Mashpi Lodge

The most amazing wilderness experience;the guides help you see frogs,hummingbirds,and many others.The rooms are great with comfortable beds;the food and wine/beer and cocktails also great;they also make great barista coffee. All this while preserving the local environment

Oh my goodness, this place is fabulous. The rooms are amazing, the food is sensational and worthy of Michelin stars, the staff are lovely, the birds are stunning. Everything about it is remarkable. Is it cheap? No. Is it worth it? Absolutely. You will never forget your visit. I know I certainly won’t. Thank you to Marc, Jonnathan, Edison, Xavier and all who looked after me so well. Worth mentioning that they have a doctor on staff, visits and medication is included and the doctor helped solve my illness. Turns out I was allergic to the altitude meds.

It is hard to define Mashpi. It is a staggering concept- a hotel which has no business existing in the middle of cloud forest, an hour on dirt roads from the nearest highway and an hour and a half from the nearest town of any size. If people are thinking of this as a relaxing wallow in sumptuous surroundings - think again. The hotel is not full of soft furnishings or drapes- they’d rot in the climate. It is functional concrete with as many glass walls as possible. The forest is the decoration and the forest is the point of being here. Each guest is allocated a guide for their stay and a programme of activities decided each day to get the maximum out of the location- sky bike, river hikes, humming bird viewpoint and so on… yes, some seem to resent the idea of putting out food for the humming birds as intrusive, yet it means all get to see these amazing creatures and have a chance of seeing them in the dense forest while hiking. The night walks, often preceded by a short lecture are amazing opportunities to move in small groups among the undergrowth and to see a wealth of species simply going about their business. On top of all this, the rooms are spacious, all with floor to ceiling windows, there’s a complimentary cleaning and drying service and the food is great- breakfast is wonderful and the hot food changes daily abd is beautifully prepped and served. It is wonderful . You will get wet and dirty and it’s not called a cloud forest without reason- there will be wet days and days when the clouds roll in and the views are non existent. That’s is a risk. The re of the reserve in preserving the cloud forest is amazing and makes the hotel good value. Think of it as a surcharge. If it was t 13 hours flight from home, we would come back!

We stayed 3 nights here and it was well worth the nearly 4 hours to get here ! Yes it’s a long way and Road is a bit bumpy but you know that . The room is lovely with high glass windows overlooking the forest .the bathroom is a little small but there are loads of shelves . Good amenities but towels a little small. Decent size safe , no iron the whole place is so amazing that it’s negligible. There is a great service that’s included and it is the clothes drying. The food is absolutely delicious! Wonderful use of Ecuadorian flavours and local produce. It is all very fresh and never heavy . Portions are perfect in size and choice really good. Always a wellbeing dish available so it’s really healthy. The deserts are wonderfully light and delicious.Menu changes every day . Bravo to the chef ! The staff at restaurant are great and a special thank you to Darwin who gave us some a personal touch ! Breakfast is served buffet style and good choice. The bar has a great choice of cocktails. We had a wonderful guide Jonathan who guided us through all the adventures here and he’s very knowledgeable and friendly. Really enjoyed the Magnolia walk through the river getting lots of water in our boots ! A must do and if you’re careful not dangerous. The visit to the hummingbirds is also great as they come close on your hands . Also the life centre where you can see loads of birds and tayras and agoutis It’s good to see such an ecological place that’s helps the local communities. The staff are all lovely and helpful The shop on site sells good quality products too.Lovely ladies at the desk Melissa at the spa is wonderful and very gentle A must if you visit Ecuador!

Outstanding room & service. Will do it over & over again. Room 212, perfect view of El Panecillo. This room cannot be topped in my consideration. Ample bathroom with hot tub. Excellent spacious shower. Beautiful sink & toilet. Outstanding cleanliness.

We had the opportunity to stay at Mashpi Lodge as a pre Galapagos cruise add on and it was worth every cent. We had seen Mashpi Lodge on a travel show and had wanted to come ever since. We experienced a communications issue on the day we travelled to Mashpi from Quito - which caused a bit of consternation albeit adding to the adventure of travelling to a rainforest, a number of landslides had occurred - but that was resolved to our satisfaction by management on arrival - thank you Alex. Despite not getting to Mashpi until mid afternoon they kept the restaurant open for a late lunch for us, then we had our orientation and out for our first activity - observation tower and skybike. The weather was untypical and we had great views from the tower. The skybike is such a clever idea and very enjoyable. That evening we went out for a night walk to see what wildlife we could encounter - scorpions, spiders and frogs were spotted. On the first full day in the morning we went to see the hummingbirds, plus other species and a tayra showed up too. On the way back we went for a vigorous massage under a waterfall - great experience. In the afternoon we went to the life centre and did some more wildlife spotting before being taken through the life cycle of a butterfly and seeing each stage in reality. The second full day we went on a hike down to magnolia falls and then along the river, sometimes in the river, before climbing up the valley to join the dragonfly and glide above the canopy with just the sound of the wind and rainforest creatures below - amazing experience. In the afternoon it was back to hummingbirds, as that is what the group wanted to do, and what an array of birds - more than what we saw first time. Such a privilege to sit and watch the wildlife, although the hummingbirds have no concept of personal space and fly, what seems, right by you and you can hear the hum of their wings. That evening we did another night walk, different location, where we treated to an array of frogs and a scorpion. The last morning we opted to go to the science centre and talk with one of the biologists studying the Choco rainforest - very interesting- and we saw footage of puma, ocelot and other cats captured by their movement sensor cameras in the forest. We had Gabriel and Franklin as our guides, we were spoiled as we had two for our group of 6, both were incredibly knowledgeable about the local flora and fauna and went above and beyond helping us with photos and answering questions. The restaurant team were attentive and the quality of the food was superb - so much choice with different menus being available for lunch and dinner. We had the same waiter at all meals, the wonderful Dalton, which personalised the service and we were always addressed by name. Fernando, the barman, made excellent cocktails and advised us that he helped create some of the cocktails on offer. Room 22 was very nice and had everything we needed - although we spent minimal time