Pousada Papiro Boutique

“Tranquil waterfront hotel”

Lovely hotel with beautiful views from every room. It’s a small hotel, maybe twelve rooms, each with their own water front balcony. The hotel is well maintained and modern for an island that’s only reachable by boat and has no roads or cars. The hotel will arrange a private boat transfer (for a cos… Più

Lovely hotel with beautiful views from every room. It’s a small hotel, maybe twelve rooms, each with their own water front balcony. The hotel is well maintained and modern for an island that’s only reachable by boat and has no roads or cars. The hotel will arrange a private boat transfer (for a cost) from the mainland directly to the hotel at your preferred time, which is a huge advantage to taking the limited public ferries. If you take the public ferry to the island you’ll still need a boat transfer to the resort. The island is traversable only by a network of trails. You should know it’s a relatively primitive island and the main town, Abraão has a rustic surfer vibe with many basic small hotels and hostels. Papiro is a 15 minute boat ride from Abraão and is situated on a calm bay with access to a mostly private and quiet beach. If you want quiet, relaxed and isolated this is perfect! The setting is truly stunning. The hiking on the island is amazing. There’s a beautiful waterfall about a 45 minute hike from the hotel. Bring hiking boots or sneakers you don’t mind getting dirty. From my research it appears Papiro is the nicest or one of the nicest hotels on Ilha Grande. The staff are warm, friendly and helpful. The food at the hotel restaurant is truly top notch. Fresh seafood, produce and meats. We were impressed with the quality of the ingredients and cooking technique for an isolated island and small hotel. Try both octopus dishes for sure! And the ceviches! My only complaints are the rooms only have AC, and the heat and “dry” function on the HVAC units don’t work. We had rain two of the three days of our stay and both the bed linens and our clothes were damp. It is a rainforest island after all, but if we’d been able to turn on the heat or dry fan I think we could have taken the dampness out of the air in the room and dried things out.

Meno

“A beautiful view of the ocean”

A very nice hotel in Ilha Grande. The speedboat pick us up in Angra dos Reis ( you have to ask for transportation in the hotel) and takes us directly to the pier. A 20 minutes ride. THe rooms are very confortable, with a beautiful seaview. It is far from the village of Abraão. Its an one hour hike… Più

A very nice hotel in Ilha Grande. The speedboat pick us up in Angra dos Reis ( you have to ask for transportation in the hotel) and takes us directly to the pier. A 20 minutes ride. THe rooms are very confortable, with a beautiful seaview. It is far from the village of Abraão. Its an one hour hike to reach the village and the restaurants. The hotel has a restaurant, but it does not have many options. in 30 minutes walking distance you can reach another beach (Praia de fora) and have restaurants optins. We had a very pleasant stay. Everything worked perfectly.

Meno

“It could be great but it isn’t”

This hotel is located in a beautiful part of the island and our expectation was super high. The reception from the boat was nice and kind. About 3-4 people welcomed us off the boat and took our luggage. Our family is a party of 5 and we were traveling with a couple of friends so we reserved 3 rooms… Più

This hotel is located in a beautiful part of the island and our expectation was super high. The reception from the boat was nice and kind. About 3-4 people welcomed us off the boat and took our luggage. Our family is a party of 5 and we were traveling with a couple of friends so we reserved 3 rooms. The rooms were really small but they had a nice view so it was ok! Our problem was the bathroom which smelled bad the whole time we were there. The hotel structure is nothing to write home about. Since there’s no pool, you’d think the beach was great but it was bad. And they had a nice area on the beach for guests but it was completely abandoned! No service and just water and leaves on top of the chairs. They said we could use WhatsApp to talk to they but they would take a long time to answer. Overall, the staff was friendly but they were just unprepared. The food was extremely over priced but good. However service was spotty. Breakfast was good but a bit messy. No plates, no glasses, no napkins, etc. one event really stuck with us though. The first day we arrived, the staff told us there would be a paella and live music for R$190/person around 3-4pm. We were back on time for that and found out the paella was for the hotel owner’s friends that were coming on a boat and that the party would start only after the boat and the birthday boy arrived. So net, net the hotel was “selling” the owner’s friend’s birthday party as a hotel event. My husband and my friend talked to the owner and gave him feedback that it was unacceptable and that we would not pay. He took the feedback and didn’t charge us for the paella which was a nice gesture. But we were just shocked they even tried to sell a private party to us and other guests and how late it started and how bad it was! In any rate, I don’t think we’ll return which a pity as this hotel has everything to be great but it isn’t! 😢

Meno