Hilton Belém
by NedHopkinsIts location is ideal: just opposite the Theatro da Paz, in the midst of the city centre. Rooms are large and well maintained. The bathrooms are large and stocked with everything one might want, including hair dryers (quite useful in rainy Belém).
Its Acai Restaurant, on the lobby floor, offers a superb buffet (for breakfast, lunch, and dinner) and is open from 0400 to 2300.
There's also a lobby bar; it seemed comfortable and intimate, though I didn't go in.
The business centre offers high-speed internet access, though at a cost (R$4 per hour).
About half the shops on the floor just below the lobby are vacant; that includes the delicatessen.
A large pool just off the lobby; s fine restaurant; great views from upper floors (the 5th, say, to the 15th); a location convenient to most of the tourist sights, good restaurants, and shopping.
Dissatisfied with the Equatorial Palace Hotel, I walked into the Hilton and asked if a room was available. The desk clerk said none was, but that he would give me a suite for the standard room price. I luxuriated in a four-room suite with great views out of its floor-to-ceiling windows.
(The only other hotel of an American chain I've stayed at in Brazil, the Sheraton Rio, is a dump compared with the HIlton Belém.)
