Monthly Archives: September 2008

Hotels NOT to choose in Floripa

1. Hotel Mercure Apartments Florianopolis Lindacap
The location of this Mercure hotel is excellent, especially when you are for work/business in Florianopolis: in the center of Florianopolis, close to the Hercilio Luz Bridge.
We tend to like Accor hotels and decided to give the Mercure a try this September.  The street is a quiet and safe one, the building OK and the staff is extremely friendly and helfpful.
However, the rooms are horrifying.  The interior must date of the late 80s, completely worn out and cold.  The bed matrass was equally old and just had a sheet on it (it gets below 10° in September in Floripa).  We decided not to stay there (even though it was 10pm) and decided to check out again and look for another hotel.   The staff was again very friendly and helpful.  They said renovations were planned and that the architects already made a mockup room for the revamp.  They even offered us to change to this room, which we kindly thanked for (and regretted afterwars, even only for the sake of having checked it out).
Conclusion: avoid until interior renovation completed.
The price was competitive at 150 R$ a night (negotiated price) for a double (Accor ‘hot deals’).  However, chances are this rate will no longer exist after renovation.

2. Pousada da Vigia
The site of Pousada da Vigia will make you dream. The reality however is different.  At the rate of 230 R$ in low season and 750 R$ in high season for a double room, it is seriously overpriced for the experience offered.

  • The pousada is at Praia da Lagoinha in the North of the island. It seems idyllic on the picture of the website, but the place from where the picture is taken is actually an ugly beach. The architecture destroyed it completely and this is the view you’ll have from your room.
  • You are far from everything. There’s nothing to do around, even no restaurants. If you want a decent restaurant at night, you’ll have to drive at least 10km.
  • The Pousada is big, but actually build on a very small plot. Contrary to what you might think from the picture it has no private beach and even not a private access to the beach. You need to makea quite big detour to get to the beach.
  • The Pousada is old and shabby. I don’t understand how they ever received the ‘Hotel de Charme” mark back in 2004.
  • The breakfast is ok, but to Brazilian norms not more than average.

For that price you ought to get a much better experience. To avoid at all cost !

~This post will be frequently updated~

Restaurante Central

Our office is just a block away.  When we want to have an excellent, yet quick lunch in a very enchanting modern place, we come here.  I’ve visited dozens of kilo restaurants in Brazil and absolutely love the concept.  But this one is probably one of the best.  The place can cater a big capacity of people and even when busy, the (self) service is extremely quick.

~ Restaurante Central
Rua Esteves Junior, 242 – Centro
Florianopolis, SC 88010-000

Tel (48) 3222-8808

“Florianopolis is the hottest beach resort in South America right now”

This time a raving article on Florianopolis in the Australian Times:

If Floripa is a potential Punta del Este, the centre of the “scene” is Lagoa da Conceicao, a village set around the main lagoon in the heart of the island, beneath the wooded hills. Kite surfers skim the glassy water, dodging wooden boats ferrying tourists to seafood restaurants on the far shores, and the sidewalks have the air of a hip southern Californian beach town: bustling surf shops, trendy coffee bars and an excellent gourmet “kilo restaurant” called Um Rosa, where regulars pile up huge portions of fresh fish, mussels, salads and organic meats from a buffet bar for 22 Brazilian reais ($A12.70) a kilo.

“Sun, sea and supermodels”

Florianópolis is the hottest beach resort in South America right now – a playground for Gisele and the gang. So why haven’t we heard of it? Dominic Sutcliffe finds out.

Excellent article in The Guardian on Florianopolis, after reading it, you won’t be able to resist.

Ms Bündchen comes from the neighbouring state of Rio Grande do Sul, but since she was unleashed on the world Santa Catarina has been gripped by model mania. As with Rio Grande do Sul, and unlike the rest of Brazil, the interior was settled by German and Polish farmers in the early 19th century, and over the generations their DNA has mixed with Portuguese and Brazilian blood to produce that distinctive dusky, dark blonde look. There are now five international model agencies in Floripa alone.

The hippest hangout of all remains the Confraria das Artes back in Lagoa, opened in 2002 by textile designer Rico Grunfeld, another São Paulo transplant. “When I first came here, there was nothing except kitschy discos,” he says. “I knew from visiting Paris, London and Miami that what this town needed was a lounge!” So, with somewhat bemusing logic, he created a sprawling nightclub with its own clothing boutique and four indoor-outdoor spaces decorated with vintage furniture, clocks, antique cameras and oil paintings – all of which are for sale along with the cocktails.

“The beautiful South”

The Time also devotes a very sunny article on Florianopolis:

…If all this makes Santa Catarina sound a little contrived, it’s saved by the absence of mass tourism. Even with the region’s glorious climate and natural beauty, there are surprisingly few of the chain hotels, tour groups or crowded beaches that can be common up north. Life in the south is an altogether calmer experience. People here work hard, but take relaxation even more seriously.

No wonder, then, that Santa Catarina’s state capital, Florianópolis, is regularly voted best for quality of life in the country. The accolade attracts a steady flow of fashionable Paulistas (São Paulo is only an hour’s flight away), young surfers and families coming to while away their weekends at the wide sandy beaches nearby. Style and glamour are in the city’s DNA — its most famous son and daughter are tennis player Gustavo Kuerten and supermodel Gisele Bündchen. But one of the most popular hangouts is not some swanky rooftop hotel restaurant; it’s a stand-and-be-served bar in the busy fish market, known simply by its stall number: Box 32…