(Trancoso, Brazil) — This really is a great hotel, but also one of the most expensive. You can get a bungalow by the beach (but not really on the beach) or they have nice rooms set farther back in the property. (check out the aerial view below).  For about half the money, I’d recommend the regular rooms, each part of a four suite out buildings. Rooms are spotless, well designed and comfortable. All are open shuttered, so a mosquito net is a must, lest you get eaten alive. I had an unusual swarm of junebugs hit a couple of nights, sounds like pounding hail on the bathroom windows, with thousands trying crawl through the cracks. Turn the light off, the faucet roar stops, turn it on, the thunder begins again.  It was comical.

The pool is what makes this place, right off the beach.  And since this is a Relais & Chateaux property, you know the food is great. There are some really nice hotels up the hill, in town. But I really like staying right on the beach, then going to town for dinner.  Other highly recommended places are UXUA Casa (where just about every fashion editor in the world has seamed to have stayed) and Pousada Etnia which are both in town.  I walked by Villas of Trancoso and it looked pretty good, too and is also right on the beach.

Pousada Estrela d’Agua website; NY Times article on Trancoso,

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