Los Quetzales Lodge & Spa

The Concept

 

Tucked away in a highland cloud forest, Los Quetzales Eco Lodge and Spa is ideal for those longing to retreat from hustle and bustle.  This is the only eco-lodge in Panama or Costa Rica with overnight accommodations inside a national park.

Inside the primary rainforests of Volcan Baru National Park, adjacent to the Parque Internacional la Amistad, this 400 hectare preserve has been protected by the private efforts of its founders since 1970.

 

Special for Panama Boutique only: $130/per person/night all inclusive in a secluded Mountain Chalet.

The main hotel and headquarters is in the town of Guadalupe, adjacent to Cerro Punta. From there, guests may visit the mountainside preserve inside the Park. Access is provided via 4 wheel drive or horseback. The walk is a gentle 30 minute climb featuring mountain scenery, quilted with the small farms and colorful gardens in the town of 400 inhabitants, and higher up ,simple homes of the friendly Guaymi Indians.

 

Concept   Accommodations   Activities   Rates & Itinerary   Environmental Statement 

The Accommodations

 

Los Quetzales offers two options for overnight guests. The first is to stay at the Lodge, built along a river in the picturesque town of Guadalupe. Guests may choose from a hotel room, dormitory or suite. Spacious hotel rooms feature private bath, hot water, room service and telephone service. Wood-paneled dorms have between six and ten beds, suitable for large families or hostel-type shared accommodations. Cedar-walled suites are spacious, and have fireplaces and kitchenettes.

 

The Reception Lodge, reminiscent of a Swiss chalet, houses a full service restaurant and bar lounge with fireplaces. Guests have access to a comfortable reading room and a game room. The riverside Spa offers massages, facials, sauna and outdoor Jacuzzi.

 

Your second option is to rent one of the five Mountainside Chalets, built in the midst of the preserve’s rainforest inside La Amistad and Volcan Baru National Parks. Two-story wooden chalets are ringed by pristine mountain rivers and springs. Each of the spacious chalets offers total privacy, serenity and relaxation. They feature fireplaces, private kitchens, on demand hot water gas heaters, queen beds, skylights and observation balconies. There is no electricity or phone. Communication with your guide/caretaker and hotel is via radio. To get to the preserve from the lodge in Guadalupe takes about 17 minutes using a 4-wheel drive vehicle, 15 minutes by horseback, or 30 minutes on foot. 

 

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Guests staying in the Mountain Chalets may choose to take their meals in the Lodge (transportation provided), or have hot or ready to heat meals delivered. The Lodge will also deliver fresh fruits, vegetables and meats to those wishing to prepare their own meals. You even have the option of hiring a cook to prepare and serve meals in your chalet.                                                                                 top

 

The Activities


 

 

Guided Tours

  • Three Waterfalls - A moderately difficult looping trail that lasts one and a half hours. The trail leads to three sparkling waterfalls.
  • Hike to Las Minas - An easy trail that lasts a total of one hour. The trail leads to a waterfall, and then leads back the same way.
  • Two Ocean Trail - A difficult trail going as far as the continental divide. A guided tour can be arranged for a two hour hike. The longer, six day tour can be arranged with indpendent guides.
  • Volcano Baru - Eleven hours total, six hours up and five hours down, the trail leads up Volcano Baru. Overnight trips can be arranged. Tents, sleeping bags, and sleeping mat are available for rent.
  • Cerro Punta Trail - The entrance to the trail is only fifteen minutes from our lodge. The entrance can be reached by foot or vehicle. The hike itself takes two and a half hours. The hike can be muddy and steep. Boots and rain gear are available for free to our guests or can be rented.
  • Los Quetzales Trail - A drive to the entrance of the park can be arranged ($5), or can be reached after a one hour walk. The trail begins at the first ranger station and is reached in one hour from the entrance. The trail itself takes another five hours to the next ranger station (Bajo Mono), eight kilometers from Boquete. From the ranger station, a taxi can be arranged or a bus station can be found after a two kilometer walk. The trail is currently in need of repair and maintenance and a guide is recommended ($50)                                                       top

Excursions 

  • Horseback Riding or walking tours - Several trails with beautiful sites including waterfalls or nearby towns. Entre Rios, Cerro Punta, Bajo Grande, Las Nubes, Guadalupe, and the cabin area. Experienced riders can venture on their own, or a guide can be provided.
  • Mountain Bike Rentals - Explore on your own and see some of the local attractions, markets, trails or nearby towns.
  • Birding Tours - 4x4 tours to several destinations, volcan lakes, Finca Hartmann, archeological sites, Las Nubes (entrance to Friendship International Park), Bajo Grande ( entrance to Volcan Baru National Park) and Bajo Frio. See endemic species such as the Resplendent Quetzal, the Emerald Toucanette, the Fiery-Billed Aracari, the Turquoise Cotinga, Scarlet-Thighed Dacnis, Green Honeycreeper or the Golden-Browed Chlorophonia. Also visit Finca Dracula and our own 400 hectare cabin area located inside two parks.
  • Agro Tours - Tour the vegetable and spice gardens, flower nursery or Finca Dracula Orchid Farm.
  • Finca Dracula Orchid Farm - See the award winning Orchids of Finca Dracula. Over 2,600 species of orchids including 300 species of Draculae Orchids.
  • Archeological Tour - See pre-colombian artifacts of the Barriles culture. Tour offered in English by Mr. and Mrs. Landau in their beautifully landscaped garden at the foothils of Volcan Baru.
  • Hiking - various trails including the famous Los Quetzales trail which takes you directly to Boquete. Venture on your own, on horseback or with an experienced guide.                                   top

2010 Rates & Itinerary

 

FOR BIRDERS

  • $170 per person, per night, based on double occupancy in a suite, hotel room or cabin
  • $20.00 surcharge for single occupancy

For groups of 3 or more in a cabin, 50% discount applies to the 3rd or 4th person.

 

Meal options for the cabins (all have fully equiped kitchens):

  • Cook your meals. The lodge will deliver fresh fruit, veg, chicken, fish etc.
  • Hot meals or ready to heat meals, catered from the lodge restaurant.
  • Transportation to the lodge restaurant.
  • Have a cook prepare and serve a meal for you in your cabin. (Free for groups of 2 or more)

NON BIRDERS

  • $130 per person, per night, based on double occupancy in a hotel room 
  • $20.00 surcharge for single occupancy

Your stay includes:

  • Accommodation
  • Full American breakfast, lunch and dinner, buffet or al la carte. Meals include wine, beer, soft drinks or fruitshakes, salad, soup and dessert.
  • 30% discount on spa services such as massages, facials, hot stone treatments
  • Twice daily nature appreciation, and birding guided tours, throughout trails within the private 400 hectare cloud forest compound, inside Volcan Baru National Park (PNVB) and La Amistad International Park (PILA).
  • Morning and afternoon snacks, cold and hot drinks provided during any outing.
  • Use of raincoats and rubber boots.
  • Use of lodge amenities (restaurant and bar lounge, game/conference room, reading room.)
  • Use of horses and mountain bikes.
  • Transportation in any or all of four 4 x 4 vehicles (Toyota Land Cruiser) from Los Quetzales Lodge to El Respingo, Volcan Baru Park Ranger Station (entrance to the Los Quetzales Trail), Volcan Lakes, and Finca Dracula Botanical Garden. $3.50 per person Park Ranger entrance fees to PNVB and PILA not included. (This is for the $1
  • Free internet Cafe and free access to Wi-Fi                                                              top

Click here to Request a Reservation

 

A Socially and Environmentally Responsible Lodge

 

  • Los Quetzales Ecolodge & Spa fosters synergy among the hotel, its neighboring communities, and surrounding ecosystem. Local purchasing and hiring policies, environmental stewardship, and community development programs are creating a healthy, welcoming, and authentic setting for caring visitors from all over the globe.
  • 400 hectares of watershed of the Chiriqui Viejo river is preserved and protected since 1970. This cloudforest reserve, now inside and bordering Friendship International Park, and Volcan Baru National park, includes over 60 hectares, reforested with heliconias, giant ferns, palms, and a variety of native hardwood trees that produce aguacatillo fruit that the Resplendent Quetzal and other bird and animal species feed on.
  • Carrying capacity limited by law (detailed in environmental impact study) to 24 persons in our 400 hectares of pristine cloudforest, and is limited to 8 cabins (3 presently in construction over previous housing sites) minimizing disturbance of the flora and fauna of it's ecosystem. Hiking trails have respected the terrain's natural topography.
  • We provide jobs and training to over 45 persons in the ecotourism business, who otherwise would need to migrate to cities, seeking jobs, or find work locally in non-sustainable agriculture, promoting the erosion and contamination of soils.
  • We encourage schoolchildren from all over the country to walk our trails with our motivated ecological guides, that have a strong appreciation and respect for the environment.
  • We employ a full time lawyer that has been instructed to promote the enforce laws written to deter the use of chemicals, hunting of endangered species and deforestation and cattle ranching operations, inside 30,000 hectares of legally protected areas, such as Friendship International Park.
  • 100% of staff is Panamanian, including its General Manager and 95% of our hotel and cabin staff lives within walking or biking distance from the hotel.
  • Purchase-local policies encourage micro entrepreneurs, including furniture makers, welders, mechanics, seamstresses, tailors, plumbers, electricians, transport providers, trout and organic vegetable growers.
  • All workers and their families are covered with social security coverage. We contribute with municipal, tourism and central government taxes, to our nation's infrastructure such as roads, hospitals and schools.
  • Development of one hectare in our local farming village of 420 persons is limited to seven buildings (10 rooms, 5 suites, a family room and dorms, spa, stable, maintenance shop, 1 cabin and housing for 4 staff members and their families).
  • All facilities at our cabin and trail areas were built in parcels deforested over 50 years ago, and now a 40 year old secondary forest, surrounded by primary cloudforest inside two parks.
  • Cleaning products are mostly natural, including biodegradable detergents. Vinegar and sodium bicarbonate is used to clean windows. Plastic bags used in bathrooms, rooms, cabins and kitchens s are biodegradable.
  • The restaurant and spa emphasize the use of local organic and fresh products such as vegetables, salads and herbal teas. Free range chicken project planned. Lighting at the lodge in town is entirely of energy saving fluorescent light bulbs. A hydroelectric generator supplies 50% of our energy needs at the lodge. There are no electric lights at the cabins so as to minimize the disturbance of wildlife.
  • Vegetable waste from the kitchen is fed to worms and the compost is used to fertilize organic vegetable gardens. Solid waste is sorted and recycled as much as possible.
  • Naturally-flowing local spring water is piped from our pristine cloudforest and has been safely used for general use and consumption at the lodge and cabins for over 20 years.
  • We do not sell disposable water bottles. Instead, we offer the recycled water bottles free to our guest after cleaning and refilling them at taps and faucets available throughout the property.
  • Native species are used in landscaping, mostly flower and seed producing shrubs and trees to attract birds. Flowers used in all rooms and common areas are harvested on our own premises.
  • Camping grounds are provided thus fostering minimal impact on the environment and promote intimate interaction with nature.
  • Natural ingredients are encouraged at the spa, such as fresh aloe vera and volcanic mud for facials and massages, and rosemary and mint leaves for the hot tubs and sauna.
  • Membership with chamber of comerce, chamber of tourism and small hotel associations is maintained in order to support local and national tourism projects, encourage proper zonification and finance the training of staff in trades of the business and the learning of the English language.

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Los Quetzales Ecolodge & Spa: Proud to be Panamanian, privileged to be global.