Inside the Luxury Galápagos Hotel Full of Adventure – LAmag

The all-inclusive Pikaia Lodge offers a gorgeous setting, ocean views, volcanic explorations and roaming wildlife

As a lifelong city girl, the idea of exploring an unspoiled place, where creatures unseen by most — giant Galápagos tortoises, birds with feet the color of a Santorini doorway, Godzilla-looking iguanas — roam freely, has always been a dream. The Galápagos Islands are an archipelago, a collection of islands in Ecuador that are so exquisite, the locale is among the wonders of the world. Charles Darwin rooted his theory of natural selection in what he learned in the Galápagos, studying the dizzying array of ancient and adaptive wildlife.

His resulting book, On the Origin of Species, would forever impact scientific views on the biological origins of man.

I jumped at the chance to check out the Galápagos Islands in unimaginable style with Pikaia Lodge, a sustainable eco-luxury experience on Santa Cruz Island. The 14-room escape designed by Humberto Plaza acts as a base camp for exploration, one perched along the edge of an extinct volcanic crater. The resort is a stunning, five-star experience in a unique natural habitat, one that Darwin called “a little world within itself.”

Credit: Michele McPhee

Credit: Michele McPhee

The Pikaia Lodge itself is a “little world” for the luxury traveler — albeit someone with both an innate curiosity for the wild and a strong constitution for an arduous journey, as getting to this paradise from Los Angeles is not easy. Think: Planes. Automobile. Boat. It’s an entire day of travel from LAX that starts with a six-hour jet to JFK for a connecting flight into Ecuador’s Guayaquil, which is roughly seven hours. Then comes a two-hour flight to Santa Cruz, where Pikaia Lodge has a concierge waiting for the final journey. A road and boat trip finally ends at the posh property, where, as the resort’s parent company Relais & Châteaux likes to say, “Nature walks beside you, swims next to you and reminds you that true luxury is sharing space with the wild.”

And wild it is. The remote property is state-of-the-art, has earned two Michelin stars and is suspended between endless blue skies and the Pacific Ocean. An infinity pool and beautiful rooms dazzle, while the world-class onsite restaurant, Evolution, nods to the Darwinism that crystallized the Galápagos’ place in prehistoric history. The picturesque restaurant is helmed by executive chef Cristian Puente, known for being one of the best Ecuadorian chefs in the world.

Credit: Pikaia Lodge

The all-inclusive Pikaia Lodge not only promises exquisite food, a gorgeous setting, ocean views, miles of hiking and biking paths, but it also organizes itineraries for guests to enjoy adventures on both land and sea aboard Pikaia’s own 150-foot yacht. By foot, there is the exploration of volcanic caves and meeting giant tortoises that roam free. Ocean adventures include snorkeling among the kaleidoscopic reefs, canoodling with baby seals, marveling at hammerhead sharks and taking in the abundance of marine life.

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There aren’t many hotels in the Galápagos, and none are as opulent as the Pikaia Lodge.