The rates dropped down very low the day after the last match in Salvador. And a few days before that I attended a Moments event in the Club and met some of the management, so I decided to stay a night here before flying out.

First was the Moments event which was great, as they all are. This was was lightly attended and featured drinks and food in the club and the Brazil-Colombia match on TV. They also had some live music on the terrace. Of course since Brazil won the match everyone was happy and like all Brazil matches, up til the end, fireworks were plentiful throughout Salvador and fun to watch from the 12th floor terrace.

And then several days later I checked in as many people were checking out. I found that this hotel is a historically listed and was the first major hotel in Salvador, back in 1962 I think. It's a very nice building.

Like everywhere in Brazil English is rare. But I was there for two weeks so learned a bit of Portuguese and got along fine. The parking valet did not speak English, but one of the bellman did so that was ok. The front desk staff all seemed to speak English well enough and the senior staff were fine.

I booked directly with the hotel and gave them my Platinum number. It never showed up on spg.com and I expect I may have to chase the stay credit, but we'll see. I was upgraded to a large 4th floor room with a huge terrace. It seems that its only the 4th floor that has the large terraces. I guess you would call it a junior suite or exec room by Euro standards. Two rooms, two TV's, but only a desk separating the two rooms. Nice new bathroom and bed, etc. The Wifi worked fine. It is completely open and free in the lobby and of course free for Plat's in the room. In the room was a fruit display, two pitchers of local juice and a large bottle of water.

Happy hour in the lounge had limited food options, but ok quality. Only beer and wine seemed to be available for alcohol, but they have the nice local lemonade which is great. But there was a problem when I was about to leave the Club in that I was presented with a bill for all the alcohol! At no time was I told that alcohol was charged and of course I wasn't charged earlier at the Moments event so it was a bit of a surprise to see a bill. Future guests should beware. I didn't get a chance to ask management what the policy really is. I was able to order from the room service menu and have some food brought to me in the club. I thought this was fine as the wine and beer was free. In the end the charge was removed from my bill so I have no serious complaint.

The bars in the lobby and pool deck seemed very well equipped and had a good selection of local Cachaça and wines. Very good service throughout the hotel.

The pool deck is quite nice with plenty of space and a kids pool too. One issue though is that they have set up cabanas, but the roof of the cabanas are open so no escape from the sun for those of us who are fair.

Location wise you can walk to the city market (which is a lot of fun) and if you like walking, all the way to the old town bars and restaurants. I guess that would be at least a kilometer or more though. You could even walk to the stadium as I'm sure many fans did. Otherwise Salvador is a car town so I rented from Avis for the two weeks I was there. Parking is relatively cheap at the Sheraton, R$20 for overnight. There were always taxis out front too.

In short, this hotel is a very nice addition to Starwood South America and Salvador is a great place to visit. As is the rest of Bahia. I look forward to returning, possibly for Carnival.