Eco-luxurious reaches new heights at Costa Rica’s Drake Bay Getaway Resort and a Forbes Travel Guide Recommended tropical retreat wherein the jungle meets the ocean. Built from the floor up with the aid of proprietors Yens Steller and Patrick Ludwig, the postcard-worth assets are as hospitable as it’s far lovely, with custom excursions, personalized food, and attentive service from the innkeepers themselves. Forbes Travel Guide stuck up with Steller to determine how two engineers ended up jogging a sustainable motel, what to p.C. For a jungle getaway and why you must attempt chocolate-blanketed steak.
How did you go from being a pc engineer to proudly owning a lodge?
I turned into 15 years antique. I was an excursion manual in Costa Rica. I finally earned enough money to depart my city, Drake Bay. My dream turned into to grow to be an astronaut, so I left for Seattle to try to grow to be an astronaut, but I realized that I get seasick. So, I studied laptop science as a substitute and have become a software program engineer and sooner or later have become a supervisor at a fast-growing corporation there.
I married Patrick in 2013. After a few years of working as a software program engineer — he was an aerospace engineer, he worked for Honeywell and I turned into a supervisor at that factor operating for a massive software program company — we just had sufficient of going for walks around crazy all of the time, so we said, “Let’s get married, allow’s promote the whole lot we got and move to Costa Rica. So, we bought 22 waterfront acres and built a lodge from the ground up. We simply wanted to do something dramatically distinct. So, we went from an excessive-tech international to one in which we have no information at all.
What became your preliminary imaginative and prescient for Drake Bay Getaway?
We knew from the start we wanted to do something luxurious and sustainable. And we knew the assignment becomes a way to integrate the two. We like to name ourselves “eco-luxury” because there’s a serious dedication when you’re sustainable as opposed to green. Sustainability is a way of designing and jogging your business, meaning the substances you operate to construct your inn. Our homes are built with 80 percent wood and metal, with excessive ceilings and white roofs for ventilation.
So, if we ever decided we were achieved with the motel commercial enterprise and [we wanted to] close the hotel down, we’d simply just disassemble the development and the jungle might take over the land — it’d be like we had been by no means right here. So, we wanted to do something that had no TV, no A/C, and no pool from the very starting. That became very crucial due to the fact all people seem to have that at this point. But there’s a subset that wants an enjoyment of a lifetime, and that’s what we’re looking to create.
People looking for an enjoyable, now not simply an everyday, standard hotel are people who come right here. It’s now not only about the tours. It’s no longer best about the view. It’s now not most effective about the food. We, the resort owners, my partner, and I are always onsite. The owners are always in the hotel assisting out. Most of the people who go to our resort are couples and households with kids — it’s honestly break up. As lengthy as you need a lifetime revel in your family or your courting, you are welcome here.
Speaking of once-in-a-lifetime reviews, what are the most popular tours at Drake Bay?
One of them is Corcovado National Park. It’s regarded international for its biodiversity. Supposedly, it has 2.Five percent of the arena’s biodiversity. TSo thatmethod of all the animal and plant species in the world, it has 2.Five percentage on this little park. Well, it’s no longer little; however, if you look at a map, it’s a small point in the world. People go on day hikes there with a bilingual tour manual and spot plenty of natural world. It’s remarkable. You see one-of-a-kind monkeys and anteaters. One massive animal is called tapir. It’s very famous. People usually need to look at that. It’s like a rhino, like a pig with a protracted nostril. We’ve visible puma twice on the park.
There are masses of cats there, too. You can see masses and plenty. Those are simply the large guys. But there are over 10,000 bugs alone in this area. There are hundreds of species of birds. The next one could be snorkeling or diving at Caño Islands Biological Reserve. That is near us, too. You can go snorkeling or diving to see turtles, sharks, manta rays, and dolphins. Those are the 2 essential ones, but we’ve hen-looking and night tours — night tours are excellent, you may see plenty of natural world — and within the July-August time-frame, it’s excellent popular for humpback whale-looking.
The humpback whales come right here to give delivery, and you can witness them giving swimming training to the little whales. They’re here by the hundreds. So, every season is distinctive; however, birds and flowers are usually here. This city has the most scarlet macaws inside the globe, and I think — the crimson, yellow and blue ones. And seeing that we’re so near the park, you could see scarlet macaws and toucans nearly on a day-by-day basis right here. People even take pictures of birds from their showers!
