Eco-luxury reaches new heights at Costa Rica’s Drake Bay Getaway Resort, a Forbes Travel Guide Recommended tropical retreat where the jungle meets the sea.
Built from the ground up via owners Yens Steller and Patrick Ludwig, the postcard-worth assets are as hospitable as stunning, with custom excursions, personalized meals, and attentive providers from the innkeepers.
Forbes Travel Guide caught up with Steller to find out how engineers went for walks at a sustainable lodge, what to % for a jungle getaway, and why you should attempt chocolate-blanketed steak.
My dream changed to emerge as an astronaut, so I left for Seattle to try to become an astronaut, but I discovered I got seasick. So, I studied laptop technological know-how instead and became a software program engineer. Sooner or later, I became a manager at a quickly growing organization.
I married Patrick in 2013. After many years of working as a software program engineer — he became an aerospace engineer, he worked for Honeywell, and I became a supervisor at that factor operating for a large software program organization — we had sufficient of strolling around loopy all the time, so we said, “Let’s get married, permits sell the entirety we got and pass to Costa Rica.”
We sold 22 waterfront acres and built an inn from the ground up. We desired to do something dramatically distinctive. So, we went from an excessive-tech global to at least one where we have no expertise at all.
What became your initial imagination and prescient for Drake Bay Getaway?
We knew from the start we desired to do something luxurious and sustainable. And we knew the undertaking became a way to integrate the 2.
We like to call ourselves “eco-luxurious” because there’s a critical dedication while you’re sustainable versus green.
Sustainability is designing and jogging your business, meaning the materials you use to build your resort. Our buildings are constructed with 80 percent wooden and steel, with excessive ceilings and white roofs for ventilation.
If we ever decided we had been accomplished with the inn commercial enterprise and [we wanted to] shut the resort down, we would disassemble the construction. The jungle would take over the land — it would be like we were never right here.
We wanted to do something that had no TV, no A/C, and no pool from the very start. That became very critical because no one seems to have that now. But there’s a subset that desires a revel in of a lifetime, and that’s what we’re trying to create.
Human beings are looking for an enjoyable, no longer simply an everyday, trendy hotel. It’s not the simplest about the tours. It’s now not simplest about the view. It’s now not the handiest, approximately the meals. The inn owners, my spouse, and I are constantly onsite. The owners are constantly in the lodge assisting out.
Most folks visiting our inn are couples and families with children — it’s virtually split. You’re welcome right here as long as you need a lifetime revel in your circle of relatives or dating.
Speaking of once-in-a-lifetime reviews, what are the most popular excursions at Drake Bay?
One of them is Corcovado National Park. It’s regarded internationally for its biodiversity. Supposedly, it has 2.Five percent of the world’s biodiversity. That means of all the animal and plant species in the world, it has 2.5 percent in this little park. Well, it’s now not little; however, if you look at a map, it’s a small factor within the world.
People cross on day hikes there with a bilingual excursion manual and notice plenty of natural worlds. It’s amazing. You see one-of-a-kind monkeys and anteaters. One huge animal is known as a tapir. It’s very famous. People usually need to peer that. It’s like a rhino, like a pig with an extended nose. We’ve seen puma twice at the park. There are plenty of cats there, too. You can see plenty and lots. Those are just the massive guys. But there are over 10,000 insects on my own in this vicinity. There are masses of species of birds.
The subsequent 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 two foremost ones. However, we have bird-looking and nighttime tours — night excursions are awesome, you could see lots of wildlife — and inside the July-August timeframe, it’s first-rate and famous for humpback whale-watching. The humpback whales come here to start, and you could witness them giving swimming instructions to the little whales. They’re right here by way of the loads.
So, every season is special, but birds and flowers are constantly right here. I think this city has the scarlet macaws globally, — the purple, yellow, and blue ones. And because we’re so close to the park, you can see scarlet macaws and toucans almost daily. People even take photographs of birds from their bathe!
What needs to be p.C. For a jungle getaway?
I might honestly say % wet shoes for the jungle — Tevas or moist footwear- because most things here are done by boat use. You’ve got to get inside and out of the ship, and it’s a wet landing on the beach.
It would help to have trekking shoes or tennis footwear to do tours around clearly. You don’t want to get your excellent footwear wet because you have to move trekking.
And because we’re in the tropical rainforest, you must carry a few kinds of poncho or raincoat, simply in case. A backpack [is good to have, too], because you have have been given to maintain your water anywhere you cross. And usually wear clothes for a tropical, heat region, so no lengthy pants. Don’t wear thick clothes; wear mild colors. Most of the time, it’s shiny and sunny right here, so if you wear a black T-blouse, you will be warm.
We also do free laundry, so you don’t need to wear too many shorts and T-shirts. You can come for 12 days without having to % for each unmarried day.
Besides that, I would say shades, manifestly. Some hats or a sombrero go well with us because we’re right next to the ocean, so you’ve been given to head swimming.
We also deliver away biodegradable water bottles, so when you arrive, there could be a bit fridge with two biodegradable water bottles, a good way to [not only] take home but also to take with you while you go hiking.
