Vila Santa Teresa
Vila Santa Teresa Hotel & Spa combines the luxuries of a beautiful private villa with a 7-suite boutique hotel in the heart of the bohemian Santa Teresa district in Rio de Janeiro.
This is the perfect place to do nothing. A place for peace and the music of the waves.
Kenoa Beach Spa & Resort
You’ll find so much to explore, deserted beaches, private lagoons and even mangrove forests.
Scuba diving, surf lessons and other fun water activities can be booked directly with Kenoa Resort.
The hotel offers superb service, top notch facilities, and views that are simply paradisaical.
How would you describe Kenoa Beach Spa & Resort in a nutshell?
Kenoa Beach Spa & Resort in Barra de Sao Miguel, Brazil, feels like a small eco-chic boutique hotel but with the facilities and amenities of a world class five-star luxury hotel. It is one of the top beach resorts in Brazil and very much like a private sanctuary of peace and tranquility, paradise on the beach. Kenoa has 23 suites and beach villas, a restaurant and wine bar on-site, as well as a spa and fitness center. Enjoy the highest level of sophistication and comfort in an atmosphere that is intimate without being intrusive.
Please tell us a little about Kenoa Beach Spa & Resort.
The idea is to have a place where people can enjoy tranquility. We want them to feel at home in our care and with the attention we give them. The luxury here is very casual.
The ideas of sustainability and ecology were on our minds from the beginning, but always with a sense of simplicity and comfort.
For example, we tried to keep all of our materials sustainable. All our wood is reforested, we use LED lights to save electricity, we have a solar heating system, the employee uniforms don’t require ironing, nor do the napkins we use, and we use as little chemicals in our pool as possible — instead we use a salt water treatment.
What was your inspiration to open a boutique hotel?
We wanted to create a hotel from the guest’s point of view. I don’t have a background in hospitality and we didn’t visit many hotels in Brazil to not be influenced by them, so all we had was the guest’s point of view. We wanted to create something we really felt would go over well with vacation guests.
Brazil is very beautiful and there is nice weather year round but in the northeast region of Brazil, there aren’t many options for nice places to stay.
Also the whole idea of sustainability is something new in Brazil. It was our chance to create something luxurious and to show it’s possible to do it in this kind of place. Brazil has the natural materials and resources, all that’s needed to create something really different. It was just a matter of putting all the pieces together.
What's been the biggest reward to you personally running the resort?
The biggest reward is always seeing people happy and amazed, especially with us having no background in hospitality. But it is also great to be able to do something different with green materials and sustainability. We’ve made this possible without taking out the comfort and luxuries people are accustomed to.
Even more rewarding is seeing people coming back, mostly Brazilians, but international guests too, and having those guests invite others here by speaking highly of us.
The hotel is shaped like a triangle and we have 10 suites on one side with balconies and a nice view of the ocean and the natural reserve.
The vacation villas are right on the beach, have private pools and gardens, and the three Jaobi Villas even have direct access to the beach.
We also have a spa that offers treatments inside the villas or at the spa itself. People usually prefer to go to the spa, as it has the steam room, sauna and fitness center.
The first few hours vacation guests are at Kenoa Beach Spa & Resort, they cool off. They tell us this is the perfect place to do nothing. That’s what they need. A place for peace and the music of the waves. It all comes together to provide a peaceful ambience of rest.
It’s a very casual environment. It offers freedom for the spirit. It’s not a place in the middle of a city, but a beach ambience, very relaxed and casual. We see that on the clothes they wear and from the feeling they get from sitting in our lobby. They’re very comfortable here.
High above the neighboring natural reserve with panoramic views of the Atlantic Coast. The suites offer a traditional Japanese ofuro tub made of fragrant hand-planed cedar wood.
The 10 Apoena Suites also offer a king-size bed, Egyptian cotton sheets, goose-down pillows, double vanity bathroom basins, minibar, personal electronic safe, CD/DVD Player, LCD TV with USB connection, a memory card reader to enjoy photos on the TV screen, writing desk and WiFi internet.
Located literally on the beach. Each villa features an infinity-edged pool and heated by solar energy with an average of 28ºC which is sheathed in Balinese stone that gives the illusion that the pool blends with the sea and stretches to the horizon beyond. The villa's 70 sqm are harmoniously distributed between a bedroom, living room, bathroom with interior garden, and a terrace garden with external shower.
The villas feature a king-size bed, Egyptian cotton sheets, goose-down pillows, double vanity bathroom basins, mini-bar, wine cellar, personal electronic safe, CD/DVD Player, LCD TV with USB connection, a memory card reader to enjoy photos on the TV screen, writing desk and WiFi internet.
Sharing the same dune with the ocean, the 3 Jaobi Villas allow you to step into the sea from your bedroom. With a infinity edged border on the plunge pools and heated heated by solar energy with an average of 28ºC, the Jaobi Villas provide an extraordinary ambiance of 78 square meters and direct access to the beach.
The Joabi Villas offer a king-size bed, Egyptian cotton sheets, goose-down pillows, double vanity bathroom basins, mini-bar, wine cellar, personal electronic safe, CD/DVD Player, LCD TV with USB connection, a memory card reader to enjoy photos on the TV screen, writing desk and WiFi internet.
With the uniqueness of having two personal spaces: one facing the sea, the other facing the reserve, the singular araxá suite has to be different. Its extravagant 63 sqm are carefully distributed to highlight the views that nature provides. The terrace provides a sweeping view and a traditional Japanese ofuro tub made of fragrant hand-planed cedar wood. The suite's two bedrooms permit a comfortable stay for up to two couples.
The Araxá Suite has queen size beds, Egyptian cotton sheets, goose-down pillows, double vanity bathroom basins, mini-bar, personal electronic safe, CD/DVD Player, LCD TV with USB connection, a memory card reader to enjoy photos on the TV screen, writing desk and WiFi internet.
Kenoa villa is unique and eccentric. It offers its own heated infinity-edged plunge pool, a traditional Japanese ofuro tub made of fragrant hand-planed cedar wood, an outside deck in a private garden with beach grass and a private access to the beach.
At Kenoa guests have access to a spa and fitness center. There are pools overlooking the ocean and the villas each have a private plunge pool as well. One of our high points at Kenoa is the food. We have an amazing chef from the northeast of Brazil. We offer breakfast, a light lunch, and then dinner is the event of the evening. Our main dish is seafood. We use international as well as Brazilian recipes, like seafood with coconut milk. We work with the freshest regional ingredients possible and the idea is to mix everything that makes sense and bring it together into something deliciously different.
Guests who are new to the area can visit the lagoons nearby where you can go scuba diving or take surfing lessons. There are mangroves nearby to visit, a coconut plantation and of course there is the natural reserve.
The main tour we recommend is to visit the nearby oyster farm — we call it the oyster experience. It’s only 10 mins from the hotel yet it takes you into a completely untouched region. You get into a canoe, hear nothing but birds and nature itself, travel into a mangrove, and then you arrive at the oyster farm which a small community of people have put together. You can taste the oysters there and we offer champagne to compliment the raw nature with some sophistication.
Kenoa Resort is located on the Atlantic coast in Brazil, south of Recife and Maceió with the closest Airport. This is a very isolated spot, but it has a bit of everything. We are right at the beach, there is a natural reserve here and the views from the suites and the villas are just special. It seems as if you were on a ship, with the ocean being so close. It’s kind of a perfect mix. Guests can leave all their worries behind and just connect to the region.
The weather is nice all year round. It’s almost always summer. We get tropical rain, but it’s only for a few days. And after a couple of hours, you almost can’t tell that it has rained. That’s one of the best things about this part of Alagoas.
Nature is the second thing I like. We are in a nature reserve. We’re surrounded by untouched nature. We still have deserted beaches, lagoons and mangroves here.
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