I would like to echo one of the recent reviews that I've read about Pousada Picinguaba and more particularly about how underwhelmed we were by this place. The pictures and everything we read about the Pousada set our expectations very high and we were going into this stay with great anticipation... which, in retrospect, we should never have allowed ourselves to do.
The pros:
The village is nice and authentic, the place is secluded and serene, the personnel is extremely attentive and the food is good (we mostly had dinner there, which is an upscale buffet prepared with local products - really good). It is nice indeed to being able to spot a couple of monkeys in the trees while you are in the pool and feel the wilderness around you.
The cons:
When you are paying this kind of money (~$450 USD per night), it is your right to expect comfort, if not luxury. This hotel does definitely not deliver on this point whatsoever:
The rooms are extremely small (I had to move the chair for us to be able to get access to the balcony), the outside area is proportionally minuscule and views are obstructed by an intense vegetation.
While this hotel has an undeniable concept (it's all about being sustainable here...), the fact that they do not equip their rooms with A/C in a place where 35 C and 100% humidity are normal conditions during summer, is just a huge blow to comfort:
We woke up every night because the bed was soaked and it was very difficult to go back to sleep. Also, every single piece of clothes that we had brought was completely wet and it was almost impossible to get them to dry off. The hotel offers a cleaning service but be prepared for high prices there too - I guess this is what you get for "unsustainable behavior"...
While this place should be all about chilling and relaxing, it is actually quite hard to do so. The pool area looks nice but doesn't really offer a comfortable experience: the pool chairs are pretty dirty and overrun by ants and other insects. While the bar area will allow you to taste great caipirinhas and freshly made juices, the wooden chairs and the constricted space will not invite you to stay there for very long.
As a result, you are pretty much forced out of the hotel and unless you have a car and some local knowledge, you will have to go with one of the expensive activities that the hotel has to offer. While they were nice, they are (once more) not worth the price.
We were ok with not being able to access the internet during our stay but when we eventually had to, the reception reluctantly let us use their desk computer and checked on us every 5 minutes, making us feel bad about our apparently outrageous demand... I want to stress out again that the personnel was very attentive and overall great -I just felt that they overdid the whole sustainable concept.
Having to put your used toilet paper in a separate bin because they don't allow you to flush it doesn't really contribute to the overall experience either and this might have been the final touch to a very disappointing stay.
I read great reviews about this place so I guess that some people are able to enjoy the concept of it... it was just not our case, and I still think that even if you do embrace it, it is still not worth the money.
Going over board when it comes to spending money on a vacation is all good in my books - but if you can't see why you did, it just turns into a really bad experience...
This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC
14 July 2011
Thank you for your kind comments about the location and good service or Pousada Picinguaba, and apologies for replying so late to your review.
Just a few comments here to answer yours.
We are very proud that our 25 staff are all from the village, trained by ourselves, and take great pleasure in attending to our valued guests.
We are not allowed to change the size of the rooms, as we are within a state park, where construction is strictly prohibited, which is why the area is so amazingly preserved! However we believe them to be very comfortable and adequate. As clearly stated on our website, our concept however is to keep the rooms simple, with a private balcony and a hammock, all rooms are clear and uncluttered, with just a few orchids and fresh water on the table, facing the tropical garden with the sea as a backdrop. Overgrown tropical flowers and plants form natural screens for the rooms and naturally preserve from the heat, with hummingbirds as visitors.
The hotel decoration includes original works of Brazilian artists. No TV, air-conditioning, telephone or Internet here.
It seems that you experienced a heat wave when you came, which can happen some days of the year, while this does not justify having AC (anyway that would be a technical challenge here). Normally if this happens, we have good extra fans. As you probably have heard, this was very unusually hot weather that we had this year in end Jan and early Feb, normally the forest freshness and sea breezes are more than adequate.
In regards to our price we believe we are good value. Having the exclusivity of only 10 rooms has a price, also a great fresh dinner for 2 is included in the room price, which makes it quite competitive when compared to other similar quality hotels in Brazil, which has become an expensive country over the past years. As for the activities, a lot of them are free (you can do them yourselves) and our staff are trained to explain to our guests where to go on their own, but when a guide or a car is required, again those services in Brazil are not cheap. We make a point to charge pretty much cost price on the activities or transfers we organize for our guests. Restaurant and drinks are top quality (local organic cachaca for caiparinhas for example) and often cheaper than local beach bars for the similar quality.
The gardens are large for a maximum public of 20-25 guests (not opened to non-guests), and while we do not have 20 lounge chairs, as it never happens that people are all at the pool together, most of them normally preferring being at one of the numerous beaches or at waterfalls around, or on our boat somewhere, during the day. Maintenance is a hard task in a tropical country and by the sea, but we do repaint all the rooms, chairs, and change pool mattresses every year.
As for your comment regarding the bathroom / toilet paper…again we are in a park, no facilities are allowed to be built. We rely on a good ecological septic tank system, which requires proper use (no non-organic material can be flushed), and may I add that this is standard for most of Brazil, outside the big cities.
Its true that we discourage the use of internet. The service is both expensive and often very slow (or down) which is frustrating for us who have to use it for work. It’s not possible to offer internet to all of our guests or in keeping with our philosophy of disconnecting from the modern world. Having said that if guests urgently require to use it they of course they can and I apologize if you were made to feel uncomfortable while doing so.
I hope those comments will be useful, that you enjoyed Brazil and will return again.
Kind regards,
Emmanuel Rengade
Owner
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This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative and not of TripAdvisor LLC
