Short answer: Books Hostel is the one we would book first, because it sits on the edge of Lapa and Lapa is where the party is. Mambembe Hostel is the other Lapa pick with more of a backpacker feel, and Pura Vida Hostel is the one to choose if you want Copacabana beach and a barbecue area instead. Rio rates swing hard around Carnival and New Year, so compare them on Hostelz before you book.
Say Rio de Janeiro and most people think of the same three things: the Olympics, the beaches, and Christ the Redeemer with his arms out over the city. Fair enough. Here you’ll find the best party hostels in Rio de Janeiro, which is the fourth thing they should be thinking of.
Or you’re picturing fast cars from the Fast and Furious franchise, in which case, sure, that too.
This guide is an extension of our handwritten guide to the best hostels in Rio de Janeiro.
🥳 The COOLEST Party Hostels? Our favorites are:
- Books Hostel
- Mambembe Hostel
- Discovery Hostel
- Pura Vida Hostel
- Ipanema Beach Hostel
- Selina Lapa Rio de Janeiro
- El Misti Hostel Ipanema
Money-saving tip: Compare hostel prices with Hostelz.com. You can even filter specifically for Party hostels on Hostelz.com.
This guide is perfect for YOU, when you want …
- to party!
- a social Hostel to actually meet people!
- a cool hostel with drinking games and such!
Rio is a genuinely beautiful place, and it’s mostly known for the beaches and the views. Those are worth the trip on their own.
What gets talked about less is that it has one of the best nightlife scenes anywhere. Not “good for a beach destination”. Actually one of the best. If you want to go out, Rio delivers in a way few cities do.
The catch, and there is one, is that Rio asks a bit more of you than a European city break. Where you stay matters, how you get home matters, and a bit of street sense matters. We’ll cover all of it below.
You can browse all 5 Star Hostels here, and every guide in the “Best Hostels in” series here.
Quick Introduction to Rio de Janeiro
Average price for a bed: On average, the price of a hostel in Rio de Janeiro is 12€ to 21€ per night. Prices always depend on season and holidays, and Carnival and New Year are in a category of their own. Please always check exact rates on Hostelz.com.
Check-In and Check-Out: The average check-in time is from 15:00 (3pm), while the Check-Out time is before 11:00 (11am). Hostels usually offer luggage storage in case you arrive earlier or leave later. Make sure you check if luggage storage is free or if there is an extra cost.
Nightlife in Rio de Janeiro: Lapa. That’s the answer. The arches, Rua do Lavradio, and a stretch of bars, samba clubs and live music venues that on a Friday or Saturday turns into a street party spilling out of every door. It is the best concentration of nightlife in Brazil and it is where most of this guide points you.
Beyond Lapa: Santa Teresa up the hill for a slower, arty evening, Pedra do Sal on Mondays for street samba, and the beach kiosks in Copacabana and Ipanema for drinking with sand in your shoes.
Taxes and fees: Rio doesn’t run a European-style tourist tax. Some accommodation collects a small municipal tourism fee of a couple of reais per night, and you may also see a service charge or ISS added to the bill. It’s normally small change on a hostel bed, but check whether the rate you’re quoted is the final one.
🔥 New to Hostels? Read our guide to staying in a Hostel for the First Time here. We especially recommend reading:
- How to book hostels? (and websites to save $)
- 63 Craziest Party Hostels in the World (with Map)
- How does the Hostelworld App work exactly? Our Advanced Guide
The Coolest Party Hostels in Rio de Janeiro are …
Let’s jump right into the fun hostels in Rio de Janeiro for partying:
- Books Hostel
- Mambembe Hostel
- Discovery Hostel
- Pura Vida Hostel
- Ipanema Beach Hostel
- Selina Lapa Rio de Janeiro
- El Misti Hostel Ipanema
These are our favorite hostels in Rio de Janeiro to party. We put all these hostels on the map, including our own insider tips for bars, clubs, and popular night life areas in Rio de Janeiro (and more!).
Best Party Hostels in Rio Compared at a Glance
The whole guide in one table:
| Hostel | Best for | Vibe | Area | Standout |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Books Hostel | The full Lapa party trip | Loud, social, backpacker-run | Edge of Lapa, near Centro | Pub crawl into Lapa, plus breakfast for the morning after |
| Mambembe Hostel | Backpackers who want Lapa on foot | Homey, musical, clean | Five minutes from Lapa | Music room stocked with instruments, and 24-hour reception |
| Discovery Hostel | Sociable without the chaos | Boutique, well-run, friendly | Ipanema | Bar, terrace and free breakfast in a boutique setup |
| Pura Vida Hostel | Copacabana and a barbecue | Party area, mixed crowd | 200m from Copacabana Beach | A building like a European castle, with a party area and BBQ |
| Ipanema Beach Hostel | Beach days over late nights | Easy-going, beach-first | Ipanema, near the metro | A block from the metro, surrounded by bars and restaurants |
| Selina Lapa Rio de Janeiro | Rooftop and coworking | Design-led, digital-nomad heavy | Lapa | Rooftop bar with city views, plus a coworking space |
| El Misti Hostel Ipanema | Female solo travellers and beach safety | Secure, straightforward, sociable | Ipanema | Partnered beach point for storing your stuff while you swim |
How to Pick the Right Rio Hostel
The first question in Rio isn’t which hostel, it’s which neighbourhood. Lapa for nightlife, Ipanema and Copacabana for beach. They’re about 30 minutes apart and the trip home at 3am is the deciding factor.
- You’re here for the nightlife above all: Books Hostel or Mambembe Hostel. Both put you walking distance from Lapa, which saves you the ride back and the argument about who’s paying for it.
- Beach by day, bars by night: Discovery Hostel or Ipanema Beach Hostel in Ipanema. You’ll take an Uber to Lapa, and that’s a fair trade for waking up near the sea.
- Couples: Discovery Hostel has private rooms and a terrace, and it’s the most comfortable of the seven.
- Female solo travellers: El Misti Hostel Ipanema and Pura Vida Hostel both run female-only dorms, and Pura Vida Hostel has digital locks on the dorm doors as well as individual lockers.
- Groups: Pura Vida Hostel, which has private rooms sleeping up to five and a barbecue area to take over.
- Digital nomads: Selina Lapa Rio de Janeiro, for the coworking space and the rooftop to close the laptop on.
- Cheapest bed on your dates: compare all of them on Hostelz. The spread between a June midweek and Carnival week is enormous.
Hostelgeeks Tip: If your trip includes Carnival or New Year’s Eve, book months ahead and expect minimum-stay rules and prices several times the normal rate. Rio hostels don’t quietly absorb those weeks, they plan their year around them.
The Best Party Hostels in Rio, In Detail
Overview: Best Hostels by Traveler Type
| 🥳 Best Party Hostel: | Books Hostel |
| 🦸♂️ super backpacker’s hostel: | Mambembe Hostel |
| 🙎♀️ best for Female Solo Traveler: | El Misti Hostel Ipanema |
| 🎤 For Activities: | Ipanema Beach Hostel |
| 📍 Top Location: | Selina Lapa Rio de Janeiro |
| 👩💻 For Digital Nomads: | Pura Vida Hostel |
| 🧘 Cozy Hostel: | Discovery Hostel |
1. Books Hostel
Let’s start with the best party hostel Rio de Janeiro has to offer.
Books Hostel takes its name from the idea that this is the place to write your Rio story. Make of that what you will. What’s true is that it’s the one we’d book first.
The staff are the reason. They’re relaxed, they’re around, and they’ll answer anything about the area, which in Rio is worth more than any facility. It feels like they care whether your whole trip goes well, not just your bed.
Practically, it’s clean, and there are lockers to keep your gear safe while you’re out. After the Lapa pub crawl the night before, you wake up to a breakfast that does real work against the hangover.
Location: Just outside Lapa, which puts you on the edge of the cultural and historical centre and a short walk from the arches. Two metro lines are close, and Santos Dumont airport is nearby for domestic flights.
Check prices at:
Hostelworld | Booking.com | Hostelz.com
2. Mambembe Hostel
Mambembe Hostel gets called a “super backpacker’s hostel”, and the thing people mean by that is it’s one of the cleanest places you’ll stay on a Brazil trip.
Reception runs 24 hours, so coming and going at any hour is not a negotiation. They serve drinks, which sorts your pre-game before you head out to a beach party or into the Lapa street party.
The bit we like most is the music room, stocked with instruments. Somebody is always attempting samba badly, and occasionally somebody who can actually play turns up and the evening changes completely.
The décor is homey rather than designed, which after a few nights out is the right call.
Location: Five minutes’ walk from Lapa, so you’re at the heart of the nightlife without sleeping inside it. Close to Santos Dumont airport and not far from the beaches.
The staff here are generous with the small pieces of local knowledge that make a Rio trip go smoothly. Ask them things.
Check prices at:
Hostelworld | Booking.com | Hostelz.com
3. Discovery Hostel
Discovery Hostel is one of the best hostels in Ipanema, and it was set up by people who had done a lot of travelling themselves. That shows.
The idea was to give budget travellers the comforts of a boutique hostel with the atmosphere of a homestay, and the result is a place that’s clean, open and easy to be social in without anyone forcing it.
Dorms are comfortable and well finished. There are two private rooms with shared bathrooms, plus flats off-site if you want more privacy than a hostel usually allows.
Facilities cover a fully equipped kitchen, a computer lounge, a living room with cable TV, a bar and a chill-out terrace. There’s a tourist information desk and free breakfast for guests.
Location: Ipanema, within about 5 km of downtown Rio and Santos Dumont airport. Ipanema Beach and Sugarloaf are roughly ten minutes by bus or metro, and the Novo Rio bus station and Galeão international airport are both within 25 km.
Check prices at:
Hostelworld | Booking.com | Hostelz.com
4. Pura Vida Hostel
Pura Vida Hostel occupies a building that looks like a European castle, which is not a sentence we expected to write about Copacabana. It was built at the start of the last century by a Polish ambassador and it has kept the architecture.
There’s a women-only dorm plus mixed dorms with bunk beds sleeping 4, 6 or 12. Every dorm has a digital lock on the door and individual lockers inside, which is a detail worth noticing in this city.
Private rooms take two to five people. The Deluxe Suite is the big one, sleeping five, with air conditioning, a fan, a bathroom, a small kitchen with a microwave, cable TV and a fridge.
Location: 200 metres from Copacabana Beach. Free WiFi, barbecue facilities and a party area, with a 24-hour front desk that also handles airport transfers and bike rental. This is the pick if you’d rather the beach was on your doorstep and Lapa was a taxi ride.
Check prices at:
Hostelworld | Booking.com | Hostelz.com
5. Ipanema Beach Hostel
Ipanema Beach Hostel sits in Ipanema, one block from the metro and the shopping centre, with restaurants, bars and clubs all around it.
You’re in the south of the city, a block from the beach that inspired one of the most recorded songs in history, and in position for what a lot of people will tell you is the best sunset in Brazil. Go to the rocks at Arpoador for it and join the crowd that applauds when the sun goes down. That happens every evening and it’s genuinely lovely.
There’s free WiFi, shared dorms, private rooms, common spaces, and organised activities for guests.
Location: A 10-minute walk from Ipanema Beach, 15 minutes from Post 9. Santos Dumont airport is the nearest at around 9 km.
Check prices at:
Hostelworld | Booking.com | Hostelz.com
6. Selina Lapa Rio de Janeiro
Selina Lapa Rio de Janeiro is the design-led option, in Lapa, and it comes with the whole package: rooftop, bar, restaurant, coworking space, movie room.
The rooftop is the reason to book it. City views, a drink in hand, and the natural place for the evening to start before everyone walks down into Lapa.
It’s also the one that attracts people staying longer than a weekend, because the coworking setup makes a week here workable.
From the door you’ve got Lapa’s nightlife, Santa Teresa up the hill, and the rest of the city reachable on the metro. Climb Christ the Redeemer for the view, get to a match at the Maracanã if there’s one on, spend a day at Copacabana, then spend the night in Lapa. That’s a good Rio week.
Location: In Lapa, with Sugarloaf Mountain about 8 km away and Copacabana Beach about 6.5 km. Santos Dumont airport is roughly 2 km, making it the closest.
Check prices at:
Hostelworld | Booking.com | Hostelz.com
7. El Misti Hostel Ipanema
El Misti Hostel Ipanema leans hardest of the seven on security, and in Rio that’s a selling point rather than a boring one.
Ipanema Beach is a minute’s walk away, and the hostel works with a beach point called Jota at number 86, where you get free WiFi and somewhere to store your things in a beach tent while you swim. If you’ve ever stood on a beach wondering what to do with your phone and your wallet, that solves it.
Location: A 5-minute walk from Post 9 in Ipanema, and about 10 minutes on foot to Copacabana Beach. Nossa Senhora da Paz metro station is around 5 minutes away, and Santos Dumont airport is 9 km out, making it the closest.
Check prices at:
Hostelworld | Booking.com | Hostelz.com
More Hostels worth a mention
Those are the best Rio de Janeiro hostels for partying. Here’s one more if you want another option.
- Che Lagarto Hostel
Che Lagarto Hostel
Che Lagarto is a chain with a long history in South American backpacking, and it runs more than one property in Rio’s South Zone. Whichever you end up in, you’re a few streets from the beach with a bar on site and a 24-hour front desk.
Dorms are air-conditioned with shared bathrooms. The daily breakfast buffet covers seasonal fruit, drinks, pastries and cereal, and the bar does tropical cocktails including a proper caipirinha.
The location is the pitch: you’re in the South Zone, close to the nightlife, surrounded by ATMs, supermarkets, shops and exchange places. Ipanema Beach and Sugarloaf are both within a few kilometres, and Santos Dumont airport is about 10 km away.
Compare prices at: Booking.com | Hostelworld | Hostelz.com
Pro Tip to Fight Hangovers While Partying
Rio has a whole hangover infrastructure and most visitors walk straight past it.
Água de coco. Coconut water, from a kiosk on the beach, served cold with a straw in the coconut. It costs almost nothing, it’s on every corner of Copacabana and Ipanema, and it will do more for you than any pharmacy. This is the single best tip in this article.
Açaí. Not the health-food version. In Rio it’s served frozen and thick in a bowl with banana and granola, and it’s cold, sweet and heavy in exactly the way a bad morning requires.
Eat before Lapa, not after. Caipirinhas are made with cachaça, they taste like limeade, and they are much stronger than they seem. A plate of something before you go out is the difference between a good night and a lost one.
Go to the beach anyway. The local approach to a hangover is to take it to the sand, lie there, drink coconut water and swim occasionally. It works far better than staying in the dorm.
And the boring one: a litre of water before bed. Rio is hot and you will have sweated through the night already.
Fun Tips for Party Hostels in Rio de Janeiro
As you have come to realize, staying at a party hostel is a little different than staying at a regular hostel. Here are some tips to make your stay go a little smoother, and how to be prepared:
How to identify a party Hostel? 4 Simple indicators:
- Is there an age limit? 18+ and an upper age-limit are indicators
- Do they offer Pub Crawls and Drinking Games in the hostel?
- Check for party pictures
- Filter the Reviews on Hostelz.com for keywords like "Party", "nightlife" or "social"
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Things to Bring & Pack
There are a few things backpackers should be sure to bring when staying at a party hostel specifically. These items include earplugs (for early mornings and loud roomates), a padlock (lock up your valuables BEFORE going out), headache medicine (always usefful!), and condoms.
Especially for the bigger European cities where pickpocketing is common we recommend wearing trousers with zippers. This limits the chances of stealing from your pockets.
Read: 23 best items to pack for staying in a hostel
Be Sociable
One of the best things about a hostel is being able to meet new people from every corner of the world. Be sure to talk to people and mingle. Travelling solo is great and life-changing, yet enjoying it with new friends can be even better. Locals especially, can show you hidden secret and some of the best spots in the city.
Read: 18 Rules for Hostels and how to build life-time friendships in Hostels
What about the cheapest hostels in Rio de Janeiro?
Of course, there are always cheap hostels. But how do you actually find them? When you are traveling on a shoe-string budget and you want to save every dollar, there are ways to find the cheapest places in Rio de Janeiro.
- Open Hostelz.com with a full list of all hostels in Rio de Janeiro
- add your dates
- Order the listings by price
Simple as that.
Hostelz.com is a price comparison site for hostels. They list every single one in the world and tells you exactly which website is cheaper to use.
Another smart Tip: Check what is actually included, and what is excluded. Take a closer look at the location, too. A further location might mean more costs in transport.
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Our Favorite Hostels in Rio de Janeiro put on a map + sights
Let us have a look at the handmade map we have created for you. As promised, below we list all party hostels and best hostels in Rio de Janeiro, as well as sights and our own travel tips.
As mentioned, this guide is an extension of our handwritten guide to the best hostels in Rio de Janeiro. So you’ll find all the top hostels on the map too.
Personally, we love to plan our trips with a map. It’s just easier. We thought this map will help you with planning your trip too.
Any questions about hostels in Rio de Janeiro? 🤔
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When to Visit Rio
Rio’s seasons are flipped if you’re coming from Europe or North America. December to March is summer: hot, humid, packed beaches, and the two biggest nights of the year.
Carnival falls in February or March depending on the year and it is the reason a lot of people come. Street parties, or blocos, run through the city for days and they’re free. It’s also the most expensive and most booked-out week of the year by a huge margin.
New Year’s Eve on Copacabana is the other one. Everyone wears white, a couple of million people stand on the sand, and there are fireworks off barges in the bay. Same booking warning applies.
May to October is the cooler, drier half of the year. Fewer people, cheaper beds, still warm enough for the beach most days, and the nightlife doesn’t change at all. If you’re not specifically coming for Carnival, this is the better trip.
How Many Days Do You Need in Rio?
Five nights. Rio is big and spread out, and you want a day for Christ the Redeemer and Sugarloaf, a day for the beaches, a day for Santa Teresa and the centre, and at least two nights out.
Four works. Three means you’re seeing the postcard version and going out twice, which is still a good trip but you’ll feel rushed. Rio also has a habit of producing a day you didn’t plan for, so leave room.
Getting There and Around Rio
Two airports. Galeão (GIG) handles international flights and sits about 20 km north of the centre. Santos Dumont (SDU) is the small one right by the bay, mostly domestic, and it’s the one every hostel in this guide lists as closest.
For getting into town, use an app rather than an airport taxi. Uber and 99 both work throughout Rio, they’re cheap by European standards, and they remove the haggling.
In the city, the metro is clean, safe and covers the useful line: Copacabana and Ipanema up through Botafogo to the centre and Lapa. It’s the best way to move around during the day. It closes around midnight on weekdays and runs later at weekends, and it runs around the clock over Carnival.
At night, take an Uber. This is the one piece of advice everybody who has spent time in Rio agrees on. It is not expensive and it is how locals get home too.
Is Rio Safe?
Rio deserves a straighter answer than most cities on our lists, so here it is: it’s fine if you’re sensible, and it asks more of you than Lisbon or Prague.
The city has increased security in the tourist areas like Copacabana and Ipanema, and the vast majority of trips pass without incident. Petty theft is the realistic risk, not violence, and it’s opportunistic.
What that means in practice:
- Take what you need to the beach and nothing else. A bit of cash, a cheap flip-flop pair, no jewellery. Leave the passport in the hostel locker.
- Don’t walk along dark stretches of beach at night, and don’t cut through quiet streets between neighbourhoods after dark. Get the Uber.
- Keep your phone out of sight when you’re walking. Photos are fine, walking along scrolling is what gets noticed.
- In Lapa, stay on the busy streets where the crowds are. It’s a street party and it polices itself reasonably well, but the side streets are a different thing.
- If someone does take something, let them have it. It isn’t worth anything compared to you.
None of that should put you off. Millions of people have a brilliant time here every year, and the hostels in this guide are used to walking guests through the local rules.
Our Insider Tips
As mentioned in the beginning, this guide is an extension of our article “best hostels in Rio”.
Two more things worth knowing. Pedra do Sal on a Monday night is free open-air samba in the old port district, and it’s one of the best nights in the city that costs nothing. And Lapa is at its best on Friday and Saturday, when the whole area around the arches becomes one crowd.
Your Shortcut:
- Villa 25 – best for Female Solo Travelers
- Aquarela do Leme – best for Couples
- Hostel Estação Maracanã – best for Party Travelers
FAQ
More questions left? No worries, we are here for you.
What is the best party hostel in Rio de Janeiro?
Books Hostel is our first pick, because it's walking distance from Lapa and runs a pub crawl into it. Mambembe Hostel is the other strong Lapa option if that one is full.
How much does a hostel in Rio cost?
Around 12€ to 21€ per night for a dorm bed outside peak season. Compare your dates on Hostelz, since the same bed is often priced differently across booking sites, and expect Carnival and New Year to cost several times that.
What is the best area to stay in Rio for nightlife?
Lapa, without question. It has the highest concentration of bars, samba clubs and live music in the city, and staying there means walking home instead of paying for a ride.
Which Rio hostel is best for female solo travellers?
El Misti Hostel Ipanema for its beach-point partnership and security focus in Ipanema, or Pura Vida Hostel, which has a women-only dorm plus digital door locks and individual lockers.
Are hostels in Rio safe?
Yes. The hostels in this guide have 24-hour reception and lockers, and several have digital locks on dorm doors. Use the locker for your passport and anything you'd hate to lose.
What is the best hostel in Rio for solo travellers?
Books Hostel or Mambembe Hostel, both in Lapa, both social enough that you'll have a group to go out with on the first night.
Should I stay in Lapa, Copacabana or Ipanema?
Lapa for nightlife, Ipanema for the nicest beach and a calmer base, Copacabana for the famous beach and more budget beds. Lapa to Ipanema is about 30 minutes, which decides it for most people.
How many days do you need in Rio?
Five nights is comfortable: the viewpoints, the beaches, Santa Teresa, and two nights out. Four works, three feels rushed.
When is the best time to visit Rio?
May to October for warm, drier weather, fewer crowds and cheaper beds. December to March is summer and holds Carnival and New Year, which are spectacular and very expensive.
When is Carnival in Rio?
February or March, with the exact dates moving each year. The street parties are free and last several days, and hostel beds need booking months ahead.
How do I get from the airport to central Rio?
Galeão (GIG) handles international arrivals, about 20 km from the centre, and Santos Dumont (SDU) is the small domestic one by the bay. Use Uber or 99 rather than an airport taxi.
Do Rio hostels run pub crawls?
The Lapa hostels do, and joining one is the easiest way to see the neighbourhood and split the ride home afterwards.
More guides
Alright, this is your answer to where to stay in Rio de Janeiro for nightlife and a party. We did the leg work for you and bring you more hostel guides to destinations:
- best hostels in Sao Paulo, Brazil
- 3 best hostels in Salvador, Brazil
- 3 best hostels in Buenos Aires
- best hostels in Florianopolis
- best hostels in Lima, Peru, South America
- 3 best hostels in Cusco, Peru -a full guide
- best hostels in La Paz, Bolivia
- best hostels in Montevideo, Uruguay
Over to you
Do you have any questions left, maybe doubts? Then please leave it in the comment below. We are very keen to help you - and actually you would even do us a favor!
Your question will help us to improve this Rio de Janeiro guide.
Last note: Our commitment
This is a genuine article to help you travel a bit smarter, and find the best place on a budget! We will never recommend you any place we haven’t evaluated or are not convinced by. We are constantly updating all our guides to keep them as fresh and accurate as possible.
Safe travels,
The Hostelgeeks
