The names were a nice touch! The Excursions Water bottles waiting for us in our rooms. If you get car sick, definitely take a pill in advance, and don’t eat anything right before the drive. It took a good hour to completely leave Quito due to traffic, and the rest of the drive was on windy roads.
#Mashti lodge driver#
Then, at 9:00 the next morning, we were picked up by a driver and guide and driven just under four hours to Mashpi Lodge, including a quick stop when we passed the equator (driving from the southern hemisphere to the northern hemisphere) and a 20-minute stop at the Museo de Sitio y Centro Ceremonial Tulipe to use the bathrooms and learn about the indigenous culture of the area. Getting To Mashpi LodgeĪfter the Galapagos, we flew back to Quito and spent a night at Casa Gangotena. And then we liked Mashpi Lodge even more. So when we were in Ecuador to visit the Galapagos and saw that there was a National Geographic Unique Lodge of the World in the Ecuadorian cloud forest, Mashpi Lodge, we extended our trip by three days / two nights to add on a stay. These hotels justified the expense by offering truly unique experiences in unique settings. All were expensive stays, but it wasn’t an expense based on ostentatious luxury – like if you were spending $2,000/night for a suite in Paris. And at Ashford Castle we went horseback riding and did falconry in the forest, and if we stayed longer would have done far more. Tierra Patagonia included several amazing hikes around Torres del Paine as well as horseback riding.
At Tierra Atacama we did six excursions around the Atacama Desert, including hiking to sand dunes and watching geysers at sunrise. All three were about more than amazing locations and unique architecture they were also about the active, educational activities. It would be easy to think that it’s is all about branding, except that three of our absolute coolest stays the past two years have been at NG Unique Lodges of the World: Tierra Atacama and Tierra Patagonia in Chile and Ashford Castle in Ireland. There are a handful of hotels around the world that have earned the distinction of being called National Geographic Unique Lodges of the World. Sunset at Ecuador’s Mashpi Lodge National Geographic Unique Lodges of the World