My 10 year old son and I traveled with our 25 year old (female) cousin to Brazil last week. Staying at the Ariau Amazon Towers hotel was definitely one of the highlights of our trip!

One word of caution...it you are so used to "Marriott" style hotels, and could never imagine staying at a clean "Howard Johnson's", then you may want to reconsider staying at this location. However, if you are open to trying new things and overlooking cosmetic issues and luxury items, then I think that you will really enjoy this place. We found that the best part of the hotel was the excursions.

For a detailed explanation/overview of the hotel, please scroll down to read the review posted by malcovemagnesia in January 2007. He does an excellent job of describing the property in tremendous detail. At the end of my review, I'll comment on some things that have changed since his review.

Previous posters describe the hotel as tired, in need of maintenance and a bit creepy (since there were few guests at the time). What struck me most about the hotel in terms of maintenance are items that I believe to be mostly cosmetic in nature. When you take the boat into the complex, you can't help but to notice that the roofs are different colors of green and some of them look old and rusted. I guess that because of the environment, they have to use metal roofs. When they repair, replace the roofs, they couldn't always match the colors, so it looks to be old and outdated. If you can overlook this, then the hotel doesn't look so bad on the inside. The inside of the hotel reminds me of a rustic lodge. (It does look older than it is. It's hard to believe that it was built in the 1980's. I would have guessed the 60's or 70's.)

The structures of the walkways are of questionable stability, but the good news is that there are two types of walkways. The walkways between the towers of the hotel are usually wooden, and these are the walkways that I was concerned about in terms of stability/safety. We did go on these, but once was enough for me. We spent more of our time exploring the walkways closer to ground level, the ones that you could ride a golf cart on. I figure that if the walkways can support the weight of a golf cart plus people, that they should be pretty darn safe. I was not at all worried about driving on these. These walkways are usually concrete, although there were some sections that were wooden. (But even the wooden sections supported the weight of the golf carts plus passengers easily.) There are some interesting things to see along the way (church, fountain of youth, pyramid, UFO landing pad, etc.), so I would definitely recommend renting a golf cart for an hour early in the trip, so you can at least see everything that is on the complex. (It's worth the 40 Reais.) You can always go back later to look at some things at a later time.

After reading some of the reviews on the site, we decided to upgrade to a suite. I would have loved to have gotten a Tarzan house, but we simply couldn't afford it. The suite seemed to be a reasonable upgrade, because it was only $500 (US) for the upgrade for the entire stay (not per night). Since my son stayed free (10 and under stay for free), it was worth getting the upgrade. We stayed in Solar Suite II.
PROS: It had a nice balcony with a view of the hotel. One of my favorite things to do was to wake up early and see the hotel come to life, with monkeys running around the hotel and blue macaws circling the complex. It had air conditioning on at all times, so it was always cool in the room. The room had one double bed, a single trundle bed and a pull-out sofa (double). The room also had a TV and a phone.
CONS: The phone was a joke. I didn't find out until we got there that you could not dial outside of the hotel from the phone. The phone could only dial within the hotel complex. And even then, it was not usable, since there were no written instructions anywhere. I tried to call the front desk one night, and I tried all types of combinations, but none of them worked. I had to walk down the five flights of stairs to the front desk and then back. (Which leads me to CON #2 - five flights of stairs and no elevator. -- This was also considered a pro, because we didn't have any noise issues whatsoever. There were only guests above us on the last night, and we couldn't hear them at night.)

Excursions: This was definitely the highlight of the trip. We all loved the swimming with the dolphins. We didn’t pre-book, and we paid 75 Reais per person. (We were told that it was more expensive to book it before you arrived.) The caiman excursion was also fun, and we were very glad that our guide was able to catch one. It was fun to watch him jump into the water to get it. My son LOVED fishing for piranhas. I was soooo glad when he caught one of his one. Even though it was a baby one, smaller than the palm of your hand, he was so proud when he caught it. (The restaurant staff cooked the piranhas for us and we ate them at dinner. They taste pretty good!) The jungle hike was interesting for me, but not so much for my son. PLEASE, take extra water, because my son was dying of thirst and heat stroke only about 10 minutes into it. Luckily, we had Mike the tour guide, who was concerned about my son’s health, stopped the tour for a minute or two until he started to feel better. My son and I also enjoyed visiting the native village, but for different reasons. I enjoyed seeing the village and how people could live so simply and yet be so happy. My son enjoyed holding an Anaconda and a young boy’s pet sloth. The gift shop at the village was nice. I would suggest saving some cash to spend here. During the visit, we saw the village school in session, and the kids sang us a song. It was nice to see the school, but I have to admit that I felt a little bit uncomfortable. I felt as though the kids were “on display” for the tourists from rich foreign countries, and that made me sad. We also visited one native’s house, and the couple that lived there were so friendly! It was nice to see them open up their lives to show to complete strangers. They shared their food and drinks with us. I can’t imagine many people doing that in the US! They had a gift shop at the house as well, so I would also suggest bringing some cash make a purchase to help to support the family as well.

One other benefit to this hotel that we hadn’t thought of before we arrived….we had the opportunity to meet other English speaking tourists from other countries (and the US). Our group all sits together at one table for the meals, so it was nice to be able to socialize with other folks! We met people from Holland, Russia and China in our group. (But we did spend most of our time hanging out with a father and his two older sons from Virginia.)

I also liked the fact that there was a pool table and a ping-pong table near the social gathering area. My son LOVED this, and he was able to meet some new friends from other countries at these tables!

My biggest disappointment with the hotel was the lack of phone service to the outside world. When I read that there would be a phone in the Solar Suite, I (incorrectly) assumed that I would be able to dial the US. WRONG! There were also two pay phones (with credit card access) that advertised dialing to the USA and Canada. These two phones did not work the entire three days that we were there. I tried every time that I walked by, and just got madder and madder each time. The hotel has a cellular service, because there were definitely four bars on my cell phone. However, the cell phone service is only for hotel employees. (At least, that’s what they told me.) I had three kids at home with my husband, and I desperately wanted to talk to them. Part of it was the fact that I COULDN’T dial home, which made me want to call them even more. The only option was to get connected through the front desk phone, which was at 6 Reais per minute! I called the first night, and left a message that we had arrived safely. I ended up calling again on the third night from the front desk, because I missed the family so much!! (I was able to keep that phone call quick at about 4 minutes!) The other alternative was the internet which was priced at 6 Reais per hour. (Hmmmm…. 6 Reais per minute on the phone, or 6 Reais per hour on the internet. Still, there’s nothing like hearing the voices of your babies from the other side of the world!) The only problem with the internet is that there was only one computer available the entire time that we were there. Most of the time, it was being used by another guest. When I saw that it was free, I quickly jumped on it!

So overall, we still had an amazing experience. The negatives of lack of phone service were not enough for me to give this hotel anything other than the highest rating. But, if you are so used to five star treatment and luxury, then this hotel will be a disappointment for you. For my son and I, it was simply fabulous and I would recommend it to any of my friends and family! Especially for families with young kids, as it can be quite a bargain, and the kids will love it! I can’t wait to come back here in the future! (If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me by sending me a private message through this website!)


Commentary on the malcovemagnesia review: Overall, he gives an excellent review of the hotel and tells you what you can expect! His description of the boat transfer is still accurate. His prices for the golf cart and bicycle rentals are still accurate. His description of the dining area is still spot on. They also had a pizza night one night when we were there. We avoided the salads, because we were never sure if they used bottled or tap water to wash the vegetables, so we didn’t want to take a chance. (We never got sick.) We saw where the internet area USED to be next to the bar. Now, the computers have been moved to the lobby. (There is no breeze through the lobby, so it gets quite sticky. It is the rainforest!) The internet prices are better than what he quoted. Also, the service must have been upgraded to high speed. I didn’t have any connection problems. Our tour guide did not have meals with us at all during our stay, and I don’t think that any of the tour guides did either. (I feel like we missed out a little bit.) Just a few minor updates, but the rest of his review still holds true.