Thanks to many many Amex rewards points, we spent 5 nights at the Belem Hilton for free. In fact, that was our main reason for visiting this city.

The Hilton has seen better days, decor-wise, and could use a makeover. The halls have a lot of dark wood, and the energy-saving bulbs in the fixtures make it look gloomy. But the halls' marble floors were always shiny and gleaming!

Our room was rather small. It had a tiny terrace with a partial view of the Praca da Republica and the river. The room's decor wasn't too impressive but then again we didn't choose the Hilton for its interior decoration. There was a hairdryer in the bathroom, the shower head was fantastic, and the air conditioner was very quiet and worked really well.

A buffet breakfast was included, and it was FANTASTIC. We also had the feijoada buffet lunch and again the food was excellent. Twice we had a light dinner by the pool (you had a choice of the indoor restaurant's menu or the bar's finger food menu) -- also excellent.

There is a business center in the basement where you can work or surf the web. The price to use the internet was 10 centavos a minute. There's also a pool that we never used (pale North Americans + blazing Brazilian sun = very bad idea) and a fitness room.

The hotel is centrally located on the Praca da Republica. You can walk pretty much anywhere, but with the heat and humidity you won't get very far. :-) You will be able to make it to one of the several ATM machines that are just to the right of the hotel as you step outside. Very convenient. We never had a problem getting a taxi, as several wait outside the hotel. We hired a cab driver one afternoon and he took us to a few nice places that weren't in our guide book. Three hours cost about US$40 -- well worth it.

All the staff were extremely attentive, helpful and friendly. The food was great. If you aren't bothered by the dated decor, the Hilton is a fine place to stay.

After hosting several exchange students from Brasil, my wife and I burned all my frequent flier points and got two first class tickets south to visit the girls. Had a fantastic time. Went to Rio. Florianopolis. Iguassu. Sao Paulo. And then...Belem. Our former students all asked why? Since we didn't have anyone to see up there. (And they all had kind of a horror-sticken look on their faces when we mentioned Belem.) Why? Because we were operating on the mis-conception that it was at the mouth of the Amazon plus there was a Hilton there. And I had a zillion Hilton Honors points so we could stay for free.

A. It's not at the mouth of the Amazon. Though we were able to book a boat trip back into some of the tributaries and got to see some amazing wild life. That was almost worth it.

B. Belem, as a city, is a dump. No sightseeing value whatsoever. And in fact, we felt very very unsafe most of the time we left the hotel.

The hotel itself was very rundown. The staff was verging on hostile. And the housekeeping staff robbed us. We came back from breakfast to find three of them furtively leaving the room. Three? Didn't think anything about it until later when we noticed that about $30 US was missing from one of the drawers. The staff's reaction? This is a poor country. This happens.

With all of that said, I loved the pool. But a pool is not worth a trip to South America.