Palafito Cucao — Hotel in Chonchi

The palafito describes itself as a hostel,for linguistic rather than strictly semantic reasons I guesss. What I mean by that is that it is not aHostel to me in the English sense ,ie communal bedrooms austere, low cost etc but rather a boutique hostelry with anice sense of and spaces forcommunity above all it slows you right down it sits on a gorgeous lake with plenty of terraces to lolll around on, they provide sunloungers for the moments it stops raining in Cucao, you can be as active or lazy as you wish to be ( I think there are kayaks and guide for hire , or just slip into the lake for a swim ( I really regret not doing that as it had been raining, but so what’s new in Cucao the palafito Design is traditional( house on stilts but very contemporary ( beautiful ‚ blond woodland it is located on Cucao‘s Main Streetwith restaurants a mini market( no alcohol though) and as per usual in Chile somewhere to buy empanadas. Also just a quick Walk from the National Park Gate - you Must visit, there are excelllent paths, easy to follow and enjoy even in the rain, an enchanted forest withsome good exhibits on local traditions and explanations about the abundant flora and fauna of the region. However, the Park should invest in some Englishversions please. The palafito is easily reachable by local buses, we travelled all the way from Castro, which are higgledy piggedly but great fun because of the passengers‘ banter and, of corse, the street vendors who board from time to time with water super Ochoa’s and of corse empanadas - check out the macht’s con quest variety if you are lucky, totally delicious. Other excellent thingds about the palafito- good breakfast served by a good humoured crowd of local women, very nice and accommodating reception staff ( talking about you Guillermina! The only negative because of all of the wooden stairs and relatively open design it can get noisy at night, but the wonderful Ms G relocated us so that it became less of a problem. Altogether a fabulous stay- would go back in a heartbeat. Last bit of info, the palafito business partner Patriciorents out bikes and organisms horse rides - we rode to the Dunes well worth it. But make sure to take plenty of cash, not alll businesses accept...

We stayed two nights. Lovely reception and hospitality by Guillermina, who was the only one attending to all the guests. The views are stunning. The property authentic. Rooms are basic but clean and comfortable. We did think it was overpriced generally. WiFi was also down for 3 weeks we discovered on arrival, which normally we would have welcomed a digital detox, but this time it was inconvenient as could not plan rest of our Chile trip. Lodge did not offer any solution nor inform us of this when we booked (they actually cancelled our original booking and we had to rearrange our dates because we did not respond in time when we had no WiFi connection in Torres del Paine. The irony.). Also would suggest they add hand towels in rooms, that was an...

We stayed in dormitories one night. It is quite pricy but the ho(s)tel is really charming and very well equipped (super kitchen).||It is not a place to party but rather to relax and chill (nobody allowed after midnight in the living room to respect the night of others). And the view and the place is so relaxing...||The dorms itself are very clean as the rest of the hotel. Two big bathrooms for 6 beds and we slept very very well. You also get towels.||Breakfast was a blast ! Orange juice, hot beverage, breds with jam/honey/butter or/and fuit/muesli/yogourt. ||Only negative point is: no lockers.||We are so glad we stayed here, it really gave us a great break in...