Abrolhos Inn Praia Hotel

“Lovely hotel with basic amenities near the beach”

We stayed here for 2 weeks for a dance congress. It's not a posh hotel, but they have the basic essentials - clean rooms, hot shower, a mini refrigerator, pool. There were a few mosquitoes in the room despite us keeping the windows shut and having a DEET plug in and wearing DEET all day. There wa... more

We stayed here for 2 weeks for a dance congress. It's not a posh hotel, but they have the basic essentials - clean rooms, hot shower, a mini refrigerator, pool. There were a few mosquitoes in the room despite us keeping the windows shut and having a DEET plug in and wearing DEET all day. There was no iron in the room, no room service and no meals apart from breakfast. Wifi was very patcy, and slow, not reliable. Do not expect an English breakfast, Brazilian breakfast consisted of a dozen kinds of bread and a dozen kinds of cakes with 3 fruit (usually melon, watermelon, pineapple, mango or bananas) which varied daily as well as 2 kinds of cheese and ham/salami. This was my worst nightmare as I'm Coeliac and cannot eat wheat and gluten. Fortunately I brought my own gluten free bread with me because I never managed to find any in Porto Seguro, even pao de queijo and soya milk was impossible to find. The chef was not happy when I asked for an egg as I could not actually eat anything on the table apart from the cheese and fruit. After a rather scowling sour look and speaking to management she stomped off grudgingly to make me an egg informing me I would be billed extra. The receptionist was more sympathetic and asked the kitchen to add something I could eat every day so after this, there was either scrambled eggs, fried plantain or boiled cassava (manioc) added to the menu. But there is no variety so you can expect the same thing every day, and only 1-2 hot items in the menu. There is a microwave and sandwich toaster in a corner of the reception that you can use. You should try to arrive early for breakfast, because when the hot food (egg, plantain, cassava) runs out it is not replenished. Do not expect to find afternoon tea/coffee - there was none anywhere to be found, and no kettle in the room or even in the hotel to my dismay - despite them assuring me there was a kettle in the room when I posted a query on the forum before arriving. If they had answered honestly, I would have brought a travel kettle. All of my European friends reported a similar experience - no tea/coffee in most of the hotels or restaurants in the area. They are really negligent in this regard because it was in high demand. Rooms were cleaned daily if you left your key at reception in the morning, linen and towels were changed every 2 days, but the housekeeper 'forgot' to put toilet paper in the room almost every single time so we had to ask for it at reception repeatedly, which was rather annoying. Please note that nobody in the hotel reception spoke any English or Spanish, so I was glad I took Portuguese classes for a few months before I travelled. The receptionists were very friendly and helpful, and we did not have any problems. The area seemed to be secure and we wandered around at all hours of the night/early morning without any difficulty. Location was ideal for our congress and the hotel is across the road from the beach which was perfect. There is a bus stop outside which takes you into Porto Seguro in about 30 min for about R 3.10, but when it's rush hour the traffic was horrendous and it took an hour. A taxi into Porto Seguro cost over R 45.00, but beware they will try to charge you the same price for half the distance also when they see tourists and we argued with them and they eventually reduced their price. Taxis drive at breakneck speeds around the curvy roads and we had to insist they slow down at times. Overall, I would describe it as a lovely but basic hotel with friendly staff and decent amenities. I would recommend it for the area due to its location. It is a budget hotel but the prices were high due to the peak season (for NYE).

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