packed with restaurants and bars. Staying here is an upbeat experience, with corporate-cool rooms in contemporary creams and whites, lent dashes of tropical color by local art and bright scatter cushions. The hotel’s real standout features are the views over the city and surrounding forests from the upper-floor balconies as well as the rooftop pool and sundeck. Add to that the breakfasts, which feature Amazonian fruits and juices.

In the Ecopark you are both in the city and the Amazon rainforest. The lodge sits in lush vegetation overlooking a wide blackwater creek, a 10-minute boat hop and 20-minute cab ride from downtown; this makes it the wildest of all hotels in Manaus to be within easy reach of the center. Accommodation is in wood-walled huts set on low-lit paths that connect to a bar-restaurant and a white-sand river beach. There’s wildlife all around – from small marmoset monkeys to electric-blue morpho butterflies and clouds of whirring hummingbirds.

This tall tower rises over the heart of Adrianópolis district, close to restaurants, bars and the upmarket Manauara Shopping Mall. If you want the Opera House and/or the Rio Negro beaches you’ll be there in 15 minutes max. Suites work a cool, corporate look in muted olives and taupes, with windows that deliver skyline and river views. There’s a small spa with a sauna and a restaurant, but the hotel’s outstanding feature is the rooftop pool, where the city stretches to rainforest horizons beyond your sunlounger.

This modest hotel sits on a quiet street in the commercial Vieiralves district, a short cab ride from the historical center and the Amazon and Negro rivers. If you fancy shopping, dining and drinking, you’ll find restaurants and bars as well as the Multiloja department store an easy stroll away. Rooms are simple cubes in shades of light peppermint and beige, offset by colorful bedspreads and warm woods. Book a room above the 7th floor – and ask for one facing east, for views of sunrise over the forest and city through small picture windows.