Guest User
June 23, 2024
This unique gem of a hotel with its restful and beautiful grounds, helpful staff, and comfortable rooms feels like it is many miles removed from the urban sprawl of Quito. In reality it is a 20 min ride from the airport and offers both convenience and comfort. I stayed here for a total of four nights over the course of a 12-day birding trip that whipsawed between Quito and the high Andes, the West Slope, the East Slope and the upper Amazon basin, and eventually back to Quito. While the tour operator, Ecuador Birds Tours, owns the hotel which explains why it was the hub of our travels, this kind of hub and spoke itinerary is pretty standard in Quito-based birding expeditions. I stayed in the old part of the hotel, and the rooms were commodious, beds comfortable, and the plumbing worked. My only complaint was that the lighting was inconvenient and dim - even allowing for high energy costs it was pretty anemic. Others in my group who stayed in the newer rooms reported that they were very nice with good views, which the older rooms did not have. The hotel's extensive grounds offer what appear to be excellent birding (and indeed I picked up my first-ever Vermillion Flycatcher and Golden Grossbeak while loading up at 6:30 as we headed out for the second half of our tour), but our schedule didn't really allow me to see them. Staff was helpful in all aspects, including picking up our luggage at 2:30 in the morning for our absurdly early departure from Quito, and the food was good. I would stay here again in an instant for anything that required a hotel convenient to the Quito airport. My only caveat is that the hotel is under what appears to be the common approach path to the Quito airport - it is not overbearing because the aircraft are on their approach rather than climbing out, but you will be aware of it.