Copacabaña Lodge is located in a valley up from Marcará, in the small town of Copa Grandé, under the gaze of the snow capped Cordillera Blanca mountains.

It’s quite a drive from the main city of Huaraz, but absolutely worth it to be surrounded by mountains and rolling hills, farms with little piglets and more importantly peace and quiet.

The Lodge was started by Bruno (a French national who also has a pizza restaurant in Huaraz) and his wife. It’s kind of castle like in style but with many a Peruvian touch included.

The Inca cross is it’s main decorative symbol, there are Peruvian textiles throughout and there are traditional planted terraces in the back garden.

The rooms are simple but beautifully decorated, with Peruvian textiles and red brick walls. Being up in the mountains brings cold nights, and the rooms are well insulated (the bathrooms are a little chilly in the morning though!) with a gas heater, very hot shower and thick snuggly duvets and blankets. There are no televisions in the rooms but there is a common area with a TV and various Disney videos on offer. However, we found that we didn’t need to use this space at any point, as we were so busy all day!

If the weather is good, then there is an outdoor space for eating and lounging at both the front and back of the lodge, and my all time favourite game, Sapo, is here too! The views from the front and back are stunning. It’s even surrounded by pine and eucalyptus trees, which give off an incredible scent when walking through the area.

The Lodge is half board (which means breakfast and a main meal are included – here it’s dinner) and, although they do have a menu (for lunch I presume), the 3 course set menu is given at dinner. This meant that we spent our days completely stuffed with flavourful food.

Breakfast was always locally made fresh bread with cheese and jams, fresh juices, coffee & tea, plus a main dish which for us changed between eggs, pancakes, fruit salad and a spanish tortilla. All delicious!

The food in this part of the country is incredible. They have the freshest fruit and it’s so sweet. The strawberries are big, deep red and super sweet. Apparently with climate change as it is, the climate here has been affected so that it can now grow these fabulous strawberries, and roses have begun to be a profitable business for farmers.

The Yungay potatoes grown in this region are some of my favourite (Yungay is just up the road from Marcará) and the lodge even grows some of its own produce. We had soup made from home grown broad beans that was absolutely delicious. Also, their side salads, and dressing, were also super fresh and very enjoyable, but I don’t know if they grew those veggies themselves or not. They were almost definitely local though.

Trout is also big business here, and I had some of the most delicious whole trout I’ve had since I visited Obrajillo back in 2013.

Just look at that!

Dinner is always bread/nibbles, followed by a starter (soup or salad), main course (lomo saltado, pasta, meat skewers etc with perhaps a salad and potatoes), and then a dessert (often fresh fruit, but we also had chocolate mousse and poached pears).

The dining room is a lovely place to sit and relax with a drink before dinner, and they have a cosy sofa/fireplace area that has a roaring fire going every night. We even tended the fire ourselves a couple of the nights!

Pets are not allowed on site, however they have their own cat and dogs who are all adorable and very friendly. They have 2 dogs, one of which is a ridiculously cute labrador puppy, who both loved to come to greet us whenever we were downstairs and a gorgeous ginger cat who loved cuddles!

We were very lucky in that we were the only guests at the time of our visit, so we had the fire to ourselves every night and essentially a private chef. It was an incredible experience, and would have been so regardless of other guests. The atmosphere, the service and the location were all perfect for us and exactly what we wanted for this special 4 night birthday trip.