Hotel Pantanal Mato Grosso — Hotel in Região Geográfica Imediata de Cuiabá

This hotel survives thanks to its location as it serves as an intermediate stop for people traveling to Porto Jofre. With no competition it is able to survive with run down rooms and mediocre food and not even providing coffee with meals. Without a doubt the worst food of any lodge in the Pantanal. ||||The Hotel Pantanal Mato Grosso is very much In need of repairs and maintenance. No glass fror the main window and so no way to keep out the 100 degree air from the outside. Very large gap between the door and the frame which made it very easy for mosquitoes to enter the room at night. ||||Small 110 VAC air conditioner that is inadequate and would not work well even if the room was not open to the outside air. At least our room had intact screens on the windows as nearly half the rooms had large holes in the screens in the shower area and open up the room to mosquitoes and other insects. ||||Internet access came and went and was out during most of our stay at the hotel.||Television is an old CRT 14 inch one that is at least 10 years old and not really located where it can be viewed as it is mounted 7 feet off the floor and only 7 feet from the wall behind the beds.||||The one double bed has a dumb headboard that sticks out 8 inches from the wall so one cannot sit in bed and lean back against a pillow. Oiut room had a double bet that was where the protruding headboard was located and so we ended up putting our suitcases at the back of the bed to be able to sit in the bed. ||||With no chair and no way to sit up in the bed one is screwed in terms of using a laptop or reading in the room. Rickety night stand that wobbles back and forth. OK for a laptop or a clock but not much more. Light for the room is a single 60 Watt incandescent bulb. ||No hair dryer in the room and there are none available to loan to guests ||Room has fridge but no phone and no hair dryer and of course no bath soap or Kleenex tissue or shampoo or conditioner or a wash cloth nor a way to plug the sink to hand wash anything. ||The bathroom is like something one would find on a passenger jet. I could not sit straight on the toilet as the glass panel for the shower is less than 2 inches from the edge of the toilet seat. The bathroom door when opened hits the end of the toilet roll holder. ||No room safe – not even a tiny one for passports and cash. ||Rooms are very noisy on the pool side (more than half the rooms) as the pool is only 40 feet away from most rooms and there are lots of children staying with their parents at this hotel.||||There is also a pool table outdoors that is less than 20 feet from some of the rooms and so one needs the AC to drown out the noise from the billiard balls being struck.||Food is OK but very very salty as seems to be the norm in the Pantanal. Good way to diet as I cut back on portion size by 50% as food was so salty. I got sick from my first lunch at the hotel and thankfully had Imodium caplets with me. ||There are two groups of macaws on the other side of the river about 100 yards from the hotel and these birds start their loud squabbling at 4:00am so no need for an alarm clock unless you are an exceptionally heavy sleeper. ||||Bring your own water bottles so you can stock up on water for the room and for meals. You can refill them from a large jug of filtered water which we did several times during the day. We used our own bottles of water to the dining room so we could have water with our meals. ||||Good idea to stop in Pocone and buy any beverages you will want to have while staying in the Pantanal. Many of the markets are closed on Sunday but a few remain open. ||||If you take one of the small boats on the river you may see caiman and several types of herons. If you take the trail from the lodge you have a chance to see small bird species, a small ant eater, the southern tamandua, and on rare occasions the tayra.||||In general I would recommend taking ear plugs, mosquito netting, shampoo, Kleenex, Tabasco, black pepper, alarm clock, flashlights, power strip with USB charging ports and plug adapters, washcloth, bath soap (Dial or Zest for the hard water), hair dryer, electric shaver (as sinks only have...

The accommodation in the Pantanal is all largely similar. The main selling point is the wildlife around the lodge and this lodge is by a narrow river which is amazing for boat trips to see kingfishers and hawks. One of the kingfishers will even eat fish from your hand. Although we were feeding the birds with our guide from the tour so I am not sure what it is like with other groups. I think there was a jaguar around but we didn't see her but I am not sure how common it is to have a jaguar sighting here. They have fishing rods to borrow so you can fish and I think you just pay a $10 deposit which you lose if you damage the rod. The rooms are basic but clean and the food is generally very good in a home cooked style. I think the food at this lodge was probably better than at other lodges. I don't think there was any staff who spoke English here so learning a few Portuguese phrases will be very useful. The staff are quite standoffish and our guide had to get them to come over for our drinks order at each meal. There is no safe in the room which is a little bit of a pain as it is good to have somewhere to safely store all your valuables. In this lodge, storage was terrible in general, with random furniture like an office desk and a coffee table in there but no wardrobe or shelving so we were struggling with getting everything into any sort of order. The air conditioning is efficient and there is a fridge in the room. There are hammocks outside the room to relax in but as with all other lodges in the Pantanal there is no private outside space to sit in which is a massive shame. The pool looked nice but we didn't use it. There is a little shop for things like bug spray and souvenirs. They do actually sell bird books too which is the only place we saw one. They accept credit cards for your bar bill. I can't comment on value for money as the accommodation was included in the cost...

The accommodation in the Pantanal is all largely similar. The main selling point is the wildlife around the lodge and this lodge is by a narrow river which is amazing for boat trips to see kingfishers and hawks. One of the kingfishers will even eat fish from your hand. Although we were feeding the birds with our guide from the tour so I am not sure what it is like with other groups. I think there was a jaguar around but we didn't see her but I am not sure how common it is to have a jaguar sighting here. They have fishing rods to borrow so you can fish and I think you just pay a $10 deposit which you lose if you damage the rod. The rooms are basic but clean and the food is generally very good in a home cooked style. I think the food at this lodge was probably better than at other lodges. I don't think there was any staff who spoke English here so learning a few Portuguese phrases will be very useful. The staff are quite standoffish and our guide had to get them to come over for our drinks order at each meal. There is no safe in the room which is a little bit of a pain as it is good to have somewhere to safely store all your valuables. In this lodge, storage was terrible in general, with random furniture like an office desk and a coffee table in there but no wardrobe or shelving so we were struggling with getting everything into any sort of order. The air conditioning is efficient and there is a fridge in the room. There are hammocks outside the room to relax in but as with all other lodges in the Pantanal there is no private outside space to sit in which is a massive shame. The pool looked nice but we didn't use it. There is a little shop for things like bug spray and souvenirs. They do actually sell bird books too which is the only place we saw one. They accept credit cards for your bar bill. I can't comment on value for money as the accommodation was included in the cost...