Gran Hotel Tourbillon Cataratas

The staff were very nice and helpful, which is why I gave it three stars. The property is run down, and on the third floor at the far right of the hall the corridor smelled old and moldy. The WiFi kept dropping, especially on our last day when I needed to check in for my flight. Breakfast was average. I don't know how the chef made the scrambled eggs, but they looked disgustingly watery and saggy. The location is nice, near Tres Frontiers and the City Center. It's about a 30-minute drive from Iguazú International Airport, 15 minutes to Iquazú falls on the Argentinian side, and 30 minutes to the Brazilian frontier. The wait at the border and back into Argentina can be long, depending a lot on the season. If you visit Iguazú, I highly recommend seeing both the Brazil and Argentina sides. It's an okay place for two nights at most. I loved my time in Iguazú and wish we'd stayed more than two nights.

The room was quite clean and pretty nice, and the lobby and restaurant looked nice too. Breakfast was good, with the usual options, and dinner was good as well, with huge portions. Service at the hotel itself was good, and it was decent value for a few nights, conveniently located for the falls, which are absolutely spectacular. The setting was nice, too. Outside those areas, though, the property was rundown. The steps and structures leading to the pretty nice pool were decrepit and shaky, with loose boards and leaning posts. Really bad. Pool cleanliness and upkeep were average, not great. In the room, several things were broken or worn: the door trim, the loose bathroom fan that made a very loud noise, and the breaker box cover nearby that fell off whenever we shut the door. I put it back a few times 🙂 The outside window trim was heavily rusted and the wood was rotten. The tour desk was supposed to help arrange transport and other things, but the man working there wasn't friendly and showed no interest in communicating in English, even when we used Google Translate. We had hired a driver in Brazil earlier, so we contacted him to help us instead.

It's close to the park and away from downtown, but I wouldn't come back. The old rooms have thin walls and outdated bathrooms, the air conditioner spat water on me while I slept, and the bed wasn't good for the price. The free breakfast was bad, too. The taxi guy out front was cool, and I used him to get to the park.

The staff were extremely helpful, even with requests outside the ordinary, and the service was some of the best in the country. The bungalows are a great choice: well priced, quiet, spacious, and full of natural light. It's a nice place to stay in Iguazu. There are two good-sized pools on the property, but they need proper maintenance and new tiling. It's a shame they're also quite shallow, around 1.8m.