We visited for nine nights after going to Rio and then to Iguassu Falls. We travelled from the UK and it was the last part of a two week trip.
Firstly it is worth being aware there is not unlimited access to the a la carte restaurants, however out of nine nights we ate at them or a special dinner for seven. We requested reservations when we had used our allocation and wherever possible they went out of their way to accommodate them.
The hotel is extremely well maintained and very clean, there are multiple pools to choose from and different bars and spaces in which to relax. The beach is wide and sandy and suitable for walking on but not ideal for swimming.
The bar had live music every evening which was lovely but a conference attended towards the endnote of our stay and it could become somewhat rowdy, but this was more the timing of our stay than something I would expect to be a regular occurrence.
As European, English speaking visitors, there was a language barrier but everyone worked their hardest to try and work around it and we rapidly picked up some essential Portuguese such as how to order beer and wine!
We are a couple who travel a lot, having been to Mauritius, the Seychelles and the Maldives among many other destinations in the last few years and we don’t tend to repeat our visits to places however we are already planning on when to come back as despite a few tiny niggles it’s been a magical stay.
We also want to specifically mention Marcus Daniel who is part of the reception team who speaks multiple languages and went to special efforts to make sure we had the perfect dinner in the presidential suite and had been happy with our stay.

We have chosen this hotel based on its 4.5 stars average reviews, but unfortunately I don’t think it deserves more than 2 stars (poor).
So let me try to explain that:
. At first, the hotel seemed to be overbooked. Its structure is not prepared to attend all the guests with a reasonable quality.
. The room we got has a strong musty smell. I think that most rooms have this issue. For people who cares about pure air to sleep this is a strong reason to not choose this hotel.
. The gastronomy is not compatible with a 4.5 stars hotel. Even the thematic restaurants do not reach a satisfactory degree. The breakfast is ok, but the main lunch buffet is poor. The main restaurant desserts are good. The Japanese restaurant’s sushi is terrible. The Mediterranean and French ones are very week too.
. On the swimming pools, there was something like a “towel war”, everyday. At 7am almost all the pool chairs are already taken by towels, with no people, but just their ghosts. So if you do not fight this war you will never take a chair to sit. The ghosts always have the preference to them, and the hotel does nothing about it.
. The best hotel attraction are the night shows. The actors and dancers are great. Unfortunately it is not enough to make this hotel a good place to enjoy your vacations.