My husband and I visited La Selva as part of a small group tour in early Dec 2012. The lodge is in an excellent location on its own lake on the Navo river and the food is outstanding. It's worth noting La Selva was the only hotel on our long tour that made a real effort with gluten free and vegetarian food.

The main lodge is a delight - great views of the lake, comfy chairs, wonderful, spacious dining room, nice bar, lovely surrounding gardens. Most of the staff are eager to help. There's a butterfly house on site and a tower structure a ways off in the jungle that takes you up to the tree canopy. There are plenty of trails, and kayaks to go round the lake.

The hotel is being renovated in April 2012. In the meantime though the place has a run-down air. Our (standard) cabin was cramped, with poor lighting, small single towels and uncomfortable beds. The beds have mosquito nets but as there were tears in the netting beneath the eaves, especially in the bathroom, it was difficult to keep insects out of the room. The usual jungle critters (lizards, geckos, other creepy crawlies) were also both day and night-time visitors. The paths to the jungle trails and to the lodge itself (from the main river) are overgrown and slippery in places and our cabin had a pervasive smell of bad drains.

I appreciate we were in the middle of the jungle and in an eco-lodge. I only comment on these things as, paying five star prices, I was disappointed by our accommodation.

Just for info - Our cabin had two ceiling fans and a shower only. The shower's water temperature was temperamental though with the heat a cold shower was sometimes what we wanted. All the washing water used comes filtered water from the lake (fine). Drinking water is brought in to the lodge by boat (probably the one you arrive on) and you're advised to use that to brush your teeth.

Nice walks through the jungle with an english speaking naturalist tour guide.
Great food combined with amazing Ecuadorian soups
Swam in the lake but not fearful of Pirahnas

We stayed for 3 nights over new year and had a great time! We were in cabana 6 which was a more basic cabana, had 1 double bed and 1 single, some shelves, hangers and a bathroom with shower only, and a hammock on porch. the lodge has hot water and electricity from about 4am to 11.30pm daily, all food was included and it was amazing quality and varied. They also catered for a few fussy children cooking ten pasta and rice on request. Each morning they wake you at 5.30, breakfast is at 6 and you leve for your mornings activity at 6.30, which usually lasted about 4 hours. Then free time, lunch at 12.30 and more free time until 4pm for afternoon activity. Then dinner at 7. They also offered night time walks after dinner but we declined. Lodge has an excellent wildlife watchig stand up in the trees a short walk away and sits on a beautiful lake. Our English speaking guide was excellent too. All staff very pleasant ad some speak English. Ifyou like your home comforts then don't come here! If you want a rustic experience then do! We loved it!

My family and I just returned from a 5 day/4 night trip to La Selva Jungle Lodge in the Ecuadorian Amazon. We had booked the baby boomer package, and although they didn't deliver on all of the promised goodies (more on that later), we still had a great time. We arrived from Quito around noon (later than originally expected since our original flight was cancelled -- not La Selva's fault, but a reality to be aware of), and soon began our 2 hour motorized boat ride down the Napo River to our first landing, where we then walked about 15 minutes through the jungle to some waiting canoes (no motors here), that we then took to the lodge (another 15 minutes or so). So all in all it was a good 3 hours or so from when we landed in Coca till we arrived at the lodge. We had a box lunch in the boat, and were greated with various snacks and lemonade on our arrival at the lodge along with an overview of how things worked. All told there were 14 of us on the trip from Quito, and no one else was at the lodge when we arrived. (Later in the week some more folks came and the place was full for our last two days.) As there was a group of 10 birders from France, they formed one group with their own guide who specialized in birds, and my family and the other guest formed the second group. Unlike what I was led to believe from the website, we pretty much had fixed groups who stayed together for the whole week, rather than a variety of different activities you could choose from each day. That may have been in part because we pretty much came in two big groups, plus the one single traveler who was put with my family. However after the additional groups came later in the week we still stayed with our original groups and guides.

Our daily routine was an early breakfast (but not as early as the birding group who were up at about 4:00 each day!) followed by a 2-1/2 to 3 hour excursion, then lunch and rest time, followed by a late afternoon outing and then dinner. we also sometimes did an evening outing as well. Basically we adapted our viewing times to accommodate the activities patterns of the jungle inhabitants, who are most active early and late in the day. During the down times you could swim in the lake (in spite of the piranhas and electric eels, and yes we did partake of that pleasure) and you could also take the canoes out by yourselves as pretty much no one else was using them in the mid afternoons (we did that as well and enjoyed it immensely).

For the "baby boomer" package we opted to spend one night in more primitive lodging (simple tents) deeper in the jungle away from the lodge. this happened our first night, and was preceded by a wonderful river cruise in the dusk/dark where we saw bats and owls and tree boas and woodpeckers and other assorted creatures. we then had a great dinner followed by a nighttime exploration of the various bugs and critters hanging around camp (more spiders and scorpions and other creepy crawlies than I've seen in one place outside of a zoo!). Amazingly the mosquitos were almost nonexistent for the whole trip. this was helped, presumably, because La Selva is located on "black" water that is very acidic and hence not hospitable to mosquitos. The other member of our group, who hadn't signed up for this, opted not to do this and it wasn't clear at first that they were going to be able to accommodate her, but in the end it worked out okay for her and they even found someone, not a regular guide, who took her for a jungle walk the next morning while we were off doing our thing. however she was on her own that first evening.

In the morning after our jungle camp out, I awoke to find our guide, Rodrigo, holding a poisonous coral snake that he had come across while checking out the canoes. He also showed us a few piranha that the cook had caught (we had one later with our lunch, quite tasty). we then had another boat ride followed by a jungle walk before arriving back at the main lodge for lunch. Our afternoon outing that day consisted of another boat ride, this time around the lake on which the main lodge is located. Such was the general pattern of our days, though with some variation. One morning we climbed the treetop canopy to observe birds (interestingly that was our only really buggy time), and another day we traveled back to the Napo River to observe parrots and to visit the home of the grandfather of our indigenous guide, Arsenio. This was the real thing, not a kitschy tourist affair, and we got to observe how a typical jungle family really lived. It was pretty basic.

As to the lodge itself, our unit was quite nice. We aren't talking fancy, but the rooms were clean and not too many critters. Someone else in their review complained about cockroaches. We certainly had some (we were in the jungle after all) but not too many. we did spot a giant wolf spider in the bathroom on the last day. Not sure how long he had been there...kind of a creepy thought to think he might have been there the whole time. however the beds all had mosquito netting, so I wasn't worry about things crawling over me at night.

The lodge has a wonderful lounge area and adjoining dining area, both looking out onto the lake. however we understand the new owner plans to move the dining area elsewhere to make room for several new sleeping units. I was very disappointed to hear this. Hopefully they will find as attractive a setting for the new dining area, but it's hard to imagine. The lodge provided all of the purified drinking water you wanted for free, but other drinks, both alcoholic and nonalcholic, you had to pay for (though we were given lemonade after our morning and afternoon outings). The showers and sinks in the units used lake water, so while you could rinse the dirt off and wash your clothes, I'm not sure how clean you really got. At least everyone else was in the same boat. The food was excellent and plentiful. the soups especially were delicious, and I loved the freshly made juice we had with each meal.

One comment about the baby boomer package. I had forgotten to print out the list of extras we were supposed to get, and they had no internet at the lodge (at least not for guests), so I didn't remember at the time what all we were supposed to get. as it turns out we got shorted a fair bit. we did get the requested night out in the jungle (an option was to have a dockside candlelit dinner), but no massage for my wife and no treetop canopy breakfast and no special sunset cruise per se, though most of our evening excursions were on the lake anyway. I later learned that they had recently closed their spa (to reopen in July 2012 apparently), which explains the lack of a massage, but I gather we should at least have had the canopy breakfast. That's not a big deal as far as I'm concerned, especially as I enjoyed the breakfasts with our other group member and guide and the wonderful dining area setting, but if they are going to advertise those bonuses they really should deliver and it shouldn't be up to the guests to remind them. I gather from reading the other comments that at least one other couple did get all of those goodies and enjoyed them quite a bit.

One day we had an unplanned post lunch boat outing with some members of another group and a different guide to see an anaconda that was sunning at the lake's edge. we then stopped on the way back to watch some monkeys at play. it was interesting to experience a different guide. we liked our own guide, Rodrigo, quite a bit, though this other guide provided a lot more information about the animals and why they did what they did that we hadn't gotten from Rodrigo. So just be aware that your experiences can vary depending on who your guide is.

A final comment relates to logistics. our return flight also left later than originally planned due to a change in the airline schedules. also, it was more than two hours late getting in, so in the end we arrived back at Quito around 4:30 instead of just before noon. Fortunately our return flight to states wasn't till much later that evening, but it is a cautionary warning not to plan connections too tightly. Allow yourselves a little wiggle room for the unexpected.