They shut off the AC half way through our stay saying it's a rule to shut it off after October 1st. On our second day of a three day stay, they said either check our or move to another room because they needed our room for new guests. And to add to the experience, when we checked in they said they were going to charge $63 per night - when we went to pay, they said it will be $126. Surprise! Don't stay here, it's not worth it - just another dirty hotel with bad food for their "breakfast included".

Spent the most fantastic week here in Impanema; 5th floor room with a wonderful view; helpful friendly staff, efficient waiters and lovely food. Room cleaned daily, great shower, lovely Italian shutters leading onto balcony.

On the first evening I mentioned to the waiter that I'm vegetarian and I was then given a veggie menu with 4 or 5 choices for the starter and the main menu every evening - we can't fault anything re the food, however, meals were served between 8-9.30pm - it would have been better from 7pm to maybe 9pm.

The rooftop pool was lovely and we had it to ourselves for one afternoon, though it could get a bit busy as other hotel guests were able to use it.

The internet was 4Euro for 1/2 and it was very slow.

I staid in this hotel from 9 July until 27 July 2011.
I can recommend this hotel to everybody. The strong point of the hotel is its staff, who have a high 'esprit de corps', many of them working already at the place for more than 10 years.
Another strong point: the food. The cook and his team cooked every day a perfect dinner.
The restauant is nicely designed and the restaurant linnen well chosen.
It is close to the beach and the cable lift.
A point of concern: when you leave the compound you are straight away on the main road. Parents with children should be very careful.

We've recently returned from a week at the Ipanema and really enjoyed it. The staff were excellent, friendly.helpful and informative. The area outside where you sit for drinks was lovely. Someone else complained about the seats in the bar, noone sat in the bar whilst we were there, everyone was outside enjoying the weather. We can't comment on not being able to get a drink in the day as we were too busy being out and about for most of it! On the occasions we were by the pool, (very clean) which was normally late afternoon we took our own bottles of water which we purchased from the little mini market down the road. A 1.5 litre bottle was 1 euro, so hardly expensive as i've seen other people put about the local shop. Our bedroom was fine and clean. Bathroom no complaint, shower excellent. The balcony with it's stunning view of the sea was beautiful. The hotel does come out onto a main road,as do most of the hotels here, but you just keep to the side and it's fine. We did not encounter any late night noise. In fact when we returned to the hotel at 1 am one night after going to the opera, the bar was shut and there was noone around, just the man on reception. Our Thomson rep told us there is absolutely no crime in Taormina (how refreshing!) so I didn't feel the pigeon holes for keys in easy reach a problem, and imagine that's why the hotel doesn't. but can understand why it may concern, as a town with no crime is a rarety nowadays.
The food was very hit and miss. Veal was on the menu every night. There was also a fish dish. I don't eat meat, so tend to eat fish when abroad. Here however it was mostly overcooked and dry. The veg on one night were definately tinned, so it was not great. The risotto or pasta served for the first course were on the whole pretty good though. There was a choice of cakes for dessert, sometimes ice cream, and normally watermelon. It's quite a large slice, but this seemed to be normal as i saw the same size portions being served in restaurants as well.
We had no trouble finding soemwhere to go in the evening, either having a quiet couple of drinks outside after dinner, or getting the cable car up to Taormina town and wandering around the bustling streets and soaking up the atmosphere.
A lovely hotel, but we would class it a 3 star.