Hotel Tero Real — Hotel in Parroquia Puerto Villamil

We stayed 4 nights here and liked everything about it. The women running this place were so kind, always smiling and quite helpful whenever we had questions. ||We had the main-floor room of a two-story building (room #5) which was slightly different than the other buildings, which seemed to incorporate the main floor and a smaller loft. The room was spotless and a decent size, and the room and bathroom (also a decent size) were cleaned daily. Fresh towels provided daily and free filtered water was available in the lobby, but they also brought you a small pitcher of water daily. You could also use the fridge in the lobby if you wanted, but there were no cooking facilities.||We booked via their website/email months in advance and were given a great rate with breakfast included. They did ask us for a 50% deposit at the time, which I ended up paying by Western Union at my local Walmart, a first for me, but in hindsight it was really easy and well worth it. (Apparently they can take credit cards but charge an extra 22% fee).||For the excellent breakfast they served two eggs, a croissant-like pastry, a large bowl of fresh fruit, a small portion of yoghurt and a small portion of granola every day, along with fresh squeezed orange juice, coffee and hot milk for the coffee. All this served with a smile!||The hostal is basically a block or two from the centre of Puerto Villamil and the grounds are lovely. They have sling chairs for you to relax in under shady trees and/or canopies. The only small disappointment I experienced was that I didn’t see the hammocks some other reviewers mentioned. It looked like they might have been taken away from the palm trees, probably because they were right under the heaps of coconuts in the trees!||The room had amazing AC which also drowned out any noise that you might get anywhere in town (i.e. occasional dogs barking or traffic every now and then), so it was great to be able to sleep without earplugs.||The internet was variable, best in the morning and slowed down as the day progressed, virtually unuseable except for email and BBC news in the evening, but that is apparently the same everywhere on the island. There was no TV in our room, but we didn’t really miss it as there is so much to see on Isabela.||The women arranged a couple of taxi rides for us, did some same-day laundry at an ok rate and even offered (which we gladly accepted) to let us keep our room late for free on our last day, as we weren’t leaving for the ferry until 2:20.||All places should be...

We loved this place. Manuel won us over when he kindly offered to guard our luggage while we checked our places, but in any case there we did not see any other for a reasonable price that looked as nice or clean or welcoming. It is really cozy and convenient and the family, which is probably the most educated family in Galapagos, are also the warmest and most welcoming family we have ever encountered. Manuel has designed many of the houses of the island, including Tero Reals' cambañas with good sense, his wife, a doctor, knows the people well, and the kids hold 2 of the 4 Phds in the archipiélago. So we found no better place to learn about the islands and its history of environmental and economic mismanagement. Manuel also taught my 12 year old how to make pots recycling old towels, and took her to the doctor when she got ill. She could not have enough of Manuel and Andre's company.They looked after us like family, and we are very grateful and plan to visit them again. We recommend them...

The rooms are fine: simple and clean. The staff could not care less though. We arrived, basically got a grunt and were shown tours to book. It felt very pushy and uncomfortable. She gave 5 sentences of information on each tour in super fast Spanish, not slowing down even after we asked. While doing it, it felt like she did not really care if we saw good stuff on Isabela, she just wanted to tick that off her list and go back to her phone. When we had a question about a tour, she immediately wanted to book it (without answering our question). It really did not seem professional or like she actually cared about us as quests. Whats she did not do at check-in: tell us about breakfast, drinking water, tell us when reception is open, give us a receipt for our payment or anything we asked.

The location is also okay, the laundry on the other side of the street...