Porto do Mar

I enjoyed my stay at this hotel, it was so peaceful and relaxing. Its quite old fashioned, so would not appeal to some, but i left after three days stay feeling totally chilled. The location is good, it feels isolated yet its only about 10 minutes drive to Natal city centre and also not far from Ponta Negra. Its about 15 minutes by taxi to the Portuguese fort and there is a good Brazillian restaurant 5 minutes walk from the hotel. The hotel restaurant only seems to be open for breakfast so its good that there is somewhere to eat nearby. The room was basic but had a balcony with a lovely sea view and a flat screen tv which had CNN. The bathroom had a large and powerful shower. The hotel has lovely grounds with palm trees and a large swimming pool. It overlooks the beach which is more rocky than sandy. The sea is right next to the hotel and it was lovely just to hear the crashing waves at night. The staff were all very friendly and helpful but did not speak English. Breakfast buffet was good, i really enjoyed the fresh fruit, the melon was so sweet and juicy. I would certainly visit this hotel again.

First of all I would like to say that I don't believe the legitimacy of any of the positive reviews I read about this hotel. There's no way someone can write anything positive about it, so I assume they are all made up by the hotel management. I ended up in hotel Porto do Mar due to a mistake in my booking. I checked in late at night, so I didn't really have the time to look around for better options and I didn't even expect anything so bad anyway. The hotel is a mediocre 2 star, very far from the city and placed on a rocky part of the beach where you can't even walk. Its location makes it really hard to find a taxi, so be prepared to be stuck longtime at the reception waiting for one. The rooms are the most spartan I've seen in my life. The mattress and the pillows are so thin that I wasn't able to sleep at all, the bathrooms is a disaster, with fixtures falling apart and not even hot water properly working. At the time I arrived, there was a group of drunk noisy guest sitting and shouting just a few steps away from the rooms, but nobody from the staff paid attention to that, and those guys kept every guest in the hotel awake until 4am. I checked out the next day really quickly, practically I ran away. A hotel like that should be priced at less than 50$/night, probably between 30$ and 40$, and it should target backpackers or people on a very tight budget who aren't normally so picky about the place where they sleep, but the absurd thing that made me write this review is that I was charged over 200$/night !! It was during the world cup but still, that was a real theft!

rooms were clean, spacious and well equipped. Pool area, breakfast was good, and staff was very helpful. Hotel was a bit out of the way from major tourist areas, and taxis in the area are expensive, but not really a huge issue.