robontheroam
Google
For many of the obvious pluses, there were, sadly, equally obvious minuses on the flip side||+ Location on the Fourth Beach, far from the thronging crowds in the centre of Morro de São Paulo. |- A bumpy 25-minute ride on the hotel shuttle to somewhere different to eat||+ Lovely array of loungers, canopied beds, hammocks etc on a beach almost entirely used by hotel guests |- At high tide there is only a small strip of sand; at low tide the beach looks more like mud flats, the waves breaking hundreds of metres from the shore ||+ Very attractive bungalows in absolutely gorgeous, well-maintained gardens, with outdoor gym and beautiful shaded pool|- Rooms set up for hotel publicity, a triumph of Instagrammable design over functionality ||+ Lovely eating area used for both breakfast and dinner that manages to look appealing by day and at night. Very good breakfasts and some very good dinner dishes|- Some dishes were rather uninspiring, and at times the service was infuriatingly poor and inattentive - Gisele a very honourably exception ||We had a very long and torturous journey to get there from Salvador (inevitable when winds rule out the Catamaran crossing) and the ‘welcome’ we received was as perfunctory as some of the service we later received. (Oh for a friendly smile from Reception!)||We left feeling we loved certain aspects - but were certain we wouldn’t return.