I can't say enough positive things about my experience at La Selva. The location is amazing, the accommodations were rustic, but comfortable, and the services were fantastic. Yes, the huts are simple - no electricity or water at night, and the bugs can get in, but it is the jungle and if you were protected from it, you wouldn't be getting the real experience. The staff are amazing, from the guides to the chefs, housekeepers, bartenders, etc. I am a vegetarian and they made me special meals at every opportunity. The jungle activities were fantastic. It is an amazing experience.

I had a choice of a number of lodges in the Amazon near Cocoa. I chose La Selva because of their customer support, quick response, desire for my business and ultimately they met or exceeded my expectation. They did everything right and the food was better than I expected. The cabins are Rustic and could be updated a bit however, everthing else was done right and our guide Paul was very enthusiastic and very knowledgable and he listened to our requests and accomodated us the best that he could. The only other lodge I would consider as an alternative was the Napo Wildlife Centre due to their location.

Going to La Selva was an experience that we will not forget. It was our hope to experience a "deep" jungle environment in the heart of Amazonia. We were able to do so and found it to be even better than we expected and hoped it to be.
Being met in the Quito airport by Julie was a very comfortable way to start the journey. Being the only English speakers in the group at that time, Julie was very much concerned about us and made sure to explain everything to us in perfect English. We knew right away that we were dealing with a quality operation with the way we were treated at the airport. By the way, the flight over the Andes was spectacular.
Traveling to the lodge was an amazing experience in itself. The fifty mile boat ride did get a bit monotonous after awhile as the scenery was not all that interesting for much of the time. However, once we got in the canoe and made the short hike on the board walk, the trip soon became very scenic and interesting.
Upon arrival at the lodge we met our guide Daniel who oullined the next few days for us. We were then shown our "cabin" and found it to be better than what some of the reviews we had read reported. Sure it was a bit lacking in the luxury items, but we did not come here for luxury accommodations. It was much better than we had expected so we were very pleasantly surprised. We got a real kick out of the cabin and chose to call it our hut instead as this is what it reminded us of. In short, it was very clean and comfortable, no problem whatsoever.
Each day we were led on two activities, either hiking or by canoe. Daniel, our guide was the most knowledgable guide we have ever had on previous trips. He was able to clearly explain everything we were seeing, smelling and hearing. He truly was a walking encyclopedia of information. Being teachers, we tried to absorb all that he had to say so that we could share the information with our students. We were also very fortunate to have as his partner a native tracker named Johnny. Johnny did not speak English, but his ever present smile was recognizable in any language. Johnny led the way on our hikes and was at home in the junge as we are in the city. He found things that we would never have seen, be it plants, animals or insects. Once located, Daniel could tell us all we could ever hope for about what Johnny had found. They were quite the team.
The food at the lodge was very good as well. I was concerned about this, but it turned out that we were eating very healthy, well prepared foods. All of the staff were friendly and a pleasure to be with.
If you are considering La Selva, it was our experience that there was not a down side to our visit to warn you of. It is hot, really hot for those of us who live in Northern Michigan. Because we were going to the rain forest, on the equator no less, we knew what it would be like before leaving the snow at home. For that reason we just accepted the heat and humidity for what it was, certainly not miserable.
By the way, the generator going out at 10:00 each night was not a problem at all since we were usually sound asleep by then.

We stayed at La Selva Jungle Lodge for 7 nights in January 2010 and had a wonderful, educational, and entertaining visit. Our 9 person group consisted of two families with 4 boys, ages 6 through 14 plus my 77 year old mother. I had researched the different lodges available on-line and narrowed our choices down to either La Selva or the Napo Wildlife Center (NWC). We were more interested in seeing wildlife than staying with a native family, so we decided against Kapawi Lodge. NWC’s website looked more appealing initially, but they were full the week we wanted, so we chose La Selva. We all had a GREAT time and can’t wait to go back!

The staff at La Selva is excellent! We realized throughout the week that they kept close track of all of us. Everything was carefully orchestrated behind the scenes, and it seemed that all the staff knew which guest was doing what on each day. In particular our naturalist guide, Paul, was outstanding. We have been on many other trips with other guides all over the world and he was one of the best. Not only was he superbly qualified in knowing scientific names of nearly everything, but he was genuinely enthusiastic about all the different critters. He was also great with our children. My mother, who used to teach high school biology, was also very impressed with his wealth of knowledge. I spoke with several other guests at the lodge and they too were equally impressed with their naturalist guides as well. I think the management at La Selva does a great job of choosing, recruiting and incentivizing their staff. This could be a good reason to choose La Selva over NWC.

A native guide came with us on all the walks too. He was great with the kids as well. He took them swinging on vines, hunting for tarantulas, and fishing for piranhas. One morning we saw 5 different species of monkeys on our way to the tower. The other half of our group, also saw 5 species that morning but with one different monkey! One of the monkeys knocked down a tree frog which landed on my son, much to his delight. On our first walk in the jungle, we saw 3 different species of snakes. The guides caught many animals so we could examine and photograph them. They were very careful with the animals ensuring that they did not have deet on their hands, especially when handling amphibians.

Others have covered how you get to the lodge, so I won’t repeat. The only unexpected snafu was that some of our luggage arrived at our cabin soaked. (The lodge was very apologetic and dried our clothes for us.) Next time I will pack my duffle with an inside plastic liner, or use a dry bag. You may want to ziplock any ID books in your duffle. The cameras we carried in our daypacks were fine.

The lodging facilities were perfect for us. The mosquito netting is reassuring at night. By the time the electricity is shut off, the temperature has cooled enough to do without the fans. We enjoyed the rustic cabins. We could not hear the generator, even though we were closer to it than other cabins. The kids were fascinated by a baby bird that fell out of nest near our cabin and kept watch over it for several days. The food was excellent, prepared and served very nicely. My husband and I each had one-day stomach issues as is typical for travelling in South America (and we get on every trip), so you may want to observe typical precautions with regards to uncooked greens. I peeked in their kitchen and it was absolutely spotless. I don’t think our issues were a reflection on the food preparation. Rather I think it is just our weak gringo stomachs. One of our children had minor discomfort for a day, and the other had no stomach issues at all.

The staff is extremely accommodating. We didn’t realize initially, but all had to do was ask and they would do their best to assist us. For instance we needed a place to dry out our sweaty clothes, so they put up a clothes line for us. When we wanted pancakes with eggs (instead of just pancakes) or just a plate of tropical fruit, all we had to do was ask. We felt well cared for.

I was concerned my kids might disturb serious birders who came to the lodge, but I was pleasantly surprised at how well the different walks were arranged between the different groups and the different guides. The area is so large that it is easy to be by your self very quickly.

I think it was a fantastic trip to do especially with children. I was nervous about it initially, but now I plan to bring them back. They learned to be cautious around the bullet ants, keeping their boots on in the jungle walks. They loved seeing and touching all sorts of bugs and critters, and they learned about conserving this wonderful rain forest resource. My mother loved the trip as well. She participated in every walk and boat ride and took notes the whole time.

One thought I had for a future visit was to arrange in advance with the lodge to hire an extra native guide who would be available to take the kids back when they wanted to go fishing. We did this informally, but if one arranged it in advance, for a little extra money, one could maximize the adult time taking photos and enjoying the splendid surroundings.

We were very much entertained for the whole 7 days we were there. There is a lot to do. If you are into critters, I would suggest a visit of at least 6 or 7 days. Between all the different walks, the lagoons, the tower, going to the parrot clay licks, and the village, there is so much to do. We can’t wait to go back and hopefully swim with the pink river dolphins next time.