La Casa Amarilla — Hotel in Baños de Agua Santa

We booked Casa Amarilla because we read Banos was often noisy and wanted a quiet location. We understood it was a short hike to get there but we did not expect it to be as bad as it was. We live at 8000 ft in Colorado and walk uphill to get to our house but nothing prepared us for this steep incline..while carrying heavy bags. Plus the owner was supposed to meet us at the bottom but wasn’t there when we arrived. He happened to come along 10 minutes later, after I had repeatedly tried calling his wife (she had emailed me the wrong number). So the first impression was not good and when our driver from Quito became concerned for our welfare, we should have taken that as a sign and found other lodging immediately. But instead we forged up the hill with our bags wanting to give the place a chance. The owner, Darwin, tried to sell me on his travel tours the entire way up while all I wanted was to focus on finally arriving at our destination. We did finally get there but it felt really awkward from the start. After seeing the small room and the close quarters of living with the owners and their 5 year old son, we decided to have dinner and stay the night but then find other lodging for the rest of our stay. Clearly Bettina, the owner, was disappointed when we told her and we readily agreed to her terms of paying a penalty for leaving early. It was the right decision and the place we moved to in town, the Hostal Chiminea, was 1/2 the price for a spacious room in a quiet location near the waterfall. La Casa Amarilla is in a beautiful spot (although noise from town carries up the hill) and the food was delicious. Perhaps under other circumstances we would have had a pleasant experience and I really struggled whether to write this review but I think it is helpful to know that the hike is arduous and that is something to consider...

This hotel is a little off the beaten path but...has a lovely view of Baños. It was super relaxing eating breakfast on the terrace and enjoying the view of the city, along with their gardens! Bettina is very friendly and accommodating and speaks English. They have a adorable cat, dog, and kids that made us feel at home. They helped us arrange transport back to the airport too. We were in room 2 it’s smallish, but it had hot water and clean linens, we felt it was a very reasonable price. I do wish their had been a bath rug as the floor is tiled, and was a little slick stepping out of the shower. We did hear some noise, sirens, dogs, roosters ect...but all the places we stayed in Ecuador seemed to have noisy hotel rooms (maybe the concrete construction) so we were prepared with white noise to play on our phone. They served a very good breakfast! Bettina even steamed milk for my coffee (seems Ecuadorians don’t drink coffee with cream). Be warned it is a steep 10-15 min hike with loose gravel, to get up to this place! Do yourself a favor if you have a suitcase, and have the hotel prepare the horse to meet you at the gate where the pavement ends, to bring it up ($6) Its very worth it!...

This was my fourth time visiting Banos, Ecuador; it's one of my favourite places in South America! This was, however, my first time staying at La Casa Amarilla. In my research, I was looking for a place to stay with a view, as the town and its surroundings are very picturesque. Although there are lovely hotels in town, you don't have the same experience without the view! La Casa Amarilla is a small hotel, which I liked, with comfortable rooms and nice bathrooms (with hot water). Breakfast was included, and was absolutely delicious. All of the ingredients were fresh and plentiful. The hotel owners were a very charming and hospitable couple. We enjoyed talking to them each day, and we were able to arrange our excursions with the hotel owners. Overall, this hotel was more than charming. It made our stay in Banos very special. The only criticism/advice I would give is to be prepared for a fairly laborious hike to the hotel. It is not accessible by car, and the hike is strenuous, even if only for 20 minutes. We had to plan our days around only going up once a day, which worked out fine. Perhaps a quad service would be helpful. Overall, beautiful place, great people, highly...