Alah Mar Hotel

regrettable experience, would not return to the Hotel A La Mar, does not approach a 3 stars. It is not the service offered, and has no value for money. When they make the room or carpets are missing, or don't leave towels, something is always missing. In the dining room there is no cutlery, always missing spoons, pots to serve fruit salad, ice cream melts and very little variety of meals . Snack with bread with nothing to spread and never replenish

It is located in front of a beach, but the structure is just bad. It's old, needs to be cleaned more often and their breakfast is very poor. The beach in front is definetely not worth the stay in the hotel if a pretty view is what you're looking for. The bathroom sink and the toiled lid was broken, there was a weird smell in the room when we arrived and it didn't went away with ventilation, there was only two power sockets working and they were being used by the TV and mini-fridge, and the Wi-fi only worked at the reception :( At first, the receptionists seemed to be very polite and understanding, but after hearing that we wanted to take a Day Trip to Morro de São Paulo they started to persuade us to buy the trip with Cassi Turismo company, the receptionist called to our room and even nocked on our door to make sure that we would take his offer. We were naiive and decided to follow his advice, which ended up in one of the worse experiences that I ever had while travelling: it took us 5 hours to reach the island (it was supposed to be 2) and more 5 hours to be back. The boats were in terrible state and more than once I feared for my life. Morro de Sao Paulo is an amazing place, but there's probably dozen other ways to get there without all of the head ache.

*Update* I still loved everything in this review. However, four months after coming back from Brasil, I was charged almost $900 out of the blue from this hotel. Upon investigating with my credit card company, they see the charge was manually entered from the hotel. How and why this happened is anyone's guess. I am really hoping it was an honest mistake, as I really enjoyed everything else about this hotel. This is just a heads up and a reminder. My credit card company did straighten it out and I got the money back. For this snafu, I had to drop the rating from 4 to 3 stars. The hotel is right across the street from the beach. We got an ocean view room and it was amazing. The staff was great, everyone we spoke to was very accommodating and friendly. The breakfast was good, albeit the same everyday. A lot to choose from and food was fresh. The price was what made this a no brainier for me. World Cup prices were higher at most places, but non-game days here were surprisingly low. Game days shot up about 350%, so I actually ended up checking out for one day, walking next door, and staying at a different place for one night. When hearing this, the front staff were going to work with me about the price and let me stay there, but I had already booked the other hotel by then. Cons-- Wifi was slow, and not working some days. I noticed this was an issue all over the country. Internet is just slow in Brasil, overall. Claro (a cell phone carrier) is showing a commercial for their new 4G (didn't see it once while in the country, only 3G), touting it as being the "fastest in the world" The area of Jardim de Alah is not as popular or close to the city center as Rio Vermelho or Lapa, but it was fine for me, and just a bus ride away. This may be an issue for people who want to be more centrally located. Overall, I liked this place and people so much, I stayed here a second time when I came back to Salvador later in the tournament. I would stay here again. What small gripes I may have with the hotel (wifi), the people made the difference.