Pacifico Hostel — Hotel in Buenaventura

The location of this hostel is stunning, but sadly everything else was very disappointing. The facilities are in bad shape – the walls in the rooms literally feel like they are falling apart when you touch them.

There is no internet for guests and also nothing to do during the day. No games, no activities, no yoga, no workshops – nothing that would match their motto “Disconnect to Reconnect”. Instead, the volunteers spend the whole day on their phones or crocheting phone covers, while ignoring the guests.

The staff and volunteers were extremely unfriendly and unhelpful. We often felt like we were disturbing them whenever we asked for something. For days there was no limonada de coco, and no one thought of replacing it. At breakfast the tables were still wet, no salt, no chili sauce, missing cutlery – sometimes even no coffee. When we arrived, they even forgot our food order and we had to wait over an hour, despite being the only guests.

Food is very overpriced for Colombia: small portions, tiny side salads of maybe 15–20 grams, meals around 10€, and even a single cookie costing 1€. On top of that, they once made a false bill, claiming we had eaten seven cookies in one day, which was absurd.

One very strange situation was with a stray puppy that wandered onto the finca. A volunteer washed him, fed him, and everyone cuddled him for hours. Later, three volunteers suddenly accused us of bringing the dog there (which we didn’t), and kept insisting we were lying and should take him back. All while they themselves kept playing with him. Since the property isn’t fenced, dogs come and go freely, so their accusations made no sense – but it shows how the staff communicates with guests: harsh and judgmental.

Another big issue: tours can only be paid in cash, even though the website says you can pay everything by card. The staff speaks little English and often refuses to speak it, choosing Spanish only, even when they clearly understood us. Strangely, when it came to accusing us about the dog, they suddenly spoke English perfectly well.

Finally, the atmosphere is far from relaxing. The motto promises peace and connection, but in reality it’s loud techno music until 4–5am with constant drinking and partying. No calm, no balance, no welcoming vibe.

The only positive thing: the tours themselves were nice. But overall, this place is overpriced, poorly run, and very unwelcoming. I would not recommend staying here. Another serious issue: one day there was no electricity at all and nobody informed us, so we couldn’t even charge our phones. Yet somehow they managed to use the emergency generator – not for guests’ needs, but to turn the techno music back on. And that’s another problem: the music is always extremely loud, blasting until 4–5am. You can hear it from the huts, so there is no chance to relax or sleep.

Speaking of the huts: they don’t even have toilets. At night you have to walk through the forest in the rain just to use the bathroom. Combined with the noise, it’s far from a peaceful or...

Upon evaluated the place is a site no more than 1.5 hectarian where you arrive with a much much higher expectation than what they show in the photos and normal people do not show the bad of the place by what people say, I am a chef, former valet parking supervisor at the largest company in the USA parking company, 7 years under Marriott's at the Edition hotel in south beach, as a chef at Lime fresh mexican grill, Chipotle mexican grill, Bahama Breeze Restauran and I had a restaurant in Mexico DF in northern Rome for more than 6 years, I have worked in the customer service industry for more than 15 years where I have studied and experienced touches class of people from all over the world I have traveled more than 10 countries, the only thing that I know that the Pacific hostel is not what the photos show, they don't know anything about customer service, there is no administration that wants the place and does it respect most of the foreign tourists smoking marihuna smoking in the dining room where there is a sign of not smoking and do not respect anything and the volunteer of the shift is a foreigner where he does not know anything and does not take care of the rules of the place, there is a girl who receives people it shows that she only knows is to charge the client and give information of the water and of garbage, there are two others that are just hanging out and do not have as an established charge, bathrooms in very poor condition with fungi without any sign of maintenance, they are deleting the place, the same guests are the ones that are sometimes served looking for the cutlery to eat, the roads without adapting them for pure mud, adult people can't no go over dare , cigarette butts everywhere, beer caps everywhere, a lot of disorganization in all aspects of the place, for me it is a place where marihuna go junkies to smoke and come and meet people from all over the world, because the truth is that the people I saw a lot were not satisfied the only people were the people who were locked, well-built cabins but not to charge 60 , 000 COPl per cabin is a lot of money, in Cartagena there is a place where it costs 50,000 COP and the cabin is luxurious and with all the services, this hotel really the beds should cost 25,000 COP at 30,000 COP if they fix it, we'll see but for now they...

The Instagram stories tell a story far away from the reality, and there are a lot of things which is not like it's seems. You have to pay more to reach the Pacifico Hostel, because you can't reach it from Juanchaco when you want but only when the tide is low. There are not discount for native, instead to reach Juanchaco the native pay less, this is not polite from my point of view. There is not the WiFi, in the hostel there is a sort of hippie marketing on a signboard with "disconnect to reconnect", but for this kind of place, very isolated, the people could need a connection. Anyway, when you have to pay the WiFi appears... So not much disconnected... Colombian have to pay taxes, the foreign not. This is strange and not polite. The place is isolated form Juanchaco, you must have lunch and dinner in the hostel because you can't use kitchen and you can't bring anything to eat in the hostel. We found also the coffee cold a morning. The bathroom are far away from the rooms, this means that during the night with rain you can't use it. There is not community in the hostel, also for the tours adviced form the hostel you have to collect a group without any support form the staff. The tours adviced from the hostel is not the best that you could find, it is better to contact a native person in Juanchaco o Ladrilleros. You have to pay also to rent the table for paddle, 30'000 COP for hours. When we arrived they said us that we could use everything, when we asked for paddle they said us the cost... The day which we left the hostel there was not breakfast because it's available from 9 am, and the first boat start at 8 am... 9.bis the day which we left the hostel there was not water in the bathroom so we couldn't wash ourself before take the boat... The path to reach Juanchaco is not a really path, they should have have care of the path but it's abandoned.

Definitely it's a tourist place, not much polite and on the other hand I didn't feel respect from the hostel for nature and for Pacifico people... it's a good place to make some stories on Instagram and...