I work down in Brazil, and have been looking for the Brazil that people talk about: beautiful, great food, relaxing, etc. I don't exactly see the pretty parts. But when I got the opportunity to stay at Villa Rasa Marina, my eyes opened. It's perfect! Quiet, relaxing, and THE FOOD! The food is incredible. You have to try their ravioli, and the ceviche. The rooms are clean, pretty, and the beds are amazing. From the patio and lounge area, there is an amazing view of the Buzios coastline, the type the put in National Geographic and as a little kid you promise that you'll see that some day.

When I get to go back to Buzios and go diving again, I won't even have to think about where I'm staying. It will only be Villa Rasa Marina. I absolutely L-O-V-E this hotel. The front desk staff speaks English, so communication is no problem.

Have fun!

We stayed at Villa Rasa for a romantic holiday and loved it. The property is located at Rasa Beach and there is an astonishing view of the same. The rooms are clean and the staff is gentle. The food in the restaurant is delicious, though it is a little expensive. The only negative point was that we considered that the hotel is located a bit far from downtown Buzios and the traffic is heavy and it may take a long time to go to Rua das Pedras from the hotel.

Stayed 3 nights at the boutique hotel. The website described attractively the Villas, but once you're there it's a total different place you discover. First of all, Rasa Marina is not in buzios but 10 to 15mn away from the center. A taxi cost about 25 reals to get to town.
The long beach is quiet nice for long walk and relax time. But when it gets windy it becomes just a nightmare. In the mean time, the other beaches around buzios are quiet protected from the wind.
Most of the rooms are facing the swimming pool which does not give much privacy.
From the check-in to check out, the service was catastrophic. If you don't speak Portuguese it's even worst as expect one front desk manager speaks English. The pool attendant and barman were nonexistent, but please help yourselves...
In the kitchen, it's not better. First it is VERY expensive, from the light lunch around the pool, to the room service, and the cocktail that anyway you have to avoid. The breakfast is OK even if you have to raise your voice if you need to get any attention from a waiter.
I almost forget, the place is not the cleanest you can find...
You've got lot of choices of nice, private, design pousadas in Buzios. Please avoid this one.
Sebastien

The Rasa Marina was supposed to be our first hotel in Brazil. Due to a large corporate party booking on the first night, they put us up in their Leblon hotel, the Marina All Suites. Thank goodness. Because if we'd arrived straight off the plane plus a 3 hour car journey with 2 small children in tow, I think I'd have lost it!

On arrival we found we were not in the main hotel, but in 2 interconnecting annex rooms. I did know the rooms were called that, but no-one had explained what it meant.

When you look at the website what you see is lots of photos of the main hotel, which is on the beachfront, and quite designer.

The Annex rooms however are the wrong side of a busy main road, opposite. They have no view, are not the least bit the same quality of design as in the main hotel, and have attached to them a miserable pool with plastic furniture. You could be anywhere on the Spanish Coast del Sol. The road separating the two halves of the hotel is really busy. Traffic zips along it, and sometimes we'd wait 5 minutes to get a gap big enough to risk with the children.

When we asked to be moved into the main hotel, it turned out the only room available was the biggest suite, so we had to pay to upgrade. I got the impression they are used to this request. I think another family with a baby were moved across to the main hotel for no extra cost.

That said, the main hotel has lovely views of the beach, breakfasts are great with lots of choice, and has a nice pool. They have surf boards you can borrow.

I got the impression some people just stay put, because the hotel's in the middle of nowhere, nowhere to walk to, other than along the beach. You can get taxis around, but there doesn't seem to be a taxi rank for the way back, and there's no hotel shuttle into Buzios town or beaches. You do need to hire a car. It takes about 15 mins to get in to the beaches, and the town. The hotel can arrange rental for you.

Only front desk staff speak English, none of the restaurant staff. Our bills and orders were regularly wrong. It was definitely not done on purpose, and they were always apologetic when the mistake was pointed out.

I found the sea water just outside the hotel to be quite dirty. I don't know if this is typical of the coast there. But I found floating margarine boxes, plastic bottles and the like in the water, and washed up on the beach. Other Buzios beaches did not seem to have this problem as far as I saw. And nor did any of the beaches I visited in Rio.

Overall we liked the beaches in Buzios, and the main town area with its shops and restaurants. But, unless you want to just stay within the hotel grounds, I would not particularly recommend this hotel, especially the Annex rooms.