Buona Vitta Gramado Resort & Spa by Gramado Parks

Rafael from guest relations helped make the surprises in our room happen and was welcoming, generous, and wonderfully helpful throughout our stay. When he heard we had an early checkout, he arranged sandwiches and juice with the kitchen and had them sent up the night before so we could eat before heading to the airport. He also made it easy for my wife to arrange a full room decoration and custom cake with a local company for the next day. She said coordinating options and payment through Rafael was really smooth. On my birthday, even though it was already 3 p.m., he helped my wife set up balloons, flowers, a lovely dessert, and champagne in our room. We came to Brazil for the first time, and the stay was more than I expected. I was celebrating my 38th birthday, and the spa and reception teams did their best to make it memorable. I’d originally booked a pedicure and facial for my wife and me. The front desk manager quickly helped arrange a same-day massage and sparkling wine bath for me. Beatriz, the hair stylist, gave me a complimentary hair wash, and the manager and staff brought us delicious spa treats and a sweet little birthday gift.

I loved my stay and will be back next year. The hotel is modern, and everyone working there was very helpful. Jade cleaned my room throughout the stay and was always polite and happy to help. Her work was impeccable.

The resort is clean and well maintained, with nicely decorated rooms and a great pool area. It could easily earn five stars, but some basic design and service issues got in the way. If your room is in a different building from reception, you have to go outside, even though this area gets a lot of rain and sometimes snow, or take a confusing path through a poorly lit underground parking garage. Walking through there alone at night feels like the start of a horror movie. The pool area could use a couple of simple fixes. A sign asking guests to put a towel under themselves in the dry sauna would help, since plenty of towels are available. The steam sauna smells moldy, and there are no hoses to rinse the spot where you’re about to sit, which is good practice in steam saunas and an easy improvement. Staff are generally very friendly, but the pool staff need training. They were slow, inefficient, and unfriendly.

The hotel is beautiful and looks like an old Italian city. The food is great, the gym is amazing, there’s a good kids’ space, and the pool is nice for relaxing for a few hours. Service is where they need a lot of work. At breakfast, you may wait too long for food to be replenished, and the Sunday night pizza carvery was a mess. I had to ask for help more than once. They have a lot to improve before the service matches a five-star rating.