ISABELA HOTEL LOJA — Hotel in Parroquia Puerto Villamil

We stayed at Hostal Loja for 4 days and had a comfortable stay. ||||The room and bathroom were basic but were clean and comfortable. Our room (#8) had AC and a small fridge. We noticed that some of the other rooms had TVs and no fridges, so I guess the amenities depend on which room you get. The wifi was terrible - there is one network that covers the reception area but is not strong enough to reach the rooms. Even when standing right next to the router the internet was barely usable. Obviously you don't come to the Galapagos to sit on Facebook, but we would have appreciated being able to do some basic research on TripAdvisor for the local restaurants/tour agencies, etc. ||||The owner is a friendly, older gentleman who has lived on the island for 40 years. He doesn't speak English and our Spanish is terrible, so there were a few gaps in communication. There is also a younger guy who works the front desk and serves the breakfast, who is also really friendly and we had an easier time understanding his Spanish. He was really nice and helped us sort out a few issues with one of our day tours. ||||The breakfast included in the room rate was good, but perhaps not as good as we were expecting based on some of the other reviews. Fresh juice, fresh fruit, eggs, croissants with jam/butter, and coffee/tea. Certainly not the best breakfast we have had in South America, but definitely sufficient to fill you up for a day of exploring the island. ||||We made our reservation through Booking and, in retrospect, we probably paid a lot more than we should have. Isabela is the most expensive of the Galapagos Islands to stay on, so we were expecting to pay a little more, but we felt that the room rate was overpriced for what you get. As one of the previous reviews mentioned, you would probably get a cheaper price if you just showed up and asked for a room rather than making a reservation ahead of time.||||We traveled to Isabela in October, which is one of the slower months, and a lot of the better looking hotels in Puerto Villamil looked to be very quiet. You could probably get a much better deal at a nicer hotel by finding a room in person during the...

We found this hostal through Booking; the rates looked a little higher than what we were willing to pay, but we figured that Isla Isabela was a more expensive place that Santa Cruz (which is true). Actually, as soon as we arrived there, they had no knowledge of a reservation made through Booking, which turned out to be in our favor because the rates offered were much lower and the owner seemed like a very friendly person. He is an elderly gentleman, from the first that arrived to do business in the island.||Their breakfast is among the best I've had in small hostales in South America and perhaps elsewhere. Fruits, fresh juice (none of that bottled nonsense), coffee, toast, eggs, you name it. You can actually ask for a doggy bag to take the leftovers so that you can have them later (useful if you are hiking or going out).||The showers were good and the pressure was appropriate, even on the second floor.||Like others have stated, I don't think they take cards, so stock up in cash outside of the island and you'll be fine. They also sell coconuts which they will open for you to drink! Across the street, by the corner in front of a park, there is a small place where you can grab meals for less than $5-6 USD. Only locals eat here so don't expect anything fancy.. They also have ice...

We chose this place as the best reviewed for under $100 per night in Puerto Villamil. Perhaps there's a dearth of good affordable accommodation on Isabela but this place had been overrated. We had a fantastic stay at a similarly rated place for much less on Santa Cruz.||We emailed the property in advance to let them know that we would arrive from around 9.30am (check in was listed as from 9am) but on arriving at 10am no rooms were even in the process of being prepared. We waited 30 minutes in the garden, which was looking much worse for wear since compared to their photographs online.||In the garden, the plants were much sparser and the nice breezy hammocks on the photos had been replaced by hot uncomfortable fabric ones.||The room was nice enough, though gaps between the door and the lintel allowed bugs to enter and the shower head was broken and needed changing, which to their credit the hostel replaced when I pointed it out.||Breakfast was decent but again we had emailed in advance to list my wife's allergies, which they had either not read or ignored because it was not in Spanish so I had to reexplain.||In the end we used Google translate to tell them we would like to move to another place after the...