Refugio Amazonas

It was such a beautiful building and eating area. Staff so helpful and kind. I loved the hammock in our room. Our excursions and night hikes were perfect and the guides and naturalists were wonderful to work with and showed us so much!

What an amazing place Refugio Amazonas Lodge is! From the moment, you are collected, you know you are in safe hands. The organization of transfers (via bus and boat) to the lodge is seamless and to arrive by boat, the most wonderful experience. After the warmest of greetings, a clear presentation is given of all the activities available and with a personal guide assigned, we felt assured that all we would want from a rainforest experience would be delivered - it was and more! Our guide, Louis, was superb! A brilliant communicator with extraordinary observational skills and a vast knowledge, he was also extremely likeable, good company and obviously cared that we should have the best time. He not only was able to spot birds and wildlife with incredible acuity, but imparted information which our family found fascinating. Our thanks and appreciation will always be with him for giving us such an unforgettable time. It is also only right to mention that all the staff with whom we came into contact, were both excellent and attentive. Praise should particularly be given to the chefs and waiting staff (delicious food) and to the domestic staff who make the rooms impeccable. I would not hesitate in recommending Refugio Amazonas to anyone. When visiting somewhere "out of the ordinary", it is important to seek out "The Best of the Best" and that is indeed what I believe Refugio Amazonas offers.

Really enjoyed the entire visit - with one excursion exception. Our assigned guide, Dennis, was particularly kind and helpful - and a great wildlife spotter! This trip was our first experience in South America, and I was very happy to see the emphasis on environmental protection. Perhaps the best eperience was one of our boat rides where we got to see a variety of wildlife. But also appreciated the Clay Lick visit, and the "forest canopy" platform, the farm visit, and the lectures. One excursion that was Not very good was the camera trap excursion. It was a let down in that we didn't see more cameras, didn't see more photos of wildlife. The guide just did a cursory setting of a camera trap and that was it. Poor English, also....

We're a group of 4 from Australia, we stayed in Refugio Amazonas from May 16-19. The whole 4 days experience started smoothly right from the time they picked us up from the airport, everything was well organised. The beautiful lodge and surrounding, the well designed room (we even had a friendly frog in our bathroom)8, the fabulous food, and most importantly the experience we shared with other people from different countries and our guides were truly amazing!! Thank you Monica Montes, thanks for your help all along that made our trip so memorable.

The lodge is lovely yet some shortcomings which need to be looked into. We had booked for 2 nights and were a group of 7. On arrival at Puerto Maldanado we (anlongwith another group of 5) were made to wait for an additional 2 hours for guests arriving on later flights. The lodge is an hour drive from the airport followed by a 45 minute boat ride. When we did arrive at the jetty our group of 7 +. 5 were put in a separate boat. In effect the resort only saved on the bus transfer as far as we were concerned. All this resulted in us arriving at the resort at 5 pm and activities we had planned for the first afternoon were no longer possible. Similarly on the way back we were asked to leave the resort at 8 am after having breakfast when our flight was at 1 pm. In effect we arrived 3-3.5 hours earlier than our flight departure. This is a high end resort and should have informed earlier about the shared transfers and given us an option to pay for private transfers. The food is of good quality given the remoteness of the lodge. Food is served buffet style and on all 3 meals one of the two main course dishes finished within no time and it seems that this is the norm. Otherwise the stay was comfortable and the guides are excellent.