The location is excellent, just outside of the town but right by the beach.
We had a really nice double room with bathroom. Really clean and a nice space. A good shower too!
Breakfast was excellent and the shared spaces are OK though you do have to use the kitchen outside which isn't great. Wifi doesn't reach all the rooms.
The staff were really friendly and helpful
Stayed during carnival time so limited choice on the island and therefore it was very overpriced for the standard of the room.
Very dated rooms but reasonably clean. Breakfast as standard in Brazil.
On plus side owner was helpful and let us checkout late.
I made a reservation through Hostelworld and paid the required 10% deposit on there. Later that day I got an email from someone named Márcio at the hostel saying that a 50% nonrefundable deposit was required to book. I had read all through the policies before booking and didn't see this anywhere. I emailed back asking about the 50% deposit, and he responded saying he had cancelled my reservation. So I lost my Hostelworld deposit (you have to cancel on their website to get it back) and now I also had nowhere to stay. When I responded that I hadn't asked him to cancel the reservation, he said I would have to re-pay the 10% deposit in addition to the 50%. He proceeded to send me about four rude and sarcastic emails about how I should "read the policies before paying for anything online." He finally shut up when I sent him a screenshot of the policies listed on his hostel's page (nothing about a 50% deposit)
My friend and I booked a dorm room for three nights and when we arrived the nice young girl at reception showed us to our room and told us she'd just need our passport numbers and we could pay the total at the end. We got to the room and it was disgusting! The window had been left wide open and there were bugs everywhere. The bunk beds looked as if they would collapse, the sheets didn't look clean, the room was dark and just felt really grimy and damp. Also there were no other guests in site, the place seemed really dull and had no atmosphere at all. But we'd already paid the deposit online, so thought we'd give it a go. There were no lockers in the room so we went to ask at reception were the lockers were and the nice girl was away from the desk and instead there was a very grumpy older lady. We told her we'd just checked in and wanted to use the lockers and she said we'd have to pay for our room upfront. I said we wouldn't pay upfront because we'd paid the deposit online and we'd pay at the end because that's what I've always done at every other hostel I've ever stayed in. She got really aggressive and incredibly rude about it. I told her in the case we wouldn't stay there and she didn't care in the least, she just asked for our room key back. We got our bags and walked to Aquario Hostel where we were greeted by a lovely girl at reception and shown to a nice clean room. We had the best three nights there and met some really good people. Book Aquario and don't even think about booking this place, it's a dump.
We only stayed here because there was nothing else available. The rooms are pretty good, hot water and air con. Unfortunately staff were very rude, wifi was down the whole time, the roof leaked so passports and computer in lockers got damaged, they do have a kitchen but generally won't let you use it until after 8pm at night.
I'd avoid unless you had to
This was the only place that was still available for less than 300 EUR/night (it was around Xmas, so high season), which is why we booked it, without any expectations so we would not be disappointed. We stayed in the double room - probably the best room of the hostel. There's not much to write home about this place, but it serves its purpose - basically to provide a place to sleep with a working air conditioning and a working shower. During the day, you are on the beach anyways (we were lucky to have great weather all the time - I would not have wanted to spend my day at this place). The breakfast is ok, there is wireless internet and a public computer in the common area, and the beds are good enough to sleep in. The price we paid (about 115 EUR/night), was pretty outrageous, but for the time of the year this was the minimum price on the island.
