Free Spirit Hostel Ecuador — Hotel in General Villamil Playas

we had the chance to visit the freespirit in March 2022. We don’t really do hostel, but we had only good comments on the free spirit!

Ecuador is a vast country. if you are looking for a unique and simple experience, I recommend everyone to visit the free spirit.

For our stay, we booked a private room with our own bathroom. They cleaned our room three times during the week + new sheets.

The setup are wonderful : Surf spot is a 3 minute walk on the beach

The yoga deck offers one of the best views

Every evening, dinner with everyone at the table guests + volunteers and owners. beautiful moments to share with others

the site is very clean. A little oasis in the desert

it's wonderful to see how much the Owners of the FS invest for the good of the young people of the village. recently, they worked to build a skatepark.

we are extremely happy to have visited the free spirit.

What do we need more than yoga, surf, smoothie bowls and beer?

few interesting details before your visit: • The surrounding village is extremely poor, be ready! Me it does not destabilize me, but it is specific to each • Buy your sunscreen before you get there. The UV index is at extreme at 7am in the morning • make sure you withdraw US cash because there is no atm machine close to the Free and it’s cash only everywhere. At the Free Spirit they will open a bar bill for you for the during of your stay. • There's a bigger town, Playas, $2 by bus from the Hostel, and that's where you can to grocery or take out money.

Fun spot around : Una Dia: a Tacos place! kind of an oasis in the desert. It's beautiful. Ask the Free Spirit to help you to organize an lunch for you there

cocteles del paraiso: a really cute restaurant. Price are higher. Good cocktails and music

Thanks Again Ana for the amazing stay ♥️ We...

This hostel is amazing. One of the most welcoming and open communities I’ve experienced in a hostel. This is due to the volunteers — they are amazing. There are 8 at a time and they each stay for one month or more, so there is always a community present at the hostel that you can integrate yourself into. This is unlike other hostels where people only stay for a few days.

We ate delicious complimentary breakfasts and dinners every night together, prepared by volunteers with chef experience.

There are surfing lessons and surfboard rentals ($5-10 a day for a board!). The amenities are perfect. Comfortable bed, pool, hammocks, yoga deck, lots of places to sit and chill, very very clean. Activities every day.

The town is very small, but cute, with affordable lunches ($3-6) and a few small, cheap grocery stores.

My only complaint is that this hostel wants to get every penny out of you possible. One guest, a friend of mine, gave a Spanish lesson to another guest, and the hostel made her pay them a fee because she gave the lesson on the property. Another friend was told he couldn’t use a small piece of tape because it was too expensive. Other guests had similar complaints. You would think, paying so much to stay at a hostel, the management would be less stingy. Also, one of the managers is very passive aggressive and rude.

This small negative does not compare to the generally very positive experience I had at this hostel, and in Puerto Engabao in general. It is a magical place and I hope to...

Puerto Engabao is a cool place! But the hostel definitely needs to get itself sorted. By all means I'd not recommend volunteering there unless you want to bear all of the hostels responsibilities. Management is clearly is disconnected from the guest expirience, and uses the hostal as their own vacation at the behest of volunteers. And by all means do not rent a board from them. They issue defective, well worn boards. If you break it, they do not have insurance and will demand up to 700USD to replace it.

When I arrived the roofs of the dorm rooms were leaking due to the hard rain the night prior. I was unaffected by it but other guests had to dry out their clothes in the humid air for days.

Ontop of that I woke in the mornings with red bite marks. Mosquito nets are provided, but i was always told the marks were sand fleas. Take that as a grain of salt, but everyone there was complaining of these bite marks. I have up to 100.

Otherwise, I met some amazing and memorable guests at the hostel. Other than that...