Hotel La Laguna Galapagos

What People are saying

Avoid La Laguna

MI_Snowboarding on 24/01/2017 23:58

My wife and I stayed 3 nights at Hotel La Laguna at the end of December 2016. We were on the final portion of our honeymoon and were excited to see Puerto Villamil and Isabela. We decided on this "hotel" based on the TripAdvisor reviews. Upon check in, there was initial confusion with the receptionist regarding the reserved room type. We checked in along with another couple and a single person. We had a confirmation email that we had reserved a double matrimony room, however the receptionist informed us they were all taken. We had made the reservation in April 2016 and we asked if our room was given to another group. The receptionist, while pleasant, had a difficult time speaking English and said that the two twin bed room was the only one available. We again asked where the mix up occurred and instead of explaining, she took the key to the double matrimony from the guest who was staying on their own and gave it to us. We gave the key back to the other guest and said we weren't going to take the room from them if they had paid for the larger room. It was shocking to see the lack of organization at check in. Another guest at the hotel checked out the 2nd day we were there and instead of moving us to a larger room, the room was instead given to the next group of people who arrived. Clearly this "hotel" believes in a first come, first served method of distributing rooms.

Once we got to our room, we were surprised by the difference in room quality from the pictures posed on TripAdvisor to the actual room. While the room and beds were clean, the "hotel" could certainly use some updating. We stayed in room 7 on the second floor (just next to the stairway) and had a view looking onto the backyard neighbors of the hotel along with an unfinished construction project. The sink and shower in the bathroom took a long time to drain; the faucet is push operated and will work for 10 seconds before you need to press it again to turn it back on. The sink took about 30 seconds after one push to drain. It seems using some chemicals would clear up any clogs in the drain and allow the water to clear much faster. The shower also took a while to completely drain, however this seems to be due to the slope of the tiles, so I'm not sure how much can be done to fix that. The metal shelf in the bathroom also had some rust on it.

The beds were comfortable and the air conditioning in the room worked, however with the fan running and the windows closed, you could clearly hear the children in the back yard yelling and screaming at different times during the day as well as a dog barking. I'm not sure if this is from the cracked window or if it is from the lack of a seal on the window, but this made it very difficult to take a nap or fall asleep at night.

The room had two TVs, one for each bed. This would have been nice had the TVs worked. The cable to the one TV appeared to have been ripped out of the wall and the other TV just displayed static.

The "renovated lobby" on the second floor had a nice seating area, however pictures posted by the management on the TripAdvisor page clearly show a TV in the lobby. The area is now covered by a whiteboard that has a drawing of the "hotel" name on it.

While the room was lacking an alarm clock, we did not have to worry since every morning at 5:30, we were awoken from the chairs being moved on the floor above us to prepare the dining room for breakfast. Breakfast is only served from 7:00 - 8:00, but we were told even guests who stayed on the first floor could hear the chairs being moved.

The room did not have a safe to store any valuables and with Isabela being an island that only accepts cash, we wish we had a place to store our cash and passports. When we checked into the hotel, we requested that no one come in and make up our room and we even put a sign in Spanish on our door that said Do Not Disturb. We were shocked to see our room had been cleaned when we returned in the afternoon of our second day. I spoke with the receptionist and also kept the sign on our door and made it very clear we did not want anyone to enter our room the next day. My wife was sleeping in the next morning and was awoken by one of the staff trying to come into the room and clean it again. I asked a different receptionist why our Do Not Disturb request had been ignored and she could not provide me with an answer since she spoke very little English.

At 9pm the final night we were at the hotel, the receptionist asked that I pay our bill for the room. She informed me the price was $148/night, however I had a confirmation email showing the rate at $131/night. She said, "Oh, OK" and charged me the $131. Had I not had this email, I would have been charged the extra amount. I have no idea why the correct rate wasn't given to the receptionist.

Had this property been called La Laguna Hostel, I would not have as much of an issue. However, when you are paying the same rate for a hotel that we paid for in Santa Cruz, it's frustrating to see the level of service and hotel quality dramatically decline. If we had known any of this we certainly would not have chosen to stay here even to save some money due to the fact the we were on our Honeymoon! It was a very sad way to end our trip, and it did not leave us with very fond memories. Even if more expensive we recommend you stay else where- our other choice we went to visit while we were there and we were kicking ourselves for not booking that instead.

Decent place to stay on Isabela

CozyClarke on 04/01/2017 19:09

This was our 3rd island on our island hopping trip to the Galapagos. This hotel had more of a corporate feel to it compared to our other 2 excellent places we stayed at in Santa Cruz and San Cristobal, where we had really personalized service. I booked a couple of day trips and the ferry trips to and from the island. It seemed kind of disorganized for the amount that we paid.

Lovely

Idril C on 16/11/2016 16:53

Just a short stroll away from the beach, a more quite and peaceful hotel next to a lagoon where you can spot flamingos.
The rooms are big with a/c and very comfy.
Wifi does not work very well in the room but who cares, you are in holidays and don't need the internet constantly!
The staff , Especially Magarita, is amazing, friendly, helpful , just lovely!
Had an amazing stay in this very nice hotel!

Ah ja, breakfast is good too! :)

Simple yet perfect place to stay while visiting Isabella Island

ShellyBeean on 17/08/2016 02:48

We booked an 8 day Galapagos Island package at the last minute while we were in South America and as packages often go, we didn't choose the lodging so we were very fortunate to end up at Hotel La Laguna. Isabella is a pretty small town so we didn't know what to expect. We ended up being blown away by the impeccable service with a smile. Any request we had was met with eager to please attitude and quick response ( e.g., extra pillows, drinking water, late breakfast). Each time we returned to our room there is a full pitcher of filtered water to drink.
I mentioned to Margarita at the reception desk that my left ear was hurting when I went snorkeling at Kicker Rock so I had gotten back into the boat earlier than I would have liked to (the ear pain was due to the chilly water in August, which is their winter) and she recommended that I put cotton in my ear next time. Low and behold, the next day when we went out to snorkel again she had gone out and bought me cotton to use...problem solved. Thank you Margarita!!
The dining room is on the top floor of the building and makes for a lovely experience looking out at the lagoon with the pink Flamingos tittering away. Our chefs were amazingly talented with respect to the flavor and presentation. I only regret that I didn't take pics to add to this review. The soups were unique and delicious, and I'm not usually a big soup eater. Each meal that we enjoyed there included soup or an appetizer, a wonderful entree and a dessert. My ONLY criticism would be that there was too much food and we often couldn't finish it all.
Our rooms were immaculate, accommodations were simple but very adequate and we had a great balcony overlooking the lagoon. We were so busy with outings that we never did get a chance to use the hot tub up on the roof.
Some of the other hotels had views of the ocean but we wouldn't trade them for Hotel La Laguna!

Best of our Galápagos stay

Michael G on 08/08/2016 13:46

We were delighted by the time we spent at La Laguna. The staff was extraordinary, especially Margarita at the front desk. The chef also did an amazing job being creative and adapting to my vegetarian requests. The facility itself is recently renovated and everything worked well. Being centrally located and adjacent to a flamingo pond were additional pluses. There is an outdoor lounge and rooftop terrace and satellite TV in the dining room. There are likely other places as nice but probably not for the price.