Located in the Sacred Valley of Peru, are 3 transparent capsules hanging from a cliff. Khaled and I were so excited to spend the night in the SkyLodge Adventures Suites and it did not disappoint! How often do you lie suspended in space and surrounded by mountains and stars? Read on to hear about our once-in-a-lifetime experience…

The package included a pickup and drop off from Cusco but as we were in the Sacred Valley area already (after spending the night in MountainView Experience) we asked SkyLodge to pick us up from Urubamba instead.

Arriving to SkyLodge Adventure Suits

After a short 30 minutes’ drive from Urubamba, we arrived at SkyLodge Adventure Suite and the guide gave us a short tutorial and briefing about the climb. At this point, we were definitely questioning our life choices as the capsules looks so much higher up in person. The guide told us that the climb is 1,200 feet and takes about an hour and a half and the group will arrive at the top during sunset.

You can also have a photographer to climb up with you (at an extra cost of £80) and take personalised pictures of you and your partner the whole way up. We opted for this package as we wanted to capture these moments.

The Climb

We started the climb up and it was just so exhilarating with views out over the Urubamba River and the surrounding mountains. It wasn’t too difficulties for newbies such as ourselves but you would need to be reasonably fit as it’s quite tiring.

Along the route, we stepped across 1,400 iron stepping rungs and passed around 400 cable attachment points. At the 300-metre point (almost 1,000 feet!), we hit a suspension “bridge” of tightrope wires. This bit was the scariest for me we were told to push AWAY from the wall – towards absolute nothingness as we crossed the rope. I looked at Khaled and gulped. I was thinking I might be a bit too short to even do this bit, but the guide laughed and said I can.  

Depending on timing, they try to finish the climb during sunset so that we could enjoy it at the top. We finished it just as the sunset. We then arrived to the main capsule where we the guide cooked us a delicious Peruvian meal.

We put on our gear and went with our guide to the pod. It was quite daunting doing rock climbing in the cliff in the pitch black, but our spotlights did help.

The Stay

You will enter the capsule from the top. The guide will come in with you to explain how the system works. If you’re looking for luxury, this is not it – but hey, you’re on a cliff! There is no shower, but there is a private bathroom that is separated from the bedroom by an insulated room.

The bathrooms are intelligently designed to maximise views and respecting a certain level of privacy (as its completely transparent). There is a small sink with water coming from a large water tank and a toilet. Put bluntly, you can wee in a bucket which you then pour into the large tube and you can poop in a black binbag which you can then close and put down the toilet. Nice….

As soon as the guide left us, we jumped into bed and stargazed for a while – I couldn’t get over the fact that just behind my pillow was an epic 1,000 feet drop. The rooms come with curtains that you can adjust if you wanted to get a better view of the valley with the stars. This was by far the coolest hotel we’ve ever stayed in. We fell asleep quite quickly as we were pretty tired from the climb.

In the morning, we woke up an hour before breakfast so that we could soak up the unbelievable views whilst enjoying coffee in bed (the rooms came with hot water in a thermos for tea and coffee). We used the walkie talkie that they gave us in order to ask our guide if we should make our own way there or if they will come with us. They told us meet them at the main pod at 7.30am. We felt a great sense of unexpected responsibility doing it ourselves, but we made it to the main pod where had a lovely home-made breakfast which was coffee, juice, eggs, granola, eggs, yoghurt and cheese. We then headed back to our individual pods where we had an hour to pack up and take some final photos in the room.

The photographer then came to take us some shots. He took his job seriously as he was quite literally hanging off the side of a cliff with his camera to snap shots from the outside looking in at us in the pod. The photoshoot was fun!

The Descent

After this photoshoot, we met our guide at the top of our pod and climbed further up the mountain to find a trail. We then wired down the first of six zipline wires and then began our zigzag descent to the ground. The first one was quite scary as the advice the guide gave us was “Don’t hit the rocks on the way down”.

Eventually, we reached the ground and the minibus took us to Ollaytambo so that we could continue our journey to Macchu Picchu.

We had the most amazing time and this experience was definitely one of the highlights of our trip! We were so impressed by the professionalism of the staff and the well-designed via ferrata route.

How much it Costs

The cost of one night with via ferrata and zipine was 1,575 sols (£340) per person. To justify the cost, you have to remembers that its not just a place to stay, but an entire experience. It’s definitely not cheap. The price includes, pickup and drop off, via ferrata (including all gear and equipment to climb 400m up the mountain, breakfast and dinner, overnight stay and ziplining.

If you like the idea of staying in a hanging capsule – you can book your stay here – http://naturavive.com/web/skylodge-adventure-suites/. Don’t forget there are only 3 pods, each holding 2-4 people so you need to book this months in advance. We booked this as soon as we booked our flights (3 months prior) and there were already some dates sold out!