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Cubicle Dreamin' / Brazil Hotels / → All Tags

Cubicle Dreamin': Take Your Tarzan to Ariau Amazon Towers

Where: RUA LEONARDO MALCHER 699, MANAUS, Brazil

Cubicle Dreamin' is a feature in which we ask the hotel mavens to take some time out of their busy work day, surf the Internet, and tell us what hotel they wish they could beam themselves to right that very second--all on the slave driving companies dime, of course. Oh, like these people aren't surfing aimlessly anyway--at least now their purposeless clicking will be cobbled together into useful hotel stories--we hope. Have a destination hotel you are just dying to leave your cube for? Send the story our way.

In this episode, Hotel Maven Amanda K heads to Brazil. Enjoy.

This week my dream trip is out into the middle of the jungle. In the Amazon, to be precise, because I've made a heap of Brazilian friends in the last few months who keep giving me tips on where to visit. And my latest plan is to hang out for a few days at the Ariau Amazon Towers Hotel in the Amazon rain forest near the town of Manuas.

The Ariau Amazon Towers is a pretty special place. It's a set of towers built above the water and connected by wooden walkways, with your accommodation about at the height of the rain forest canopy. By all reports it's not the fanciest hotel in the world, but it has the basics and more, including air conditioning and internet access.

There are monkeys wandering around the walkways too, in case you ever need reminding that you're in the middle of nature. And the hotel also offers quite a few tours, like piranha fishing, caiman spotting and a jungle hike. It definitely sounds like the kind of hotel where I wouldn't be surprised to see Tarzan swinging over the balcony to visit me.

[Photo: TravelWiz43]

Related Stories:
· Where To Stay in the Amazon [IHT]
· Amazon Travel [Jaunted]
· Hotels in Brazil [HotelChatter]

Eco-Hotels / → All Tags

Monkeys, Spiders, and Rainforests Oh My!

Where: Avenida Eduardo Ribeiro, Manaus, Brazil, 69005-1

With a name like Amazon Eco Park Jungle Lodge, everything is pretty much given away. Yes Sherlock, this is an eco-hotel in the Amazon Jungle in Brazil.

Like many eco-hotels, the Jungle Lodge is stocked with activities including a monkey park. So the next logical question is, what are the accommodations like? Fit for a...monkey? Thankfully not.

Amazon Ecopark Jungle Lodge has 60 apartments distributed in 20 bungalows. Each unit has three apartments, made of concrete and wood. Each room with independent entrance, porches and bathrooms, all with air conditioning, electric showers and screened windows. The bungalows, although rustic, are pleasantly decorated and provide much comfort (night light, carpet, indigenous decorative objects, etc.)

The site provides plenty of pictures which allow you to happily conclude that by rustic they really mean in a charming way and not in the sometimes used, hotel-euphemism way meaning "desperate need of renovations."

That said, this is still the Amazon and past guests have been bothered by the presence of spiders and other insects that have migrated from the jungle into the lodge. Even if you're an eco-hotel junkie or just interested in the world's biggest rainforest, then douse yourself in insect repellant and do it Amazon-style.

Related Stories:
· Amazon Eco Park Jungle Lodge Reviews [TripAdvisor]

Hotel Hell / → All Tags

Avoid Mamori Lodge

Where: Amazons Eco Lodge, Manaus, Brazil

[Editor's Note: Hmm. Usually we turn over ever rock trying to find out if the source of these hell stories is an actually guest or a review bomber--this time we are just going to publish this warning. If the below info is erroneous, let us know (*cough* it certainly seems like it is). Remember, this is one alleged guests opinion, and if you can't tell we highly doubt this person was a guest]

Mamori Lodge has a tourist trap at the airport disguised as TOURIST INFO center. The owner is a Belgian man, particularly tricky. He speaks several languages ( which is a relief in Brazil where almost no one speaks any foreign languages ) and acts like an honest advisor inadvertedly leading you to HIS lodge which is the least recommendable place.

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