If you fancy paying top dollar for something akin to a 1950s holiday camp experience, with a healthy dose of timeshare sales outlets thrown in, then this is the place for you. On the plus side, the rooms are spacious and clean (albeit we found the blinds broken in ours) and the beach location sublime. There are also some fine walks to be had into the nearby wilderness. Sadly, I struggled to find much else in the place’s favour. Most notably, the rooms are devoid of any of the luxuries that one might reasonably expect to find in a resort in this premium price range (not even tissues are supplied, let alone super-luxuries such as slippers). The restaurants are mainly of a vast buffet-type design. And, as observed in an earlier post, walking around the resort on the pavement-free roads is a hazardous and potentially life-threatening experience on account of the many recklessly-driven hotel vans - seek out the circuitous and sometimes difficult-to-find pathways as an alternative and guard your children very, very carefully indeed. Overall, the place has now grown to an excessive size and value for money has somehow disappeared along the way.

I just completed an 8 night stay at the Costao do Santinho Resort. Every year I hit Brazil for Easter holiday and always have a relaxing time. I’ve hit Buzios the past few years but I decided to try Florianopolis after hearing so many great things about it and reading it more in the press lately. I’m glad I did!

I always try to stay in 5 star hotels or apartment/accommodations when I travel. I work so much that when I’m on holiday I want to truly relax and have a great environment. The trouble is that Floripa (as the locals call it) don’t really have any 5 star accommodations. This resort was rated as the best resort in Brazil by several sources so I decided to book it.

The photos online looked nice.
(---) The ocean looked nice on that stretch of beach and I read several sources online saying that beach was nice. I emailed them via their website and I got an answer from an agent they have in Buenos Aires. They saw that I lived in Buenos Aires so they had her email me. Apparently she is the manager for Argentina and handles all reservations for Argentina but if you want to book, I would recommend you email her - {---} She is fluent in English and Spanish. She was very friendly and explained via email the prices and cancellation policy.


The price was pricey for Brazil. I paid about u$s 400 per night when you factor in the taxes. I booked an Ocean FRONT suite in the International Hotel section. They didn’t give any price breaks for staying 8 nights so it was about u$s 3,200 for the time I was there. That is pretty steep for Brazil. The rate included breakfast daily plus either a lunch or dinner (I could choose). I ended up not even eating breakfast one day. I slept in every day or even if I didn’t, I stayed in the room to enjoy the amazing view.


The room was very spacious with a King size bed, a living room with sofa and table, a TV with Cable, VERY spacious bathroom that had a separate Jacuzzi tub with a view to the ocean and a separate shower with very good and strong water pressure. The room even had a small refrigerator and microwave and dishes and silverware which came in handy.

The room had excellent lighting as well. The room had these huge floor to ceiling windows that completely slid open so you could see the ocean and hear the waves crashing on the beach. The view was AMAZING from my room. It had a good sized balcony as well with outdoor furniture. I stay so very busy working but it was nice to read a book out there. (Incidentally I finished 4 books during this trip. That’s how peaceful it was).


The great thing is that there was a view from anywhere. They had an unobstructed view from the bedroom to the ocean as well as the bathroom as well. There was this surreal effect that looked like the ocean waves were going to come into the room. It was great.

The maids were very good each day and did an excellent job cleaning. Someone else mentioned in a previous post that you should avoid the Villas and stick with the International Hotel where I stayed. I would wholeheartedly agree with him/her. I met some European girls (Sweden, Finland and Spain) during my stay that I met on the beach and they invited me to a Villa they rented. It was really horribly decorated and it seems that the Villas are individually owned so if the owner has bad taste, you could get stuck.

By no means would I say this resort is 5 stars compared with International chains. In fact, there are some negatives that I would report. The mattresses for the beds are cheap and not high end like 5 star hotels. Neither are the pillows. The internet worked at first but for most of the trip it didn’t work. I called and they said they were having “technical issues” and everyday they said it would be fixed “that day” but it never was.

Usually I can’t live without Internet as I work quite a bit but it was nice to relax and get away from work and emails. The biggest negative I’d say is the Air conditioning system. It worked very well and getting cold air wasn’t a problem. The problem is that for some reason, it’s very noisy. It’s a central system and it’s noisy. If you are a light sleeper you will have problems sleeping as the unit is loud. Still, the view is so amazing that really I got over it and I’d still recommend it. I’m a sucker for an amazing ocean view.

The staff was all very friendly. This complex is VERY big. There are tons of villas. You DEFINITELY need a car If you are staying at this resort as it’s a bit isolated. They have 24 hour security and you need to show your card that they issue to you at the check-in to get past. For some reason even with all the guests they always knew my name (the security guards at the front entrance). I’m not sure how. Oh well…I didn’t complain as they were always friendly.


There is a pool area, a tennis court, a gym and sauna/spa. I only had lunch one day out of the 8. I was always away or eating lunch or dinner somewhere else so I didn’t take advantage of it. The one day I did it was a buffet and the food was mediocre. Not bad but nothing special. I was surprised when I saw the bill as it was something like R68 (u$s 34). It was included in my bill as I got one included per day but if not, you would be paying about u$s 34 for a lunch which is quite a bit in Brazil.

The beach area at Santinho is very tranquil with many surfers. Very beautiful beach. There are SO many gorgeous beaches in the area. I took my rental car and tried to hit different beaches each day. Speaking of which, there is a rental car office at the hotel (Hertz I believe) but when I got there the first day there was no one there.

I could have taken a taxi but I wanted to walk so I walked from Santinho to Ingleses (the next town over). I think it probably is about 2.5 miles or so. I found a rental car office there. The name of the company is Desttak. The owner’s name is Armando. The address is Rua das Gaivotas #43. Their phone number is (48) 3369-5053. Their email is [---] Armando is a very nice guy. He spoke good Spanish so I spoke to him in Spanish. He said his wife speaks English but his Spanish was excellent so we spoke in Spanish.

Very likable guy. From talking with him he was originally from Sao Paulo and got tired of the rat race there so he moved here 5 years ago and built up the business from the ground up. He has 45 cars now. I rented a 2006 Chevy Classic with AC. Manuel transmission. R90 per day (u$s 45) which included the full insurance. I simply left a credit card number and he told me to pay when I brought it back. The rate was actually R95 per day but he gave me a discount for renting it the 8 days.

My last day I brought back the car and he offered to drive me back to the hotel which he did. Definitely I would rent from his company again. He told me the next time I came to email/call him and they would have a car waiting at the airport if I wanted.
I chatted with him about real estate on the drive back to the hotel. I fell in love with the city so much during my vacation that I started looking at apartments and houses during my trip. Only 3 days but I looked at a few properties. Properties have risen the past few years he said about 20% each year. I saw an apartment ocean FRONT with 2 bedrooms and a balcony for about u$s 130,000 in Canasvieras.

It needed renovations to make it a luxury apartment but the view was great. The beach isn’t as good in Canasvieras but I still might buy it and renovate it. There aren’t so many ocean front places for sale.
Interestingly enough, Armando told me the best place to buy was Santinho which he says is just developing now but he predicts it will be the most luxurious and expensive area in the future and there look like there are some high end developments going up there.

I drove around quite a bit during my trip. I was impressed with the Island. The beaches were very nice with white sand beaches and crystal blue ocean water. I really liked Jureré beach a lot and the homes/apartments in the area were very nice.

The city is safe and clean and the girls are gorgeous. It’s no wonder that some of the super models like Gisele are from nearby towns. Such an interesting mix as German and Polish farmers immigrated here in the early 19th century. If you are a single guy (which I am) it’s a paradise here! I met some gorgeous blonde hair blue and green eyed girls here that could be models in any country!

Be forewarned that almost no one here speaks English. My Portuguese is fairly decent (or at least good enough to get around and communicate). I’ve been to Brazil probably over 20 times since 2002. Many of the locals speak at least some Spanish since there are so many Argentines that vacation here. Several menus at restaurants I went to had menus in Portuguese and Spanish.

There were people from all over here. I was only there for 8 days and I met people from Argentina, Paraguay, Chile, Sweden, Spain and the USA. Many people from other parts of Brazil. There is a sort of tranquility here that I didn’t see in other parts of Brazil. The people here genuinely seem happy and content with life.

One thing I liked was that the local establishments are actually owned by Brazilians. In Buzios it seems like everything from the restaurants, to the hotels to the car rental agencies to the shops are all owned by Argentines. Here in Floripa from what I could see, it was owned by Brazilians which was nice.


I fly here from Buenos Aires on Aerolineas Argentina. I don’t really like them due to other bad experiences with them and their generally high prices. The trip was uneventful and I had no problems. The ticket was fairly expensive at around u$s 500 for a round-trip ticket direct to the airport in Floripa. Generally though, during Easter the tickets are all expensive. The flight is less than 2 hours (1 hour and 50 minutes) and very easy.

The hotel set up a transfer for me both from the airport and to the airport. It was u$s 30 each way. They were on-time both picking me up and bringing me back. I’d highly recommend the hotel. Really, if they got that AC working so it’s quiet, it would be a perfect place.


I definitely see myself coming back here over and over. I own a house in Punta del Este near the beach but I much prefer the beaches here in Floripa. You definitely see the resourcefulness and longer-term thinking of the locals. One of the places I wanted to buy, I tried to get the price down and tell them that I could pay 100% cash immediately and they were disappointed and said they would rather me make a down payment and make 96 payments at a high interest rate! I thought that was funny considering here in Argentina and Uruguay they only want cash.


All in all, a great trip and I would recommend this hotel and this City to anyone. I’ll definitely be back! Good luck all.
Mike

We stayed at this hotel for 3 nights in October. We had reserved a villa which is a complete roll of the dice - most of these are privately owned so they are all decorated differently. You could end up with a very nice one close to the beach or an older one that is a little dark and sparse (like we did). During our stay we asked to move to a nicer, brighter room. Although the hotel was hosting a large cosmetics convention, they did accomodate at no additional charge. Our new room was in the "international hotel" - which I recommend if you're looking for newer, nicer furnishings and a bath tub. (If you have kids then the villas are probably better suited as they have kitchens and separate bedrooms). The hotel hosts many conventions so there were a lot of people in the lobby and one evening at dinner but it didn't really affect our stay - they do their best to keep the larger groups segregated. Very few people speak English at the hotel so room service can be a challenge (the entire country of Brazil does not have very many English speakers at all so be warned!) . We ate at the buffet for breakfast and dinner and the food was above average to good. For Florianopolis, which is a lovely area, this is the best hotel you'll find. Overall, we were pleased with the food, service and overall quality of the hotel.

This is a beautiful place in a great part of Santa Catarina. It takes about 45 minutes to drive from the Floripa airport to Costao. It is all inclusive which is good and bad. The good is that you never worry about paying for food, the bad is they nickle and dime you at every corner. They charge $3 for a small bottle of water, $8 for a beer by the pool, etc.

While the rooms are nice, they are a bit old and the shades in the balcony next to my bedroom had an odor that permeated my room when the door was open. They have no coffee maker in the room, forcing you to buy coffee at the cafe.

An oddity about the resort is they promote ecological walks and environmentally safe lifstyles, but force their van service on you to drive you around the complex. There were more than a few time that I was almost hit by a van when I was walking around the complex.

It seems like a good place for families as they have plenty of activities for kids and a babysitting service. The beach is beautfiul and Satinho is a quaint little place with dozens of one room houses with their own livestock and satellite dishes. The contrasts of Brazil.