BA'Ra Hotel

The Ba’ra Hotel is probably the best hotel in Joao Pessoa. This was our first time staying here, but we had previously visited to dine in their 2 restaurants, and seeing a bit of their infrastructure, I wanted to give them a try. We were not disappointed. Our room was elegantly designed, although a bit small. The bed is large, and of good quality, but surprisingly not that comfortable, but the linens are incredibly soft—a great quality cotton. The bathroom is large and the shower is even bigger (and the water pressure is great). The hotel has only been open for about 4 months (since October 2022). I think they are still shaking the bugs out, but their future looks good. The hotel staff are almost all incredible: in the restaurant Iocá, the maitre Murilo and our waitress Valeria were excellent; Guillherme, who works at the reception was able to answer any question I had about the property; the mixologist, Ulisses in Iocá had an encyclopedic knowledge of the art of drink preparation; Luciano, who works as security at the entrance was as charming, friendly and helpful as could be; Aquila, the hostess in Iocá was a wonderful face for the hotel, as she was as friendly as she was professional. There were many employees who I want to praise, but I cannot remember all their names. Guillherme explained to me that the hotel has 122 rooms; the name “Ba’ra” means “ocean”, the name of their rooftop bar/restaurant, “Orama”, means “view” (both of these words are from the native Tupi language). The hotel has a kid’s space (really cute!), a rooftop pool (warm water), a 24-hour gym (great machines) and a spa; you can use bicycles that the hotel provides free of charge; breakfast, which is included, has options such as mimosas, eggs Benedict or smoked salmon; the rooms provide cotton robes and they also provide complimentary spumante at check-in and welcome petit-fours in your room. Private parking is also complimentary. The hotel has 2 restaurants that are both open to the public for lunch and dinner (the service in both are intermittently good/bad, so if you eat here, you have a 50/50 chance of having a great meal (or a terrible one…). Lunch has always been good—dinners here, not so much. The location is the best you can get in the entire town—you are in the heart of the city, on the beach, near every restaurant that you might want to visit and any place you might want to go shopping. If you want to do a tour, the hotel has excellent concierge services that can help you with anything.

This property was a major disappoin**ent, despite their creative advertising on Instagram. We made the mistake of staying here for New Year's, expecting a great experience, but it turned out to be a disaster. The service was incredibly slow, even for just getting a drink in a nearly empty restaurant. They even tried to push us out of our table, claiming it was reserved for someone else, despite us having already paid a substantial amount to stay there. The rooms appeared old, with cheap stucco walls and uncomfortably hard beds. The amenities they offered were of poor quality. Room service took over two hours to arrive, and when it did, they got our order wrong. They promised to provide a free meal to make up for it, but we never received it. The New Year's dinner they advertised as a grand party turned out to have terrible food, and many other guests complained as well. The downstairs restaurant seemed to cater only to elderly guests, while the younger crowd was directed upstairs, but we had to pay an additional fee to access it. At checkout, we were shocked to find that the additional fee for our guest was double what the manager had initially told us. From start to finish, the whole experience was absolutely horrendous, except for a few kind staff members who acknowledged the hotel's shortcomings. There are much better hotels in the area, right on the beach, with fantastic food. If you're looking for a five-star experience, do your research and find one that surpasses this one (which is easy to do as their truly is only one 5 star in this town and it's not this one). Avoid this place at all costs, unless you enjoy misery, subpar food, and uncomfortable beds. Rooms: The rooms are small and haphazardly constructed, lacking insulation, which results in audible noise from neighboring guests and passersby in the hallways. Additionally, the beds are extremely uncomfortable, and the water pressure is disappointingly low. Food & drinks: Food is horrible but the bartender downstairs is amazing!

The most luxurious stay you can find in Brazil. Upon arrival you are greeted with chilled towels and fresh coconut water. Limitless delicious buffet breakfast options, rooftop restaurant Orama was divine and our waiter João was so helpful and attentive to our table and all the hotel staff were so nice. Overall experience 10/10 beyond our expectations. We can’t wait to return.

This is the first 5 star hotel in Joao Pessoa and it was great to stay at such a lovely hotel. The location is perfect - on the main sea front area in Cabo Branco right next to the pedestrian zone. There is good parking at the rear of the hotel. We normally only stay at hotels for one or two nights but we stayed here for 10 nights due to a long visit to Joao Pessoa. The staff were so friendly from the minute we arrived to the minute we left - they are very well trained and very helpful. There are two excellent restaurants on site and the breakfast is fantastic with lots of good options and very varied. Everything is made at the hotel and they vary the menu everyday. It was lovely to see staff greeting each other in the morning and showed what a good a**osphere there is. The view from the upstairs small pool area is stunning. We had several reasonably priced massages which we appreciated. The shower in the room was excellent and good air conditioning. The hotel organised a good city tour. There were some teething problems with our room around the air conditioning and building work noise but staff handled these very well and we moved rooms. We would recommend that the hotel considers more lighting (floor lamps) as it was difficult to read and more seating in the rooms. We definitely hope to be back to stay at this lovely hotel. Highly recommended.

We had lunch today at the 5th floor resturant When we arrived at the hotel my wife needed a wheelchair & 3 minutes later Dias arrives & really tool toke care of my wife om a very prpfessipnal manner. we live in JP & tje way.Dias handled our needs, we will definitely be a regular because of Dias. William Davis

One of my best experience in Brazil! The customer care is fantastic, especially Camila the concierge for Luck Receptive, she did great! Thanks to all for this fantastic experience, me and my team will be back for sure!

We thoroughly enjoyed our weekend stay at Bara. From the moment we arrived, the service was flawless (Valet, front desk, guest services, concierge, luggage transfer). Everyone we encountered was friendly and helpful. It seemed as if the staff was well trained and happy to be working there. Our room was equally impressive (we did not book ocean front). The bed was super comfortable with excellent quality sheets and pillows. The shower was equally impressive with great water pressure and ample large bar towels. We were celebrating an anniversary which we had casually mentioned at check-in and every day they left us a sweet surprise and lovely note to congratulate our special day. We were only able to sample the breakfast (amazing with lots of options) but will definitely return to try the other food venues. Hotel is also well located, easy to find and the free valet was key!!!