Hostel do Navio

The place is nice, though there isn’t much space.

Great.

There are plenty of places to stay in Arraial, and I wouldn’t choose this hostel again. I don’t understand the high ratings. I spent three nights in a very, very small shared room and paid 80 reais per night. A friend of mine had an even worse room with nine beds, including three triple bunks. There’s only one bathroom for every nine guests, which feels like far too few when the hostel is full. Hygiene could be better too: there wasn’t even soap for washing hands. Breakfast had lots of cake, but hardly any healthy or savory choices. The only fruit was papaya and melon, and the juices were made from concentrate rather than being fresh. Unlike other hostels, this one has no shared kitchen and doesn’t let guests keep food in the refrigerator.

The breakfast was excellent, and the place was very clean. But when we stayed in December 2017, the upstairs rooms and bathrooms felt tiny and stuffy. My husband, who is 1.80 m tall, barely fit in the bed. The room windows were small, there was no air conditioning, and we had to sleep with the door open to get a little more air. The rules also seemed very strict for a hostel. There’s no shared kitchen, and guests can’t bring outside food or drinks into the house, everything has to be bought there. Showers outside the nightly stay cost extra, at a price that was excessive, almost half the nightly rate. I wouldn’t recommend it to someone familiar with how hostels work who’s trying to save money.