Hostel Vista do Mar

Very comfortable bed with incredible sea views from the terrace. Well equipped kitchen. Rodolfo the host went above and beyond and kept in contact with us when our flight was delayed and luggage lost at airport, waited outside the hostel for us when we arrived late at night to walk us to the entrance. No road noise or any disturbances at night.

This hostel is located in a Favela (although right at the bottom). So just be aware of that when booking and walking around. We had issues with Ubers not picking us up from the hostel but the Sheraton is just 10 minutes walk along the cycle path and they pick up from there.

It really does overlook the sea. The room was extremely clean, with spotless tile floors. I was very comfortable, and slept with the windows wide open, as it went down to 65F at night. Amazingly, I wasn't bothered by mosquitos or anything else flying or crawling in. One can use a communal kitchen, which I did for the two evenings I was there. It is in a favela, but I had no problems. I walked to a bakery in the morning to get bread, and in the evening to shop for dinner. When I walked in the morning, I passed about a dozen people, and each said "Bom dia" to me in a quiet but friendly manner. I felt very comfortable walking about, but I didn't go out at night, because I was working on a talk. It was also very quiet at night. I didn't hear any music, or TV, or anything human.

It might have been in a better neighborhood. But I wanted to stay by the sea, and ALL others places were at least 5 times as much. At least.

The location of tbis property was not ideal. It was not stated that it was inside a Favela. Impossible to order a taxi.

-The Hostess Nivenah was lovely and always around to help! -close to the beaches! - fairly clean -fair price -incredible views from the balcony! You can see the city, the top of the favela, can hear the waves crashing, and smell the ocean! -air conditioning was great in our 3 bed room -very good quality toilet paper, which was definitely appreciated! -the staff make coffee for you every morning, so nice! -tv with Netflix and such -2 fridges -overall a good stay :)

-a bit difficult to get Ubers to pick you up there because it’s on a highway of sorts, but walking 5-10 mins to the nearest intersection and you are good to go! - the stairs may be an issue for some, as it’s kind of at the base of the mountain, it can be a bit difficult with luggage, so if you have an accessibility issues, not gonna be easy or nice and it definitely makes you rethink popping down for small tasks or things lol -we had some issues with the wifi upstairs as our room was on the terrace, okay at some points, not so great in the room, but thankfully our cell plans covered data roaming in Brazil, so we weren’t too stressed, but if you just ask Nivenah, she’ll do her best to help you log in on the multiple wifis they have -a bit of a language barrier as none of the staff really speak English, but google translate and universal signals make it alright! We had a few laughs with the staff in multiple languages, all good. -like many hostels, you have to pay for a towel, only 10R$, cheap, and the washrooms didn’t have any soap, but we had some soap bars from a previous hotel, so we placed it on our private bathroom and public ones too! - it is a bit of a distance from the ‘party’ parts of the city, but 20-30 min Uber is cheap and you’ll be in great areas!