Bio Habitat Hotel

If you weren’t aware there was an Armenia in Colombia, you’re far from alone, but this inland locale’s relative obscurity is to Bio Habitat Hotel’s advantage — it sits on a mountaintop just outside the coffee-producing city of Armenia, surrounded by unspoiled native forest, affording an immersion in nature that’s entirely appropriate for an eco-hotel like Bio Habitat.

Here there are no mere accommodations, but Habitats — most of them suites, designed in an unapologetically modernist style, with vast picture windows that take in the expansive views of the surrounding coffee plantations, as well as outdoor terraces with sun beds. For traditionalists there’s the Snowcapped Mountain Cabin, and for those willing to trade some space for total immersion there are the Aviaries, elevated structures tucked into the forest, with glass on all four sides.

Bio Habitat features a Slow Food–style restaurant and bar, with dishes sourced from local suppliers. And the hotel’s activities, naturally, draw their inspiration from nature as well — from birdwatching, hiking, and trekking to mountain biking, horseback riding, and tours of the nearby towns and the neighboring coffee plantations. It’s a side of Colombia that’s too rarely seen by foreign travelers, who have previously (for good reasons) kept to major cities like Bogotá and Cartagena.