Located at the north end of Ponte Negra Praia, just at the beach. The service was good and the staff very friendly. The meals in the Hotel are as good as in the restaurants in Natal and are quite cheap. The breakfast buffet is not huge but the choice is good. The rooms are clean and very spacious. It seems that the whole complex was built as an appartment house and not actually as a hotel. Therefore the rooms are actually appartments with a living room, something like a kitchen (without a cooker) a bathroom and a bedroom.
As the hotel is at the north end of Ponte Negra, it is a 10 minutes walk along the beach to the place where most restaurants and shops are located. There are only a few restaurants next to the hotel.
The hotel is nothing special and ranges somewhere between 3 and 4 stars. What makes it special is its price. It is very cheap (you might find prices at around 200 Real per night for 2 persons during carneval, if you browse the web), even cheaper as many so called pousadas which do not offer the same comfort and service. Compared to other hotels/pousadas in other places of Brasil offering the same prices, Praia Azul is just perfect.
Natal is a nice place but the trips (i.e. buggy trips, trips to other beaches like Pipa, which is 2 hours from Natal) are expensive (too expensive in my opinion) and normally do not fulfill the promises of the agents selling you the trips. It might be more advantageous to rent a car or buggy and to travel to the beaches and dunes on your own. Praia Azul does have parking spaces.

The praia azul is a charming hotel with friendly staff. The rooms were cleaned every day & were of a reasonably high standard. The food in the resturant was good although a little inconsistent. i would not recommend this hotel to anyone with walking difficulties as there are a lot of hills/steep stairs etc to get up...in fact the whole resort is a climb! all in all we had a really enjoyable stay at the praia azul, which was one of the few highlights of which otherwise was quite a dull holiday. Ponta negra is a bit like blackpool during the summer holidays, the beach is very long but extremely narrow & tight & with all the usual chaos with a beach like this there is not much chill time to be had!! i enjoyed the food but leanne hated it so if you dont like seafood or steaks done rare then you'll be eating pizza & frango (chicken) all the time. A couple of good place to eat was the mexican cactus...now first impressions you'll walk away, it does need a good paint job & needs to get rid of the cheap plastic tables & chairs but the food is to die for. Felinni is a superb italian & boiiderio is a great steak house which is an great experience!! DO go to pipa its less hectic very sleepy hippy village where you can spot/swim with wild dolphins...the other highlight of our holiday! We flew with thompson which was actually comfortable & some how enjoyable, but when you fly with monarch i suppose anything would be more enjoyable. To be honest i dont we would go back to ponta negra maybe try somewhere else in brazil, one thing that struck us was the gulf between the rich & poor, its huge!!! we think we get ripped off for goods??? try being brazilian. one last thing if you think you can handle the sun (which we did!) then think again...started on the usual factor 12, went very quickly to 20 & ended up with 30....the sun is evil! you have been warned.
P&L

This hotel has 3 blocks. I requested a room with good access and were luckily located in the front block with stunning sea views. The reception is on the top floor and has a ramp from the road. There is a lift to all 4 floors. From the ground floor there is good access to the pool area and bar/restaurant. The access is not so good for the other 2 blocks.
The apartments are delightful, spacious and clean with 2 balconies. There is no kettle in the kitchen although there is a microwave. The staff are very helpful and always smiling. The restaurant has a good menu and is very good value for money. There are plenty of other restaurants and bars within the vacinity. There is a fairly flat promenade at the front of the hotel which is about 1k from the centre of Ponta Negra and is accessable (although slighly bumpy) in a wheelchair this is reached by a very steep ramp from the front of the hotel. The beach is directly in front of the promenade and has about 15 steps. It is a lovely beach with loads of beach sellers who are very friendly and take no for an answer with a broad grin allthough there are many bargains to be had from sun cream to jewellery. The sea is quite rough and great fun but caution is necessary as there are no life guards.

We stayed at this hotel in April 07 and can't think of a bad thing to say. The view from our pool-side room balcony was awesome - overlooking the ocean and watching the surfers morning and early evening was fab (surfers were really good 'cos the current is very strong - too strong to swim in). The room was spacious and well equipped with microwave and fridge etc but no hob or kettle. There was a separate air-conditioned bedroom that could be closed off (great is you've got kids!) and a small dining area as well as loung area and TV in bedroom. The pool area was peaceful and well maintained with a good sized pool and childrens pool. Although the reception and restuarant staff speak a little English, be prepared to learn the lingo - mainly Portugese - as Brits are definitely in the minority! (this is good 'cos you really know you're in Brazil - not Spain!!) The restuarant is fine with a good selection at breakfast and an adequate choice for lunch and dinner (try the Cuban chicken with the fried banana - our 4 year old loved it!). The beach is clean and safe but the sea is poweful, though we generally felt no real need to leave the hotel pool area. Locally, there are plenty of very cheap restuarants and the Praia Shopping mall about half a mile away is fully air conditioned and has a good food court ranging from steak to sushi. We couldn't do the buggy safari trip as our daughter was too young but the Mangrove Mystery trip was great. Property development is massive in Ponta Negra, so if you want a hassle-free holiday go soon, before the time-share ghouls start appearing! All in all, we had a fantastic, relaxing and entertaining holiday in Ponta Negra and the hotel was brilliant.