I've been to Mar Hotel for the 4th time last week. What i saw is a decadent "once a 5-stars" hotel, now not worth a 3 stars.

Old furniture, old TVs, dirty bathtubs, service OK, breakfast OK.

It has aged like Recife, today a unsafe, violent city, which i DO NOT recommend.

I stayed in the Mar Hotel for a conference for 3 days in July 2008. It charged like a 5 star hotel, but the facilities were hardly up to the standard.

First, I reached there on a Sunday night at 9:30pm and found that they had no restaurants open. My only choice was to either order the overpriced room service or to go out (I went out -- there is a pretty nice Chinese place within 5minutes).

Secondly, the internet connection is terrible. They claim to have "High-Speed" internet, but the connection is worse than dialup. My room wasn't the exception, everyone at the conference was complaining about the internet connection. If that is important to you to conduct business, be very careful.

The location isn't that great either. Its not bad, it seemed safe, but it still a good 5 minutes walk to the beach. On the positive side, it is very close to the airport and takes only 10minutes from the airport.

The rooms are average. The floor in the bathroom wasn't very clean -- if you walk around barefoot your feet will pick up dirt and some basics such as ironing board and iron weren't available.

On a positive note, the front desk was friendly and efficient and there is a tourist agency in the hotel that can supply you with maps and they also organize city tours. The breakfast is plentiful.

I stayed there more than four times since 2002, after staying at Atlante Plaza for the first time in Pernambuco's capital city. And I do intend to stay there again every time I visit Recife.

There's nothing I could complain about this hotel - everything is just great! The rooms, the swimming pools, the restaurants, the staff, even the location - very close to the airport.

But there's one thing that made me love this hotel forever: the breakfast. Celestial food!

I enthusiastically recommend this hotel.