Eco-luxurious 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 with the aid of owners Yens Steller and Patrick Ludwig, the postcard-worthy property is as hospitable as its miles stunning, with custom tours, customized meals, and attentive providers from the innkeepers themselves.
Forbes Travel Guide stuck up with Steller to find out how engineers ran a sustainable inn, what to percent for a jungle getaway, and why you should strive for chocolate-covered steak.
How did you pass from being a pc engineer to proudly owning an inn?
I was 15 years antique. I became a tour guide in Costa Rica. Finally, I earned sufficient money to depart my town, Drake Bay.
I dreamed of becoming an astronaut, so I left for Seattle, to become an astronaut, but I realized that I got seasick. So, I studied computer technological know-how as a substitute, became a software program engineer, and became a manager at a fast-developing organization there.
I married Patrick in 2013. After many years of operating as a software engineer — he became an aerospace engineer, he labored for Honeywell, and I was a manager at that point running for a big software program employer — we had enough of walking around crazy all of the time, so we stated, “Let’s get married, allow’s promote everything we got and flow to Costa Rica.”
We bought 22 waterfront acres and built a hotel from the ground up. We just desired to do something dramatically unique. So, we went from a high-tech world to one wherein we do not know at all.
What became your initial vision for Drake Bay Getaway?
We knew from the beginning we wanted to do something luxurious and sustainable. And we knew the assignment was how to combine the 2.
We call ourselves “eco-luxurious” because there’s a severe commitment while you’re sustainable versus green.
Sustainability is designing and jogging your commercial enterprise, which means the materials you operate to build your resort. Our homes are constructed with eighty percent timber and metallic, with excessive ceilings and white roofs for ventilation.
So, if we ever decided we were achieved with the hotel commercial enterprise and [we wanted to] close the resort town, we might disassemble the development, and the jungle could take over the land — it would be like we have been in no way right here.
We desired to do something that had no TV, no A/C, and no pool from the very start. That became very important because everybody appears to have this factor. But there’s a subset that wishes an experience of a lifetime, and that’s what we’re trying to create.
People here want to revel in not just an everyday, popular inn. It’s now not only about the tours. It’s now not only approximately the view. It’s no longer only about the food. The hotel proprietors, my spouse, and I are constantly on site. The proprietors are always within the hotel, assisting.
Most people visiting our inn are couples and families with youngsters — it’s honestly cut up. You are welcome here as long as you want a lifetime to enjoy your circle of relatives or your relationship.
Speaking of as-soon-as-in-a-lifetime reports, what are the maximum famous tours at Drake Bay?
One of them is Corcovado National Park. It’s recognized worldwide for its biodiversity. Supposedly, it has 2.Five percent of the sector’s biodiversity. So, of all of the animal and plant species within the international, it has 2.Five percent in this little park. Well, it’s now not little, but if you look at a map, it’s a small factor inside the globe.
