Hotels in Niterói

Niterói sits directly across Guanabara Bay from Rio de Janeiro, and many visitors come for the view back: the Sugarloaf and Rio skyline look better from here than from almost anywhere in Rio itself. It is a prosperous, largely residential city, best known for Oscar Niemeyer's flying-saucer Museum of Contemporary Art perched on a cliff above the water, along with the string of his buildings on the Caminho Niemeyer and the colonial Fortaleza de Santa Cruz guarding the bay's mouth.

The ocean-facing beaches further out, Itacoatiara, Camboinhas and Piratininga, are cleaner and wilder than the bay beaches closer to town. Niterói is quieter and more suburban than Rio, the hotel choice is thin, and traffic on the Rio-Niterói Bridge can be punishing at rush hour, though the ferry to central Rio is a quick and scenic way across. Stay in Icaraí, the city's main beachfront neighbourhood, for the best concentration of restaurants, easy access to the museum and a straightforward hop to the ferry into Rio.