Banana Bamboo Ecolodge

The room was comfortable, the staff friendly, and breakfast was delicious with local products. The area is beautiful, and the jacuzzi overlooking the river was amazing. Truly a fantastic place, and the best accommodation we had in Brazil!

Banana Bamboo Ecolodge is hard to leave. The food was fresh, flavorful, and thoughtfully made with local ingredients, and the team was genuinely kind and attentive without hovering, always ready with a smile. The place feels peaceful, authentic, and full of charm. Its beautiful setting blends so naturally with the surrounding Mata Atlântica forest, and the calm, simple atmosphere made me feel at ease right away. It felt like finding a secret haven.

For $998BRL a night for two adults, all you get is a small room and breakfast, and that seems wildly out of step with the price. This was for a Friday in early September, not even high season. I tried booking for two adults and two kids: the site says children under 6 stay free, but it wouldn’t let me add more than two kids. The third child had to be entered as an extra person, adding $340BRL for the same room. For kids over 6, that’s another $340BRL per child, per night just to share the room. Even without children, $998BRL for a couple is hard to justify. At that cost, you could stay at a decent all-inclusive hotel fazenda with meals and activities included. It’s a cute place, but feels like a money grab and nowhere near worth the price. The owner may say a hotel fazenda isn’t suited to meditation and this place is perfect for it, but if you want a quiet spot to meditate near good water, there are better options for less than half the cost.

We went for a spontaneous family spa day and had such a fun, comfortable time. The kids were fascinated by the chlorine-free pool and the pond beside it, and a lot of the buildings are made from bamboo. Sustainability and nature are clearly considered throughout the place. The food was a highlight too: our kids still talk about the salads with leaves and flowers they’d never tried before, and loved them, as well as the jaca and cambuci juices. We especially liked the pupunha palm heart moqueca with banana farofa. Most of what they serve is organic, foraged, or locally harvested, and they make things like chocolate from local cacau fruit, granola, honey, eco shampoos, and soaps. It’s tucked into lush rainforest, just minutes from nice beaches and not far from Paraty or Ubatuba. We want to come back and stay overnight, wake up there, have breakfast, and enjoy some yoga and trekking. Such a lovely find!