The Belmond Hotel Das Cataratas is conveniently located inside the national park on the Brazilian side of the falls. The entrance to the walking trails is a short 2 minute walk across the road, perfect for our time poor stay!

 
Upon entry in the lobby, you are greeted with the most luxurious smell of timber fittings and beautiful colonial style furnishings. The concierge escorted us to our room where he went through and showed us how everything functioned. The hotel slippers – instead of the ubiquitous white cotton type – were matching his and hers rubber havaianas. Naturally.
 
Did I also mention that the hotel facade is painted entirely in pink and white? I’m normally squeamish at anything pink, but the building contrasted really nicely with all the greenery around it.
 

The only downside to staying at the hotel inside the park was the limited choice of restaurants and if you didn’t want hotel food, you are forced to take a taxi into town. Luckily, the Ipe Grill at the Hotel served a delicious choice of food and for our one nights stay, we were happy not to venture out.
 
For dinner, we ate at the Ipe Grill and had the churrascaria buffet for 120 BRL each. There was a wide range of meats to choose from and a variety of sides to accompany. The mains were tasty, however the most memorable menu item for me though was the creme caramel in the dessert bar. So good.
 
Our hotel booking also included the breakfast buffet at Ipe Grill so we were lucky enough to try it twice- the choices were quite extensive, offering continental and hot options (omelette stations woot!) . If you have breakfast here, I recommend sitting outside by the pool.

At 900 BRL per night, we splurged on this occasion to take advantage of its epic location and facilities.

 

We liked:

Location location location!
Free wifi
The variety of food at the breakfast buffet
The outdoor pool and gardens
Service was definitely 5 star
Complimentary Havaianas as our hotel slippers
The amazing creme caramel at the dessert bar. Some serious nosh.