With its art-filled interiors and a rich history, the Wish Hotel da Bahia remains one of the most beguiling places to stay in Salvador. And beyond all that’s given the hotel its reputation as the city’s original grande dame lies a newfound focus on fine dining.
Salvador’s sultry tropical climate and coastal location aren’t kind to the built environment. And Wish Hotel da Bahia’s humidity-stained painted render façade quickly lets you know that a good refresh of this 1950s behemoth is overdue. Inside, chipped wooden floors and door trims, paintwork scuffs, and cloudy windows tell the same story (note that at the time of publication, imminent renovation works have been announced). But – and especially in a city where top-drawer hotels don’t grow on trees – we can’t help loving this 284-room giant for its striking form, bold public spaces and mid-century design sensibility.
The city’s first five-star hotel, when it opened amid much high-society buzz in 1951, the building is a heroic statement of Brazilian modernism and was listed in 2010 by the Institute of Artistic and Cultural Heritage of Bahia. An imposing, 12-storey oblong perched on two ground-level rotundas, it makes great first impressions with a voluminous, double-height lobby supported by huge cylindrical columns clad in sleek dark wood, and its glamorous, low-lit lobby bar, with a gleaming grand piano that conjures vintage Sal-Vegas vibes, is divided from the Passeio da Vitória restaurant and terrace by funky, almost Pop-art walls of perforated white ceramic bricks. Crooner-enhanced happy hours fill the space with music on Friday and Saturday evenings.
The hotel is also home to a jaw-dropping collection of some 370 significant works by Brazilian artists, many built into the building’s fabric. A spectacular concrete relief mural by Carybé hugs an angled wall above the reception, beneath which a supersized coffee table bears a moving sculpture by local artist Nadia referencing good luck charms worn by African slaves in Brazil in the 18th and 19th centuries. Meanwhile, the gourmet restaurant at Wish Hotel da Bahia, a large circular hall, is embraced by the beautiful 200 sqm/2,150 sqft mural Festas Regionais by Genaro de Carvalho, another Soteropolitano (native of Salvador). One of the largest collections of original photographic prints by the French photographer, ethnographer and ultimately Yoruba priest Pierre Verger is also distributed all around the building. For a really deep dive, you can take an expert-guided ‘Coffee with the Historian’ tour of the hotel’s treasures, culminating in bubbles and Bahian afternoon tea.
| Perfect for | Fly into | Right on time |
| The Culturalist | SSA | GMT -4 |
| While you’re Out There |
| Open Tuesday to Sunday nights, Âncora do Marujo is the oldest LGBTQ+ bar in Salvador and the last one standing in a neighbourhood that once throbbed with them. The tiny venue has been serving old-school drag and shenanigans for more than 20 years, and such is its fame, it has been visited by national musical treasures Caetano Veloso and Carlinhos Brown. A night out there’s all about sequinned shits and giggles in a welcoming atmosphere, but it’s also rightly revered in the city’s community as an enduring symbol of queer resistance. |
The guest rooms, by comparison, are comfortable but a bit meh, with corporate-adjacent 1970s decor, although the lift lobbies and corridors you pass through to get there ooze mid-century cool. Up the ante to a suite though, as no doubt did former guests Michael Jackson, Pelé, Gabriel Garcia Márquez and more than one Rockefeller, and you can add a spacious balcony and/or hot tub to your digs. Or go full Bond villain in the gorgeous, 300 sqm/3,230 sqft Wish Presidential suite, with its hydromassage tub, dining room, al fresco Jacuzzi and private pool sunk into a large decked terrace with bay views. Well, if it was good enough for Queen Elizabeth II…
Of the three dining options, the pinnacle is the Genaro by Vini Figueira restaurant, taken over in 2024 by the eponymous Carioca chef, who’s now a superstar all over the country. His team serve refined, authentic Bahian flavours with subtle Italian and Iberican influences. And the Lobby Bar’s pleasingly flashy vertical glass wine cellar holds some very worthwhile finds.
Outside, there’s a cute round pool with a bar, a large sun-deck and a once-lovely curved mosaic mural by Fernando Duarte that nowadays could do with a little TLC. Ditto the extensive, 24-hour gym close by, although there’s enough kit operational or otherwise to make it a real asset for endorphinistas. Next to that, there’s the well-regarded, full-service Natin spa. And should you be feeling misnailed, why not drop in at the adjacent beauty salon, Miss Nail?
Photography courtesy of Wish Hotels & Resorts
