Araras Pantanal Eco Lodge — Hotel in Região Geográfica Imediata de Cuiabá

The lodge is nice and staff is friendly. However I still give only 1 star. A number of serious issues. On the first night of our 4 night stay, we tried to give some feedback of a number of issues to the owner. Unfortunately instead of listening to us he fiercefully fought and debated our issues without even listening to a single argument. During my whole stay the owner for 4 days did not say a single word to me anymore or ask about my feedback. I was genuine and friendly in my feedback but unfortunately nobody was willing to listen to it. unfortunately it’s not an eco lodge but a farm trying to make some more money. There is nothing but cattle and deforested Pantanal due that cattle, and non-maintained tracks price / quality is ridiculous. You pay 3 to 4 times what you pay in similar lodges with equal wildlife outside Pantanal, and then you have to pay USD 300+ extra to do a jaguar tour, which should have been included. staff is super sweet and friendly, however packages the lodge sell are oversold as “being with expert naturalist guide who knows about all of Pantanal nature” but this is truly wrong. After 1 day you get told the exact same story on all yours and the “expert guides” can tell nothing more about all nature encountered none of the tours or guides will go out their way to explore something specific, basically they are following a 2 day cycle of a same horse riding, canoe and night drive track. This is fine, if we didn’t pay €250 a day for a personalized experience.

Truly; I have never felt as ripped off as on this experience. Booked directly through the lodge. Clearly I always share this kind of feedback first of all directly with the accomodation but as mentioned this was not all appreciated and fiercefully fought. A number of more issues with cleanliness, trails, and tours. But summarizing it here.

All my other eco experiences in my life, which are many, were better...

This was the first stop on our Pantanal-Amazon trip and we were impressed with the accommodations, food, service and variety of wildlife. On our first afternoon our guide, Judy, showed us around the property, which has a lot of adorable capybaras as well as cayman, macaws and toucans, which are easily seen—even from the pool. Later we went on another walk before dinner and viewed wildlife from a tower. The hotel had a special champagne toast experience for the newcomers to view the sunset before dinner too. Dinner was at 7:00pm, and afterwards we went on a night walk and were able to see, albeit briefly, an ocelot. There are a variety of activities, including horseback riding, which we did not do. The walk to Monkey Tower gave us an opportunity to see capuchins up close and a family of howlers with babies up in the trees. On another walk we saw marmosets, agoutis, coatis and a lesser anteater feasting on a termite nest. Judy is a highly experienced guide and provides a lot of insight into the animal and bird behaviors. One of the other couples took the all day trek for the jaguar experience (a separate tour), but because we were going on to Porto Jorfre, where jaguars are abundant, we did not do this tour. Also there was a 5:00am walk we did not go on where another couple got a great view of a giant anteater. |Judy has extensive experience and we could tell how much she appreciated the animals. We appreciated the variety of food at all the meals. You can even get an omelette made to order at breakfast. The room had AC and a strong fan, but it would have been nice to have a little fridge to chill the water (there is a water dispenser near the restaurant). The bed was firm, (too firm for me), but fine for my husband. Overall, I’d recommend Araras for its variety of wildlife and comfortable...

Amazing experience. Each day was packed with fun activities - hiking, canoeing, horseback riding, safari tours (day and night), sunsets from the canopy tower. Our guide even organized fishing for us. We also paid a little extra to do the Jaguar tour and it was well worth it. Never seen so many animals in my life in such a short period - we saw a jaguar, tapirs, caimans, capybaras (a few hang out on the property at night), many birds, etc.

The food was outstanding. The best food I’ve had in Brazil for sure. Each day there was a different meal for lunch and dinner with lots of sides. There was good dessert too. A big shoutout to the kitchen staff.

Finally, the people are extremely friendly and knowledgeable. During our four night stay, the owner came to our table every night during dinner and shared stories. The lodge staff were extremely accommodating. Our guide Tadeu, who contracts with the lodge, was awesome and went above and beyond to ensure we had a great trip. This guy truly made my South America trip.

Highly recommend the Araras lodge if visiting the Pantanal. You will see many animals and have a...