Pousada da Mangueira

We traveled through Brazil for almost 4 weeks and of all the hotels and pousada's we visited this was the single best place of all ! Perfect location: one steep street down and again up, across the shopping street and you are in the mids of the historic center. (aim for this unique city center, you can visit beaches anywhere in Brazil.) Great view. Perfect retreat: pool and garden available. Excellent breakfast, good bar (keep the music down please...) and English spoken reception. One small improvement would be possible: the place can do with some decent garden furniture. Don't look further: book this one !

Very close to old town Very clean Safe Pool Good air con Nice view old town Only three food options for lunch or dinner at hotel My only disappointment was transportation provided by hotel to and from airport and private tour provided by hotel. Drivers spoke no English and one drove way to fast and other tried to shorten tour by thirty percent

Hands-on owner and friendly staff who spoke English. Next to Pelourinho.

Great little spot overlooking a stunning view of Pelourinho / Centro Historico. Pool area, breakfast, bar service all up to standard. Rooms a bit on the small side, but newly renovated and modern. Front desk service regarding directions, planning trips, safety tips and onward travel was nothing short of incredibly comprehensive and helpful. We appreciated that part especially. Would return if I'm ever in Salvador again!

Situated on the edge of the City, this was a great find. Arrived early and they allowed us to leave our cases and invited us all to a free breakfast, on departure they even gave us a room until 3pm! Very amenable and friendly staff, lovely rooms, OK a little small but everything you need, flat screen TV, safe, fridge, modern decor, air conditioning, comfortable bed, spotlessly clean. The hotel features a small out side bar / covered seating area (where breakfast is served) and a small but delightful elevated pool with lovely views of the City. This is a gem of a find in what is quite a deprived area, but it's proximity to the old City and main sites (less than 5 mins walk away) makes it an ideal location. But please note, the access is via a narrow cobbled street (quite steep) so isn't really suitable for the disabled or less mobile. The hotel itself is very secure, it's in own grounds and surrounded by security cameras and locked access. This is normal practice in Salvador (if fact most of Brazil) As a precaution in the hours of darkness we always returned to the hotel via taxi. I suggest you ask the hotel to give you a map on you arrival and they will happily advise on the places which it consider's are "no go" areas. Basically these are streets which are not patrolled by the local tourist police...If you stick to the rules Salvador is no more unsafe than anywhere else. Just use common sense and instinct and you won't go far wrong. It's a beautiful City and great value hotel.

I really enjoyed staying here. It's a great location, just 100 yards or so to the Pelorinho, with great views from the swimming pool. It's very spacious, with a very relaxed atmosphere, and friendly helpful staff. The breakfasts are excellent, and there is a nice bar where you can purchase food and drinks throughout the day. You can organise an airport transfer easily enough. From the swimming pool you can see across the Pelorinho, but are just far enough away that the constant drumming isn't too noisy. I would certainly recommend this hotel and would return happily if I ever went back to Salvador.

We enjoyed our staying in this hotel a lot. It provides excellent atmosphere for a hotel in this rating, and the management of the hotel provided excellent advises and tours for us to enjoy our short stay in Salvador to the best, don't forget to ask him for his suggestions.

Short stay, so I can't really comment on the neighberhood

We liked the breakfast, but it should be served on time. Hotel officially declares, that breakfast starts at 7 AM. But if you came at 7 AM, there is nothing to eat at all. All the food is being cooked at this time and it appears on the tables before 8 AM. So maybe it should be better to start cooking everything much more earlier or declare, that the breakfast begins on 8 AM? Location is very good, but you must climb a lot before reaching the hotel. Hotel offers various tours around Salvador, but they are very expensive. Rooms were clean, A/C was working great (but unfortunately Wi-Fi works only in reception and surrounding rooms - as we were living in the corner room, there were no wi-fi at all). Hotel has offered transfer to the airport, but it was very expensive (like everything what this hotel is offering to their clients) - 100 BRL per car. Things we didn't liked: During our 2 days stay we found only one man, who can speak English. No one else in the whole hotel can't say even a word in English. That's horrible. Another negative thing was car parking right in front of your doors and windows if you are sleeping on the ground floor (you can check picture attached). We have been joking - we are staying in a hotel, or a motel? Because I have seen similar things only if you sleep in the motel! Wi-Fi in our room was not working. If you want to use it, you must go outside and sit, for example, near the pool. But there are a lot of mosquitos around, so sitting here is not a pleasure at all. Regarding the pool - it is very warm. You can't get fresh even after jumping in it, because temperature of the water in the pool is similar to the weather - water temperature was not less than +25-27 C - no refresh at all. All the services and activities what hotel is offering - are extremely expensive. You can find everything cheaper if you'll search for it in town.

I am always sorry to write a bad review, but in this case I take this as a duty of kindness for the next people that might think of visit Salvador. The city is not easy, but the people that run this pousada makes it way more difficult, they try to scare you about everything in order to sell you their services (car, trips, even very low level kitchen). The place is outside the historic centre, and you don't want to walk those 500mt that are between you and Pelourinho at night, in the daylight is fine. The building is dull and looks like a motel, if you stay on the groundfloor you would not be able to open your window as the parking is outside it. And I don't even comment the swimming pool. But the worst part are the people, using you only as cash cow, they even tried to stop us making arrangements on our own because they wanted to persuade us to buy from them. Their recommendations didn't look sincere, because every time there was an interest behind. The last trip they provided us was really creepy. Last day we stayed in another pousada, right inside the Pelourinho, and Salvador looked a different city! I am disappointed by this kind of behavior as people like the ones that run this hotel aren't any good for the city, which doesn't need even more bad publicity.