Family-friendly Hotels in Recife

Not only is the location convenient, but the environment is quiet and comfortable, suitable for me to work and rest. The room facilities are modern and well maintained, and the staff are always friendly and professional, offering timely assistance at all times. Although the dining options are limited, the quality is good and the daily breakfast is good

I actually booked this hotel by accident (I was looking at their sister hotel, the Marante Plaza Hotel, which is right on the beach for basically the same price). This hotel is 2 blocks from the beach in the same neighborhood. Despite “Executive” in the name, this is more of a budget-to-midrange hotel. The lobby is very attractive and the exterior of the hotel is also nice. The hotel staff are pleasant and helpful. They have valet parking in the front (for a very reasonable price). Breakfast is included and is decent. The room we stayed in had a partial view of the ocean. It was sparsely decorated. What I really didn’t like was the bed: We requested a double bed, but it was actually just 2 single beds shoved together. 1 plus 1 may equal 2, but 2 single beds don’t equal a double bed. I like to sleep in the middle of the bed, so I just kept slipping into the space between the beds. The pillows were possibly the most uncomfortable I’ve ever slept on. If it wasn’t for that, I’d have given them a better score.

The hotels in Recife all seem to be pretty utilitarian, and Hotel Manibu Recife is no exception, but it offers very good value compared to some other hotels that are quite similar. For $50 USD a night my room was clean and functional, with a small view of the ocean through some buildings. The lobby is nicely decorated but the attached restaurant is drab. The rooftop pool area has a nice view but is rather small. The point of all these qualified statements that I am making is that basically, for $50 a night you are getting a clean room with a utilitarian bathroom and shower, which is a pretty good deal for the area. My room at the Radisson was basically the same (minus the balcony at the Radisson) but cost twice as much. Some high points to the Hotel Manibu are that the front desk clerk spoke excellent English, and there is a good restaurant called Entre Amigos on the beach in close walking distance. A low point of this hotel is that I did not see any other restaurants open in close walking distance (others have said there are some, but I walked around and didn't see anything open besides Entre Amigos). Anyway, if you don't want to pay top dollar for a hotel on the seafront this is a very reasonable choice.

This facility formerly belonged to the Best Western Hotel chain, and they still adhere to Best Western standards. Very professional staff with a pleasant, customer-oriented and proactive attitude, caring and always with a smile. On arrival I was immediately offered a glass of water. All my requests were carried out instantly within minutes. The breakfast buffet offers a good variety of choices for Brazilian standards, even if the cooked components were pretty much the same every day. Very attentive, skilled and respectful restaurant staff. Cleanliness was just perfect. Very friendly and helpful housekeeping.

Of all the 4-5 star hotels we stayed at during our February 2024 tour of the Northeast Brazil, Villa d'Oro near Olinda was the plainest, least memorable experience. Small rooms, basic breakfasts, cheap furniture, a miniature pool, and minimum service sums it all up. Ironically, Villa D' Oro charged us more than other really nice hotels and resorts that we stayed at in Recife, Praia Pipa and Natal, likely because of the Olinda carnival, which was happening while we visited. Villa D'Oro is just an OK place to sleep and that's that, no value enhancement, not even smiles at the front-desk and definitely an overpriced basic hotel that we would likely not be staying at again now that we have discovered less expensive resorts that offer so much more value. Take it for what it is, just a small, clean, safe hotel that offers a 2-3 star experience, and as long as you have no great expectations, you would he ok with it.

Look, I struggle giving this hotel a ”just OK” review, because their breakfasts were very good, their pool area was nice, their location is convenient and their rooms were nice enough, but there was a sharp contrast in other areas of the hospitality service that made my experience of a lesser value and appreciation. To begin with, the front desk staff takes too much time to check you in and out. I arrived early in the morning after a 25 hr overseas trip, there was no other guest in line at the front desk, we had already paid for our reservation. In my mind, as a seasoned traveler, I would have expected an ID check and a ”here is your key to the room” in 2-3 minutes. I repeat: there was no other guest at the front desk area. Instead, I spent 10 minutes answering dumb questions and repeating information such as my email address, my phone number etc that we had already provided at the time of making and paying for our online reservation. The initial response of the young man who helped me, when I told him I had a reservation and later offered my full name, was that he could not find the reservation in his system - so I had to pull out a paper copy of my reservation for him to find it in his system - if you can believe that. I spoke to this guy in Portuguese, in English, in Spanish and it was no use - the guy acted like he just didn't know how to do his job. I should also mention that when I arrived to the hotel, the front desk AC units located above the front desk were leaking water everywhere in the front desk area and no one seemed to be servicing them right away - in fact, the front desk agent had to move to another nearby computer terminal to check me in. It was a lame check in experience and an equally lame check out experience. Not to mention, we paid for a ”casal' or doubles reservation and the room only had one set of soap/shampoo toiletries, so, I had to go fetch the maid to get the necessary items that should had been in the room without me having to ask. For such reasons, I would say that I would only use this hotel if I had to in the future, but preferably, I would stay elsewhere, because the value I got during my stay was pretty basic and nothing special according to international standards of travel and hospitality.