Looking for a gay-owned boutique place to stay in Salvador’s bustling Pelhourinho district? Well, there’s really only one, as far as we’re aware. But luckily, Casa do Amarelindo is an excellent choice.
There was nothing quite like Casa do Amarelindo in Pelhourinho, Salvador’s most traveller-plied area, when French husbands Didier Ounnas and Gilles Barral first opened for business in January 2007. Suddenly, among the simple pousadas (bed and breakfasts) and backpacker hostels, this UNESCO-listed historic area had its first bona fide boutique hotel, in a large, immaculately renovated 19th-century historical townhouse just off the main square.
“We always had a dream to open a small hotel in a tropical country,” said Didier during our stay. And, although neither had hospitality experience, when both came to the end of five-year corporate contracts in Sao Paulo, they thought, “for this crazy project, it’s now or never.” Success came swiftly, and the number of neighbouring properties that have since raised their game in terms of service, comfort and aesthetics attest to the popularity of Casa do Amarelindo.
The hotel comprises ten generous rooms, with quiet, efficient air-con and ceiling fans, many with private balconies and sweeping views across terracotta rooftops and ornate church towers to the glittering Todos-os-Santos Bay. Featuring beautiful dark-wood floors and soothing colour schemes, all have either king-size beds or two doubles – our deluxe room contained perhaps the biggest bed we’ve ever slept on – large, flat-screen TVs with international satellite channels and Nespresso machines. Well-appointed bathrooms featuring either hydromassage or tropical rain showers, and some of the best water pressure and temperature we found in Salvador. Unusually for hilly, cobbled Pelhourinho, one room is adapted for travellers with disabilities and an elevator accesses all storeys. Another smart feature, given the exuberant drumming groups which are a hallmark of the neighbourhood by day and night, is the installation of soundproofed windows and doors.
| Perfect for | Fly into | Right on time |
| The Sophisticate | SSA | GMT -4 |
| While you’re Out There |
| Like much of the world, Salvador has seen its crop of queer bars reduced by rents and apps, but a noble survivor is Bar da Pri, a frills-free, community-spirited little charmer ten minutes’ walk away in the next-door hood Santo Antonio. The crowd is friendly, and while Saturday nights can get a bit camp-pop generic, weekday karaoke sessions are a particularly Seteropolitan way to meet local gays at play. |
The airy ground floor is home to a handsome lobby drawing room, a ring-side seat for Pelhourinho’s colourful and non-stop street life, and the cosy Pelô Bistrô restaurant and its cute little bar, both of which open onto two small, lushly planted courtyard gardens. Décor throughout is simple and elegant, blending Bahian style with dashes of Afro-Brazilian artistry and the odd Deco flourish – and even a nod to the owners’ roots in Provence, in the restaurant’s warm Mediterranean colours. The menu here is modern Bahian and deliciously showcases well-presented local produce, and the service, as throughout the hotel, is outstanding, a point of pride with Didier, who wryly noted service in Brazil can be disappointing, even in five-star establishments. His big smile when we asked “did you train your team yourselves?” told us all we needed to know.
Very unusually, the hotel also has a sun deck with a pool – albeit a bijou one – which, while not the only hotel pool in Pelhourinho, is the only one with a panoramic view of the bay. This was also our favourite spot for submerged sipping of caipirinhas, which the charming staff are on hand to bring from the bar a floor below. The upper floor has a generous terrace, also with a bar, perfectly placed to drink in a spectacular Salvador sunset (and perhaps another of the hotel’s impressive signature cocktails, why not?). There’s a tiny fitness room too, and Ayurvedic massages are available on request. The friendly front-desk staff, meanwhile, are full of useful advice for visitors, and can arrange sightseeing and cultural tours around and beyond the city for guests.
Beyond their hospitality success, Didier and Gilles have another very cute claim to fame. In 2013, they became one of the first foreign same-sex couples to marry in Brazil, exactly a month after it became legal both here and in France. On June 16 – 25 years after they met, and on Brazil’s equivalent of Valentine’s Day, Dia dos Namorados. Awww.
Photography courtesy of Casa do Amarelindo
