This eco-lodge in Ecuador’s Choco rainforest puts a luxury spin on adventure travel, with floor-to-ceiling glass windows, an exceptional restaurant, expert guides and open air cable cars
Location
Sitting in the six-acre Mashpi Reserve, the lodge offers complete immersion in the Choco rainforest. It’s a three-hour drive across the equator from Quito (Mashpi has its own car and minibus service to and from the city). Dubbed the “cloud forest”, the reserve sits between 900 to 1200 metres above sea level, where cooler temperatures and frequent cloud cover create a misty vista across towering trees, waterfalls and the western Andes slopes. The atmosphere create conditions for incredible biodiversity - think toucans, hummingbirds, tanagers and ocelots, as well as brown-headed spider monkeys, sloths and jaguars (if you’re really lucky). Forest trails mapped by biologists snake outward from the hotel, allowing guests to retrace the steps of the wildlife.
