Mercure Iguazu Hotel Iru 5 stars

Very helpful staff - rooms clean and spacious - set in woodlands - healthy breakfast plenty of choice with own chef offering a choice of omelettes, great stay highly recommend -

We were only there one night which was too short a time to have a full experience.

Comfortable stay. Good hotel facilities and friendly staff. Great base for going to see the Falls!

Overall, I’m going to give this five stars, because the basics were all there, and they went above and beyond in a couple of cases. First, the grounds are gorgeous, very well kept. The pool is very clean. The bar is well stocked. The rooms are comfortable and very clean and the balconies overlooking the pool are exceptional. Next, a shout-out to everyone at reception who worked with me on my Spanish but also spoke excellent English, from the minute that I contacted the hotel (using ‎WhatsApp to arrange for a driver) to our checkout. Everybody was very patient with my Spanish and also spoke very good English at reception. Next, the breakfast was outstanding! It was quite a bounty. I love a big beautiful breakfast, and this had everything. They were quick to refill the hot milk, and they had an espresso machine where we could make our own hot coffee. Plenty of pastries, in fact, probably a bit heavy on the pastries. I can’t imagine a bigger variety of pastries. Lots of fruit and hot chocolate. Perhaps a couple more hot protein items would be in order. They had eggs and sausage, and potentially another hot protein would be good, but overall a very hearty breakfast! Here are some areas that can be improved upon. 1. The bartending was hit and miss. One of the bartenders was outstanding and made me incredible caipirinhas, including a wonderful garnish that turned the lime inside out to make it look like a sunflower (see photo). We will be borrowing that trick when we bartend at home! But one of the other bartenders made really subpar drinks. Not enough sugar, way too much ice, way too much fruit. It was even hard to drink because there were so many limes in it. Perhaps if there is a head bartender they can review some skill sets with the other bartenders. 2. One of the hotel drivers made us uncomfortable. I almost considered leaving four stars for this, but it’s really not under control of the hotel that much. We had already arranged for all of our excursions, and the driver picked us up at the airport and then asked what we were doing, and we told him, and then he asked about other days, and we told him, and then he said that that did not sound like a good plan and that the person that we hired was rushing it to pack in everything. This was all while we were driving and he was translating on his phone. When we told him that it was already booked, he then just became really silent and didn’t talk to us for the rest of the trip. I understand he was trying to get some money and have us use him as a guide and a driver, but we were already booked. It just felt kind of invasive, because once we told him we had plans, he kept asking if we were booked through the hotel or what was happening, and it wasn’t generic questions like “are you going to the waterfalls?“ It was more invasive (asking who we were using and why and what was happening). When I told him the name of the tour company, he seemed really put out. It just made the drive in uncomfortable. And then later we used him for something else (we asked the hotel to call a driver, and it happened to be him) and he was really quite cold to us. It’s like the minute we told him that we booked with a tour company and we weren’t going to use him as a driver for a tour he just became really quiet and cold. It was very odd. And uncomfortable. It was also a little uncomfortable that he was driving while using his phone and translating on the app. All that said, it did not dampen our experience for this wonderful hotel. We also had a beautiful dinner here, and I will review that separately.

We arrived very tied and did not really sample the facilities but felt that the hotel was very impersonal We were unsure if the water was safe to drink but there was no water or even a jug in the room just things for sale Felt overall that it was quite expensive