stitcheroo1
Google
We stayed 11 nights at this hotel. Owners Ivonne and Italo treat each guest like a member of their family: gracious, warm, caring, helpful. Rooms are lovely and very clean. Ask for a room with an ocean view: it costs a bit more but the view of the ocean is spectacular and worth the extra money. Nice balcony with a hammock. Grounds, gardens and pool are lovely and well maintained by Ademar and Alexandre. Wonderful breakfast buffet each morning (staff knew I liked pao de queijo -- cheese puffs -- and made them special for me!). ||||Echoing comments from a previous reviewer: you definitely need to rent a car in Florianopolis if you want to explore the island and its numerous beaches, get to restaurants, etc. We rented from Inova at the airport -- very pleasant agent, Juliana. The Pousada is located at the top of a steep hill, so you will be glad to have a car.||||Next door to the Pousada is a very nice restaurant, Marinheiro's, where we ate 3 times. Simple, delicious seafood, good service, great view of Praia Brava. On Praia Brava, we had the best-ever caipirinha drink at the Quiosque do Pirata, and enjoyed drinking coconut water from a kiosk on the beach. Drove about 20 minutes to the quaint, lovely neighboring villages of Sambaqui and Santo Antonio de Lisboa. In Sambaqui, we ate lunch at Santo Mar, overlooking the water, and enjoyed a fabulous Camarao na Moranga (shrimp baked in a pumpkin) -- waiter Antonio was gracious and spoke several languages fluently; he made us feel very welcome. In Santo Antonio, we sat on a deck on the beach at Marisqueira Sintra and enjoyed a great, simple shrimp dish sauteed in white wine, garlic and touch of mustard.||||Some advice/suggestions: if you go to Florianopolis (called Floripa by the locals), it would be good to have a basic knowledge of Portuguese (you can also get by with basic Spanish). Go to the nearby town of Canasvieras and take one of the fun pirate ships for a nice, scenic afternoon boat ride. Drive to Lagoa da Conceicao and take one of the little boats for a 45-minute scenic boat ride to a little village where you can climb up to a pretty little waterfall (cachoeira) and eat lunch at any of the numerous lakeside restaurants -- fresh-caught seafood.