Bela Vista Apartment

The location is excellent, but watch out for the room rules. They don't allow food or early check-in.

Breakfast really needs work. It was coffee or tea, a small apple, and ham and cheese in pre-made toast bread. Even swapping the bread and using butter instead of cheap margarine would help. This seems more like a budget place for Brazilians than a traveler hangout, so it's not great for meeting people, though it's fine for a night's sleep. The rooms are very spacious, with good space between the lower and upper bunks. Each bed has a towel, small light, and power point. The beds are quite hard but comfortable, and the location feels safe even at night, just five minutes from the metro. It can be tricky to find at first, so ring the bell at the grey gate.

The showers were cold, and staff were mostly incredibly rude. The owner told one of them to hold onto my laptop as a ransom, apparently calling it a storage fee, after I left it there. It was in the locker assigned to me, so they must have known it was mine, yet nobody contacted me. I spent a week going back to places I'd stayed in Sao Paulo looking for it. When I went to ask, they made me wait over an hour for the owner to text the ransom fee, and wouldn't even let me see the laptop before I paid. It was really distressing, and it felt like they hoped I wouldn't come back so they could sell it. Criminal behavior, honestly. The same guy was rude to lots of people, including my friends. Before our last friend arrived, he put a random girl in our room so our friend couldn't stay with us. They didn't apologize or properly try to fix the problem, and had an attitude about it. Don't stay here.

The house rules are clear and work well. It's quiet from 10 p.m., so the clean, peaceful rooms make this a good spot if you want to rest. The staff were also really nice. The hostel is on Paulista, close to the metro, and it's a lovely little corner of São Paulo. I definitely recommend it. The price is very good and everything is spotless, organized, and well cared for. There are shared bathrooms and one individual bathroom. The kitchen lets you store and label your things, heat food, and make meals comfortably. There's also a pleasant common area with benches. Breakfast always includes a little bread, fruit, juice, and a simple but tasty cake.