Eco-luxurious reaches new heights at Costa Rica’s Drake Bay Getaway Resort; a Forbes Travel Guide Recommended tropical retreat in which 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 it’s 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 ended up running 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.
My dream was to become an astronaut, so I left for Seattle to end up an astronaut, but I realized that I get 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 becomes 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 become 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 like to call ourselves “eco-luxurious” because there’s a severe commitment whilst you’re sustainable versus green.
Sustainability is a manner of designing and jogging your commercial enterprise, which means the materials you operate to build your resort. Our homes are constructed with eighty percentage 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 starting. That turned into very important because everybody appears to have that at this factor. But there’s a subset that wishes an experience of a lifetime, and that’s what we’re trying to create.
People who come here are looking to revel in, now 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. We, the hotel proprietors, my spouse, and I, are constantly on site. The proprietors are always within the hotel assisting out.
Most of the people who visit our inn are couples and families with youngsters — it’s honestly cut up. As long as you want a lifetime to enjoy your circle of relatives or your relationship, you are welcome to right here.
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 that way, of all of the animal and plant species within the international, it has 2.Five percentage 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.
