Boutique Hotel Marlin's

“just perfect”

Serene, beautiful, tasteful. Smallish hotel where everything feels private. Located on the best area of the main beach in Pipa. Not too crowded by the hotel beachfront, whereas other areas of the beach get packed. No private beach area or dedicated beach chairs but the deck around the pool is bas… more

Serene, beautiful, tasteful. Smallish hotel where everything feels private. Located on the best area of the main beach in Pipa. Not too crowded by the hotel beachfront, whereas other areas of the beach get packed. No private beach area or dedicated beach chairs but the deck around the pool is basically on the beach so it's fine. They also don't let people bring their own speakers (which happens a lot in Brazilian hotels with pools) so you can actually relax and not have to listen to obnoxious techno music or something. They play acoustic Brazilian sounds. One note about the beach...the tide is so close to the hotel that you cannot access the beach for around 4 hours near high tide. We lucked out with low tide occurring late morning but would have been a drag if that was high tide. Worth checking out the tide tables if you can. Breakfast (included) is excellent. Nothing too elaborate but fresh rotating juices, good coffee, fresh pastries and egg dishes made to order. Everything served at the table overlooking the beach - not the buffet style that is super common in Brazil. We had dinner at the restaurant there the first night and it was better food than we found elsewhere. We did go out just to experience the "city" a little. Staff super helpful and kind. I see reviews here that there isn't a lot of English spoken but guess what, you're in a fairly remote area of Brazil. Learn a little Portuguese for goodness sake, it's not that hard! I think signs/menus are all in English. Well appointed rooms, tastefully done and feel very private. We upgraded to the superior suite (or something like that) and it was basically the same as the cheapest room, but with a much nicer bathroom and had a plunge tub which was a nice touch. We rented a car and drove from the Natal airport. It was nice to have a car once we got there so we could explore the nearby beaches a bit. You definitely don't need a car in Pipa itself though and driving to and from the airport was a bit of a drag. I didn't look online but in the city I saw a lot of transport services available to the airport. Cheaper than the service the hotel provides. So if you're feeling a little adventurous you can probably just show up there and figure it out but with the exchange rate to USD the way it is, probably worth it to just book through the hotel. You will then have to pay for transport to the other beaches/trails nearby so it you want to do some side trips I'd say rent a car at Natal. If not, just take the transport straight to the hotel and relax.

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