Bahia Plaza Hotel

The beach is beautiful and felt safe, and I found the setting very relaxing. During my business trip, I also appreciated how secluded and secure this hotel felt compared with some places around Salvador, which can seem a little dangerous. The food was quite good. Breakfast had plenty of variety and changed from day to day, and dinner at the restaurant was very good too. The hotel itself was just OK, with enough wear and tear that it doesn't merit a 5-star review yet. The room's air conditioning smelled musty, and the shower water wasn't reliably hot. I couldn't get a hot shower for the first two days, and after that it never got very hot. The balcony sliding door was also nearly impossible to open.

The staff were friendly and tried their best to help when we raised problems. Still, we had to change rooms three times before we found one without a bathroom leak and with working air conditioning. We eventually gave up on finding a perfect room and stayed in one where the AC wouldn't switch off. We woke up freezing in the middle of the night. Maintenance did nothing after I complained the next day, so we had to turn the unit off before bed to avoid getting dangerously cold. The bed was a letdown, with a thin, torn cover and a hard mattress. There's little point in asking for a nice view: the hotel sits amid the neighborhood, and the rear view is worse, with machinery right in front of the rooms. The pool and other amenities are shared with the community. The location has its ups and downs. You can walk to a secluded beach, but the nearest stretch is open sea with rough surf and some current. Vilas do Atlântico Beach is close by, with nice beach bars and restaurants, and the hotel is roughly halfway between Salvador and Praia do Forte. It's inside a gated community, though getting through the security checkpoints every time you enter or leave is a nuisance. Salvador's main attractions are far away, and weekday traffic is terrible. The facilities need more maintenance. There was also a restaurant on site, said to be run by the famous Dadá and to serve Dadá's typical Bahia food on Saturday. We tried it and were disappointed again. The dishes showed no trace of the famous chef's touch, and the desserts were terrible.

The location felt safe, the service was excellent, and the people were really nice.

There's a well-equipped gym, a pool, and streets where you can walk or run. The hotel is in a luxurious home village, by Brazilian standards, close to the beach. Dinner restaurant choices are limited. Breakfast is complete, but nothing special. The room seemed old, with no outlet near the bed for charging a phone. It also looked like it hadn't been used in a while, since a lot of rust came out of the toilet tap.