Selva Minca — Hotel in Magdalena

I regret booking my stay here. Don't fall for the trap!!

I chose this place for a comfortable, relaxing and luxurious retreat in the jungle with my boyfriend but instead I left stressed, extremely annoyed and sad.

For the price you pay here, which is very high for Colombian standards, you expect something high level. There was a power cut and we spent 2/3 of our nights there without any electricity in our room. For the price you're paying, you'd expect that they would be better equipped for this situation. Every other hostel in the area had generators and they all had electricity during that time. Selva Minca gave other guests lanterns during the power cut but didn't have enough for us. So we were stuck with our phone torches for 2 nights. It felt like we were camping.

The staff also communicate with each other via WhatsApp and if there's no electricity they often don't have signal there. Absurd! So service was slow and there were many miscommunications. They should start using walkie talkies like other places!! They had me running around the property (which is pretty big as our room was a 10/15 min hike away from reception) looking for staff members. Because of this, we didn't end up having one of the yoga classes that we'd booked.

The rooms look amazing but they're not that comfortable. They are very damp and my clothes felt damp for days. There is no shelf or wardrobe or anywhere to put your belongings, you have to put your bags and clothes on the floor and chairs and that ends up taking up the entire space. Because there was no electricity we also had no hot water for 2 nights. Not ideal since the shower is also outdoors and it's not very warm at night in Minca.

The receptionists themselves were not professional. They seemed all very hippie and lazy. Service was extremely slow. I've never experienced that lack of professionalism in such an expensive place. With the price you're paying you also expect 24/7 service, but no. Also, you have to place your order 1 hour in advance for the restaurant? This is the only place in this area of Colombia I've ever seen this and I travel here every year.

The food at their restaurant was extremely overpriced, not that tasty and small portions. Their activities are also very overpriced. I did the art therapy activity, and it ended up being just me drawing with markers for an hour with no guidance from the activity leader or "therapeutic" aspect involved at all. I basically paid 25£ to just do some drawing with markers. Do not recommend!!! She also arrived 30 mins late to our session. The same lady was also the receptionist and also the one doing the Rapé ceremony and the yoga, how can one lady be doing all this? It feels like the owner who is hiring these people doesn't know exactly what their doing and isn't good at quality control. The fact that no staff is replying to any bad reviews also says a lot compared to other hostels, lack of attention to detail and professionalism. I bet you they will never even read this!

After 48 hours of no electricity, the staff offered us a free Kundalini class (25£ per person normally) to compensate. However, the class was taking place at 10:30am and check out was at 11am so we couldn't make it. They didn't offer anything else instead! They just said "ah that's too bad!" It was extremely disappointing. Also, Kundalini yoga is quite a physically intense form of yoga, not a great thing to offer to apologise after a stressful stay.

Other people seemed to have had great experiences here, maybe we got very unlucky, but I don't think it's worth this price at all, it completely felt like money wasted. I felt like we fell for their good marketing. Every other hostel we stayed at in Colombia was a lot cheaper but much better in terms of service, professionalism and value for money and they all got good...

This place has very good marketing. On the website and on socials it looks like a beautiful,exclusive and well kept ecoplace… the reality is a little different. On arrival we didn’t get a welcome - just a “passport and pay” please… nobody showed us the room or around the premises- until we asked them -then they found time a few hours later. We asked whether it would be possible to see the towers- which were all empty- but the woman was too busy.

We stayed at El Cielo right by the entrance. The room downstairs is tiny and super dark, the room upstairs has two double beds. The lights are so weak that you can’t get the room to be lit at night- even when there are no power cuts- which there are- but that’s out of their control. The bathrooms are not well maintained and super tiny. Our bedsheet was ripped. The kitchen is spacious and well equipped (when there’s electricity) - the tap is nearly falling off every time you turn it on. The most beautiful part is the terrace that has stunning views over the valley- we saw toucans as soon as we arrived and the sunsets are glorious . Unfortunately there are no hammocks, or sunbeds, just some wooden and plastic chairs. There is no lock on the door and the safe is tiny- so your valuables are very exposed. We also couldn’t change the code for the safe. The rooms were only cleaned once whilst we stayed there (4days).

They offer some food. It’s healthy and beautifully presented… not to everyone’s taste (our kids didn’t like any of it) and the service is friendly but very slow- unless you book in advance for a fixed time.

The woman who offered the activities was very lovely- but the activities are very expensive.

The overall sense we got is that there is just not enough love, care and staff in this place that could be amazing. Nobody seems to be excited to work there or have time for their guests. Very different from what we experienced elsewhere in Colombia.

It would have all been ok if the prices would have matched a simple hostel, but for £200/230€ a night, you really expect a lot more. We ended up leaving two days early and paid to...

Photos of the bungalow rooms are misleading, and they are very close to one another, maybe 30 feet. Given that these rooms are wooden with no insulation, you can easily hear your neighbors for anything above a whisper. The property is marketed as a tranquil retreat. However, during our stay there with a family with three children who disturbed the peace quite readily. We were in the middle bungalow with the parents of this family on one side and the children on the other, so we were regularly inundated with the noise of these kids going back and forth, running and screaming, through the woods from bungalow to bungalow. Not sure why the property didn’t put the family in adjacent rooms. We’ve stayed in higher end jungle accommodations with this price point and would have expected more. 1) Our room had no hot water despite being told our room had hot water upon checkin. 2) We had no key for our room and when we asked for a key to secure our belongings we were told other guests have lost the keys. We were assured the property is very safe and secure, but also saw non-hotel guests on the paths on the property. 3) we lost electricity for the majority of our stay which isn’t unusual during storms in this region but no accommodation was made for this beyond comping breakfast one morning. (I.e providing lanterns or flashlights for the...