Pousada Chê Búzios

We came to Buzios for a quick 4 day beach vacation. We knew we wanted to stay close to the city center for ease of walking home after dinner or a late night. All the beaches surrounding Buzios are too far for walking so you must drive, go by boat taxi or take a bus. We choose Che primarily for its location but also the price. I had a difficult time deciding which star to give Che because the positives were so great but the negatives so bad, so I will break it down for you. LOCATION: **** Stars: Could not be better! It is located on a quiet street two blocks from Rua das Pedras. It takes approx 3 minutes to walk downtown. On a side note the streets and sidewalks are made from uneven stone bricks- No heels unless they are wedges! PARKING:***Star There is a parking lot next door. They originally were going to charge 30 Reis a day but since we were staying 4 days, they lowered the price to 20 Reis per day. The parking attendants live next door and your car is always available. They are very nice and personable. There are cameras on the lot. During the week, you can park where you want but on the weekend, they want you crammed in the back as they are preparing for night time party parking. Street parking is still a mystery to me..... you can park from 10pm-10am, at no charge. (Someone who parked in front of Che had their window smashed the second night there.) The confusing part is that during the day 10am-10pm, a ticketing officer puts a slip of paper on your window and then you have to drive to an "office" and pay it. STAFF/CHECK-IN: ***Star Carolina was great, very friendly and helpful. There was another receptionist who was fairly friendly, the other check-in staff were not as friendly and not interested in helping. The housekeeping staff were personable and attempted to understand my poor Portuguese. They also held our bags after checkout so we could go to the beach. POUSADA: ****Star- The pousada itself has a very nice set up. All of the rooms are to the left and to the back. There is a nice long courtyard that has trees,flowers and seating for many people. It is very quiet and peaceful. The kitchen is always open for your use but they do not want the dishes taken to the bedroom. The tables are cleaned throughout the day and seating comfortable. ROOM: *Star- We had a room with two twin beds and a double. There was an ensuite bathroom, a good size refrigerator, a sink and a long counter top. Now there are many rooms at Che so maybe they hadn't painted ours yet but it was like a prision cell. There was one small nightlite and a light on the ceiling that gave off small light. Walls that I assume used to be white but are now grungy, cracking and water stained. No artwork and only one small mirror in the bathroom. The bathroom was really quite disgusting. Mold covered the tiles in the shower and around the sink. A little bleach would go a long way in there! The shower leaked all over the floor no matter how hard we tried to keep it contained. The water was nice and hot and they provided 1 towel per person. After the first day, they did not clean the room, I really only wanted the water cleaned up from the bathroom floor. We asked and the staff who were more than willing to clean our room. You have to leave your key at the front desk and ask if you'd like your room cleaned. I realize we were at the beach and didn't spend much time there but the time I was there, I couldn't wait to leave. BREAKFAST: Awesome- 3-4 different juices, delicious coffee, hot chocolate, a few tea varieties, 2 different fruits, 2 sweet cakes, 3-4 varieties of bread, meat and cheese. The staff was not to quick to replenish but were willing to get our more if you asked. OVERALL- I would stay there again but would hope that we had a different, cleaner room that felt less like a prison. **on a side note, we had booked through booking.com which said we did not need a downpayment. I received an email in portuguese that I assumed said we would lose our reservations if we did not pay 1/2 within 24 hours. I contacted them via email requesting it in english to which they could not. My Brazillian friend called them and they wanted our credit card over the phone! My friend ended up sending a money order for the deposit.