Pousada Vila Rosa

The separate chalets have lovely sea views, and breakfast is very good and brought right to your chalet. The place is right on the beach, but doesn't offer any beach facilities. A few basic things let it down. There's no shower screen or raised edge in the bathroom, so water floods across the whole floor every time you shower. There's nowhere to put shampoo or soap, and the curtain is held up only by pressure. I knocked it down twice and think it should be fixed in place. Of the four hotels I stayed at on the trip, this was the only one that didn't provide soap and shampoo. The blanket also had several holes and tears.

The pousada is right on the sand, and our room was large with a veranda. Breakfast was generous, and the women working there were attentive. They changed the sheets when I asked because my husband had a fever, and I liked the stay a lot. It was generally great, though the hammock and curtains were a bit dirty. Given how hot it gets, I think they should leave water in the fridge. You can walk to the town center.

Want a terrible stay? This pousada delivered from the moment we arrived until we left. We stood outside for over half an hour waiting for the owners to receive us. A neighbor went to get them twice, but they didn't come, so my friend finally went looking herself. There was no power when we arrived. The room was soaking wet, the bathroom was dirty, the pillowcases smelled bad, and there was no blanket. We asked the owner for one on WhatsApp, but it took more than two hours to arrive. After the power came back, we could turn on the air conditioning, but the remote wouldn't lower the temperature. We asked the owner to replace the battery or check it. He said he'd come, then took over an hour, and we had to go find him again. The bathroom light was so dim we couldn't tell if it was on or off. Breakfast was served on our room veranda and was the same every day. I ordered tapioca with dulce de leche that was inedible. I couldn't bring myself to touch it. When we asked the waitresses for a bit more food, they gave us dirty looks. The next night, around 11:30 pm, power failed in parts of the pousada and the air conditioner stopped working. We tried to get by with the window open, but couldn't stand the heat and beetle bites. The owner had said she was available on WhatsApp, but we got absolutely no help. We went looking for her and found nothing. Four other guests were also trying to find a solution. Around 1:30 am, we reached the owner's house. He said there was no 24-hour assistance, he wouldn't answer the phone because he was asleep, and the power problem was Coelba's responsibility. When we asked what we could do, he said there was nothing and we had to accept it. You have to walk a lot to get anywhere in town, so not being able to rest at the hotel was extremely stressful. The Wi-Fi was awful too. I've never had such a bad experience. We couldn't take it and left two days early, on Thursday instead of Saturday.

The hosts were very attentive, and my parents were looked after really well during their stay. The pousada is right across from the beach, with a lovely stretch of grass between the rooms and the shore where you can sunbathe. Breakfast is served on the room veranda. I'd especially recommend it for families with children. It's between the beach bars Caramuru and Marae.