Le Rendez-Vous — Hotel in Vilcabamba

Arrive at a walled property (normal in Ecuador). Step inside the wall and you are in a different world. Lush, well-kept but natural looking grounds. The rooms have a rustic feel, but are reasonably large and very comfortable. The owner/host speaks English. French and Spanish and is quick to help when you need something. Adequate hot water for showers. Each room has a hammock right outside the door (all doors open to the outside) Although the place is clean, there seems to be some sort of critter that deposits dust-like particles overnight... they are cleaned away during the day. Standard breakfast - fruit, juice, eggs to order, self-serve toast, butter, jam. Refill you water bottle with purified water for a few cents (much cheaper than buying bottled water). The property is on the edge of town, which means a 5-10 minute walk to the center of town (Vilcabamba is really small). Taxis are readily available for trips into the countryside or to the Loja (Catamayo) airport, Loja city, or even to Cuenca. A list of several hiking loops is provided. I tried one that was "easy 2-3 hour walk" which for me, at 72, was a 5-hour long, challenging and exhausting ordeal - so...

The hotel has a beautiful park setting with the rooms set up facing a park like courtyard. The walls are thin and you can hear everything going on in the next room as well as outside - not a quiet place until late at night. there is a private bathroom and some hot water in the rooms. The mattresses are so old and there are no mattress covers on them - very dirty. Honestly I felt dirty sleeping on them. The comforters are stained and dirty as well. The breakfast is simply some toast, coffee, and eggs with juice or coffee. Coffee was good, as was toast. Several in my group fed our eggs to the poor pet cat that was skin and bones living there. They said it was skinny because it was old, but yet it ate with gusto when I fed it. Very disappointed in this place and would never stay here again. Staff provide service to you like it's a chore, not because...

We had a private double with shared bathroom, the toilet are separated from the bathroom which is super convenient. We had a terrace with table chair and a hamac, very nice to chill. |The garden is lovely, the room is great, bed is big etc. High standing hotel at a reasonable price.||For information if you are headed to Zumba and then Pérou: |The 9:00am bus seemed to depart from Loja at 9:00am ( and not to pass at 09:00 in Vilcabamba as we were told at the tourist info point) it came at 10:20 am, which lead us to reach the border at 4pm.. |Interesting fact: the custom office on Peru side was closed from 1pm to 4pm... so had we left earlier, we would have waited at the...