A Beach House Tour in Rio de Janeiro - Shades of Blue Interiors

This summer my family vacationed for 3 weeks in Brazil, so I wanted to take you on a beach house tour in Rio de Janeiro, where we stayed for about half of our vacation. The house is a classic old-world South American beach house: ranch-style and a Spanish tiled roof, white plaster walls, tall ceilings, wide plank floors and large solid wood doors, clay tile, and pops of vibrant topical colors in some millwork trim and decor. It boasts 4 bedrooms, 6 bathrooms, and an open-air pool and garden in the middle of the home.

We stayed at this specific house for a little over a week with some friends, and it came with a private chef and a housekeeper (a married couple who lived adjacent to the home), which felt very luxurious.

This beach house is situated just outside a smaller town north of Rio de Janeiro city, called Búzios (or Armação dos Búzios). Búzios is about a 3 hour drive from Rio and is a tourist town with lots of foreigners (especially Argentinians) visiting year-round. Tons of little shops, restaurants, beaches, and boat tours. It is about 45 minutes from Cabo Frio, which is a slightly larger beach town but still much smaller than Rio. These are all within the state of Rio de Janeiro.

We went in June, which was fall in Brazil and a little cooler temps. Mid-80s during the day and high 60s at night. Perfect in my opinion! The beaches still had vendors and people, but it wasn’t packed, so we were able to enjoy many hours relaxing, playing volleyball or soccer, eating açai, grilled corn, ice cream, and other snacks from beach vendors.

Back to the beach house tour. There was a solid wall surrounding the home and a large locked gate to enter. Since the chef lives on site, he also is a property manager who unlocks the gate for authorized visitors/guests. Security are close by on motorcycles because we accidentally tripped the alarm and someone was there within a couple minutes.

The first side of the home had 4 bedroom and 4 bathrooms on either side of the foyer. Then walking through the double glass doors, you open to a courtyard with a pool, garden, outdoor lounge area and outdoor dining alongside a grill. The part of the house closest to the beach has 2 living spaces, the dining room, a half bath, and the primary suite.

Three of the bedrooms had 1 queen bed each, and the 4th had 2 singles and a cot (we asked them to set up the additional cot). They were simply decorated, clean, and comfortable. Each room also had its own wall split AC unit.

We only left the house to shop or explore other beaches because the food provided to us was better than any restaurant we went to.

We had zero rainy days during our stay, but in the enclosed areas of the home, there are 2 living spaces and 1 dining room, where the kids enjoyed hanging out in the evenings. We did not experience any issue with mosquitos or too many pests, but one night we did hear a Coati (South American trash panda) climb over the wall one night and try to get into the kitchen!

This living room below has a TV just to the left where our boys played Xbox late at night (we brought it).

We only used the dining room once, while we had some friends over for dinner, so the kids all sat around the outdoor table in the central courtyard, and adults were in the dining room.

Every day we enjoyed a huge banquet of fresh fruits, fresh baked French bread, cheese, cakes, tapioca pancakes, and anything else we asked the chef to make (eggs usually). Lunch was the main meal every day, where some days included same-day caught fish and seafood, rice, beans, salads, fried bananas, grilled steaks and chicken, and more. For dinner we usually ate out (dinners cost extra if we wanted the chef to make something), but if we stayed home we either ate grilled sandwiches, leftovers, or a couple times we had the chef make something for us like fire-grilled pizzas.

While I’m usually a classic Coca Cola gal, in Brazil I primarily drank fresh Limonada (lime juice) or Passionfruit juice. If those weren’t available I had Guaraná.

The view from the back patio was heavenly. Just belong that stone perimeter wall was the sand. This part of the beach was usually pretty windy so had decent waves most of the time.