PERCHED 4000m above a valley sits perhaps some of the most terrifying hotel rooms you’ll ever see — a series of cocoon-like transparent capsules hanging from the side of a mountain in Peru.
To get to Natura Vive’s three sky-high Skylodge Adventure suites near the city of Cusco, guests have to strap on some hiking boots, gloves and a helmet and climb a steel ladder up a 400m-tall rocky cliff face, which is part of the Andes mountain range.
Luckily, there’s a safety rope attached to you via a carabiner. An alternative to the ladder is a hike-and-zip-line route. And since you’re scaling the sides of the Sacred Valley, perhaps divine intervention will prevent injuries.
A three-hour slog brings you up to Skylodge’s cozy pods, which are made of aluminium and polycarbonate and measure seven metres in length and 2.4 metres in height and width.
Each capsule has four beds, a dining area and a shared bathroom.
Compensate for a rustic toilet with a stellar view, since the walls and ceiling of these suites are transparent.
Inside, four lamps and a reading light are all powered by solar panels.
For the particularly brave, there’s an open-air seating area on top of each polyhedron.
There’s no way to order room service, as servers would have a pretty tough time scaling the mountain, so meals are all included.
On TripAdvisor and Airbnb, guests rave about the experience, even those who initially had jitters.
These “condor’s nests” — oh, and you’ll see plenty of those feathered friends up there — opened in the summer of 2013.
Current rates start at $A412 ($US289) per night, including transportation from a Cusco hotel, guides, equipment, a snack for the ascent, dinner with wine and breakfast.
And since those three pods have a total capacity of only eight people, adventure travellers had better get a move on.
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