Quetzal Valley Cabins — Hotel in Copey

This was our last, 4 days visit, of our 3-weeks tour of Costa Rica, a country that we've been immensely impressed by, with beautiful people, many of whom we would now view as our friends. ||After very good correspondence with Peter, I booked 3 nights, in a 3-bedroom rustic cabin, for my wife, my 37-year-old son and myself. As stated, prior to making the booking Peter was very helpful in explaining about their accommodation and he made a point of warning us not to come, if we expected 5-star luxury accommodation! We paid a $25 deposit, via PayPal, as he suggested and he then gave us further advise about the area and sent maps of the property, showing walks, boundaries etc. He also mentioned that the quetzals may be nesting in the vicinity, around the time of our visit - a very big attraction!||The cabins are definitely rustic, but we found them perfect and very comfortable. We also had an unexpected full kitchen, where we prepared breakfast each day and the views from our cabin porch were absolutely stunning - definitely 5-star! After taking a very quick look around, guided by the lovely manager, Nelson, I quickly contacted Peter to see if we could expend our stay by one night, which was fine. We'd intended spending our last day back in San Jose, before leaving for the airport, but we'd heard such dreadful stories about the city, from everyone we met, both tourists and locals, that we decided to go directly from the valley to the airport, using our private shuttle, from Erick's Costa Rica Trip Guide service. Driving through the city, to the airport confirmed that we'd definitely made the right decision. How can such a beautiful country have such a dirty dump for the capital?||Later, on our first day, Peter and his co-owner wife, Francisca, arrived and we had a really good chat about the work they do here to conserve and improve the area. This culminated with them generously taking us out to dinner, at a nearby restaurant, including giving us a lift there and back. It turned out that Francisca had been worried about us having no transport and with the tough walking, had decided to upgrade us to the first cabin on the site, close to the entrance road. This explained how we'd ended up with such a grand cabin. They really are a lovely, generous couple and very passionate about their property, which made us feel even better about staying here and helping to support their quest.||We explored extensively and did lots of, for us, difficult walking. It's at 2,600m altitude, with very steep terrain and our age (around 70) together with slight altitude sickness, made walking tough, but it was well worth it. We saw huge amounts of birdlife and although we regularly heard the coyotes calling, day and night and there are lots of animals around, including puma's, we didn't see any, only the evidence of their presence. Yes, we did see a pair of the resplendent quetzal, daily, as they visited the avocado tree outside cabin 5, very close up and truly magnificent. We also saw red tailed hawk, the fabulous swallow-tailed kite, lots of swallows and many, many other birds - it's a bird watchers paradise!||On our last morning, we did a very early wildlife walk with Heron (?), who is assistant to Nelson and an amazing wildlife spotter. He showed us photos and videos of many animals and birds, that were absolutely stunning. Together with Nelson, he is responsible for looking after the forest, maintaining and producing new trails, capturing wildlife on camera traps and raising the trout in the pool by the river. We had a great walk and the trails along the river, together with the waterfalls, are truly amazing. This was a fitting end to a wonderful visit.||Whilst at Quetzal Valley Cabins we chose to eat at Mirriam's Quetzals, a fabulous little, but very popular (and famous) restaurant, 500m up the hill from the cabins. The food there is brilliant and, on the terrace, behind there are an abundance of birds of all types, including many types of hummingbirds, some no larger than a bee! We'd certainly recommend this place and Mirriam and her family, are delightful people.||Back to the cabins. This area does get very cold at night, in fact we were quite surprised by how cold we felt. However, there are plenty of additional blankets available for the beds, but we remained cold through the night, so be sure to bring some warm clothes. We used private shuttles for all of our journeys and think that this was a good decision however, there were a couple of places where having a car would have been very convenient - this was one of them. The valley is quite extensive and, as I've mentioned, very hilly. We would have loved to have explored further down the valley, but the thought of a 12 - 15km hike, each way, just wasn't an option for us,||So, thank you so much, Peter, Francisca, Nelson and Heron, for a fabulous stay, in a remarkable area and good luck to you for the future, you're doing such a fine job. If we ever return to Costa Rica, we'll be sure...

Nice spacy wooden cabañas with large windows and an amazing view. But communication/availability of the host was the worst on our Costa Rica journey.

The good things first. The wooden cabins are huge and provide a nice view to the mountains and the green valley. After rearranging the microwave and coffeemachine from the only small table in the room, we were even able to have our tiny breakfasts with that nice view. The bathroom was ok. Though some parts are already aged and might be replaced (broken toilet lid, shower blinds, cold shower). We also missed a functioning heating/radiator (around 13 degrees Celsius during the night), cleaning paste and a sponge for washing the provided dishes. Additionally a shelf or little wardrobes and some more hooks would have been nice. We used the second bed in the room for our lugage, but where to dry towels after showering?

The cabine was basically clean, but looking closer, it should have been a little bit cleaner and less dusty. In particular the corners had some old spiderwebs and some of the blankets should also get some washing. We are not very picky, but the little things are sometimes noticable, but actually easy to fix.

Sadly, the most disappointing part of our stay was the not existing communication of our host. We wrote two days in advance using the web form to get some information about getting to San Gerardo de Dota by bus and how to head down (or getting picked up) from the interstate highway at 3100m (alt) to the lower 3.5km distant Quetzal Valley Cabins. No response. We wrote a second time via email after we actually booked the cabiña (one day before arrival). No response. So we managed the bus ride on our own, dropped off at the right junction on the highway and walked down the paved road to finally find... no one at the place. No staff, no guests, no Wi-Fi, no information. Lucky us we arrived not too late at 3:30pm and were able to ask for help at the Dantica Lodge reception 100m away. They called our host and told us to simply take one of the cabins which were left open. Still on the next day no one showed up. We actually wanted to do a bird watching tour, but without Wi-Fi (as advertised) and no one around - how? So we did a rainy walk on our own down the road and decided to leave earlier as planned on the next day already. Again, how to get back up to the highway (3.5km, 500m altitude difference) with our heavy backpacks? When do busses pass over at the junction? How to stop them? Our help in this situation was Cafe Miriam some 500m the road upwards. They gave us internet and some advices (besides nice bird watching terrace and good food). We finally were able to call the host via WhatsApp from the Café and she managed to arrange a pickup for the next day early in the morning (for USD 15).

To sum it up, we didn't feel welcome at Quetzal Valley Cabins. The main fact was the missing communication and availability of our host. In particular in such a remote area, which is though to reach by bus plus the low season, where not so many tourists are around (to ask). This is a no go in our opinion.

Dear host, please take this as constructive feedback, because we still think your place...

Stayed here and we saw Quetzals right outside cabin 3! They visited at 5pm and stayed for 45 minutes eating avocados on the tree. Super close to us. In the early morning we heard them and I saw 3 flying away. The best spot to have a chance of seeing Quetzals up close.

Oh and the cabin was really cozy and well equipped too! The hot water works if you only use a little water pressure. The trails on the property are nice and lead down to a river and a few waterfalls. There is a small store nearby and a few restaurants. Definitely best to visit with a car if you can, but we managed by bus and Nelson’s help.

Nelson is the sweetest (he’s worked there for 20+ years) and he picked us up and dropped us off at the bus station. We loved talking with him.

The only thing that can be improved a bit is the communication with the owner Peter. We showed up with little to no information given outside of the questions we directly asked. Even so, we had to get a map of trails from another cabin because the owner did not send me info over text but gave them maps (and I asked for it over WhatsApp). I think a booklet in each cabin with this information (trails, places to eat, times to see Quetzals, etc) would solve all of these issues and make sure every guest gets the same information. I do appreciate him answering my questions and...