Pura Vida Hostel

Love this hostel! They are very friendly and there are a lot of activities. Specially if you travel alone since its pretty social. Location is great. Im in a private room now and its so comfy. Specially thanks to the receptionists Daniel and Letitia that were so helpful! Would definitely recommend it!

Amazing stay at Pura Vida Hostel in Rio! Perfect location between Copacabana and Ipanema. Super clean, big kitchen with filtered water and lots of fridge space. Awesome social vibe with a bar, happy hours, and nightly dance classes. Matt at reception was incredible and helped with tours. Loads of activities like Christ the Redeemer, Sugarloaf, boat parties, football games. Only downside: shower temp can’t be adjusted. Best hostel we’ve stayed at!

Simply amazing! This hostel is absolutely great — the rooms are very clean, and the staff are incredibly helpful. Especially Matt and Leo — they’re really cool! If you have any questions, just go talk to them. The parties, game nights, and everything else are super well organized. Honestly, it’s the best hostel I’ve ever stayed in! I arrived at Hostel Pura Vida four weeks ago, and in three days my Brazil trip will come to an end — I stayed so long because I enjoyed it here so much!

This is a decent hostel and I had a good stay there. However, it is unfortunately not worthy of its 9/10 rating on most sites.||The best thing about the hostel is the location, as it is a few minutes from Copacabana beach and about 10 minutes from Ipanema beach/Arpoador, as well as being very close to cafés, supermarkets, pharmacies, etc., which is very helpful. I also have no complaints about the accommodation itself - I stayed in a private room, which was good and clean (unfortunately don’t know about the shared rooms ).||However, on the social/activity front the hostel did not live up to expectations. I appreciate that I visited Rio in the off-season, which obviously affects the social side of things, but the hostel still did not do enough in my opinion. For example, the organisation of the free tours was completely inadequate, with most tours starting half an hour or an hour later than the official time, and little effort made by the tour guide to speak to guests and encourage them to come, other than the occasional message in the WhatsApp group. As a result, on multiple occasions the free tour attendees consisted only of hostel staff, since it was so difficult for guests to figure out how to join. As for the paid activities, information about these was often provided extremely last-minute, with a WhatsApp message being sent only half an hour before the activity began, making it very difficult to plan in advance and join these excursions. Finally, evening events at the hostel bar were often equally disorganised, e.g. dance classes starting an hour after they were meant to, and no effort made by the hostel to encourage guests to meet each other (e.g. I know of other hostels with a ‘welcome drinks’ every evening for guests to get to know each other). This makes it especially difficult for solo travellers like myself. From a hostel that brands itself as the best party hostel in Rio, I expected far more - especially considering that Pura Vida is one of the more expensive hostels in the city. Moreover, I am not the only one with this opinion - multiple guests whom I met there decided to move to other hostels after a couple of days since they also found the social scene very limited and the hostel to not be worth the money. ||Overall, my stay in Rio was still positive, and Pura Vida was not a bad place to stay, but I believe travellers (especially solo ones) should be aware of these issues, and I sincerely hope that the hostel takes my feedback regarding the free tours, paid activities and general social scene on board.

Great ambience and location, the rooms are solid and the staff is very friendly. Every day there are free events, dance classes and tours. Thanks to Lari and Brenda for the fantastic tours :)

Had the best time at this hostel, the accommodation and entertainment were both top drawer! Huge thanks to the entire Pura Vida team, especially Toni and Emily who made myself and my cousin feel both welcome and excited for every experience and night out offered :)

In the moment I came to pura vida, I felt welcomed. The vibes are very family alike. The common areas make it very easy to socialise and you always find people to hangout with. I wanna give a special thank you to the mexican volunteer Aurora, who made my stay the best. I can always recommend!

I booked this hostel and unfortunately had to leave immediately because of a major issue that was not disclosed in the listing. To access the property, you must climb an extremely steep hill and then a very large number of stairs. This was not mentioned anywhere in the description, and it made the property inaccessible for me, especially as someone with asthma carrying luggage. When I explained the problem, the hostel refused a refund, even though I was unable to stay. I ended up having to find alternative accommodation the same day. Travelers should be aware of the stairs before booking — this is important for anyone with luggage, mobility issues, or health conditions. Transparency about accessibility is a basic expectation.