The Solar do Carmo is a beautifully remodeled house with eight or nine rooms total. The view looking directly out is the bay. The view down is a ship yard. We had a lower room with a balcony that solved this problem by using large plants to mask the view downward while still letting you take in the sunsets on the water. What was particularly special for me and why I prefer small hotels was the very personal service. When Flavia, the hotel's hostess/concierge/decorator found out that I was on a gluten free diet she make a very special effort to have one breakfast cake be gluten free especially for me every day of my stay. Breakfast is served in a small sunny room with a lovely view and you can take your meal out onto the hot tub deck. The breakfast buffet includes tons of freshly cut pineapple and mangos, pastry, juice, custom omelets, sliced cheese and ham. The hotel is located on the quiet end of the old part of town which I greatly preferred to the big hotels by the beach at Barra. I felt less like a tourist and more like a guest.

Very friendly staff, only to 5 minutes walk from Pelourinho... You can go to center by walk, even at night...

My husband and I stayed in a quiet 3rd floor room with air conditioning and a balcony facing the bay. We booked the hotel using booking.com and had no problems.

The hotel was nicely decorated and the staff were very friendly and eager to recommend restaurants / sights. Breakfast is included and consists of a large spread of traditional Brazilian breakfast food, as well as omelets made on the spot.

The hotel is approx. 10 min from the Pelourinho. While the area isn't particular lively or affluent I never had problems walking around at night and think it is pretty typical for Salvador.

The best part of our stay was the staff, breakfast and location of the hotel.

Although there was nothing very bad about the room it I felt it lacked a bit of cleanliness. The shower flooded the bathroom every time we used it and the light fixtures were filthy which made the bathroom dark. The floors in the room also needed to be washed as they made our feet dirty. Other than this, it was a nice hotel and would stay here again.

Whilst hotel seemed fine in general terms my particular room was noisy. You can hear all the comings and goings from downtairs, and passageways echo. Perhaps not all rooms have this problem but beware in room 302 which is at the crossroads of the stairs and the dining room. The view out of my window was a blank wall a metre away. Avoid this room at all costs.