In the Sacred Valley of Peru, just 20 miles from Machu Picchu, you’ll find one of the most unique hotels on the planet—Vertical Sky Suites (also called Vertical Sky Luxury Suites). The hotel consists of some very special accommodations—geodesic domes with spectacular open views of the sky and, perhaps more importantly, capsules made out of glass and wood that dangle off the side of a rugged cliff, some 2,000 feet above the valley floor below. And, to make these thrilling rooms even MORE adrenaline-inducing, you need to climb down a via ferrata (on the side of the aforementioned cliff!) to get into these capsules.
Sound pretty wild? It definitely is! My husband, Justin, and I recently spent the night in one of these capsules (paying for it with our own hard-earned money!) and are reporting back to share everything—both the good and the bad—about the experience. So here’s our honest and unbiased review of Vertical Sky Suites, one of the most unique hotels in South America.
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Overview of staying at Vertical Sky Suites
If you’re looking for the TLDR on our review, here goes:
Staying at the Vertical Sky Suites is definitely more than just accommodations—it’s an entire experience. Dare I say, even an adventure?
From the pickup process, which includes an ATV, to getting to the suites and sleeping in a capsule that’s dangling off the side of a cliff, this DEFINITELY isn’t your Grandma’s Howard Johnson. You go here for the uniqueness and the adventure of sleeping on the side of a cliff, with epic views of the surrounding glacier and, with any luck, THOUSANDS of twinkling stars overhead.
Most of our experience here was nothing short of excellent.
The service was warm and friendly, from the servers in the restaurant to our via ferrata guide. The accommodations were comfortable, especially given the remoteness, from our massive bed to our own personal Jacuzzi(!!!). And, of course, the “adventure” aspect definitely lived up to the hype for me—it’s inarguably the most epic hotel experience I’ve ever had, climbing down a ladder hanging off the edge of a cliff to your floating glass capsule over the Sacred Valley thousands of feet below.
There are a handful of things I think could be improved upon. For example, the dinner we were served was pretty mediocre (although the portions were ENORMOUS), with the food and cocktails being incredibly overpriced (at least, by Peruvian standards!). And, for being a “luxury suite”, there were a few things in the room that could have been cleaner—for example, I found something that appeared to be a small bit of algae growing out of the jacuzzi overflow drain.
So, if you’re looking for a unique experience and know you might not exactly be getting quite as much *luxury* as a stay at the Four Seasons, I ABSOLUTELY think staying at the Vertical Sky Suites is worth it while you’re in Peru.
Want more information than that? Let’s get into it!
The Location of Vertical Sky Suites
Vertical Sky Suites are located near the town of Ollytantambo in the Sacred Valley of Peru.
Whether or not you’ve heard of Ollytantambo, almost all travelers that are visiting Peru actually go through this town—it’s where the train station that you’ll need to take to get to Machu Picchu is located.
How to Get to Vertical Sky Suites
Vertical Sky Suites provides roundtrip transportation for its guests from either at the Ollytantambo train station or the city’s downtown area.
Most visitors, including us, get to Ollytantambo (and the rest of the Sacred Valley) from the city of Cusco, about two hours away. So here’s some options for getting from Cusco to Ollytantambo.
Getting from Cusco to Ollytantambo
Colectivo
If you’re looking to save some money, the cheapest way to get from Cusco to Ollantaytambo is with a colectivo, which are essentially public shuttles (which can be either sedans or vans) that leave for a particular destination once all of the seats are filled. You can walk or take an Uber here and then hop in one of the waiting colectivos, which typically costs between 10 to 20 soles per person. The colectivos will typically drop you off in the Plaza Principal de Ollantaytambo.
Word of warning—if you take a taxi or Uber to the colectivo station, you will be SWARMED as soon as you open your door to get out of the car with dozens of drivers trying to convince you to get in their colectivo. When we were here, there was literally a driver who grabbed my backpack out of the trunk and started to carry it to her van!
So be prepared for a bit of chaos, keep an eye on your stuff, and negotiate around for the best price—it’s easy to get overwhelmed here!
Colectivos are cheap, but are usually cramped and uncomfortable, oftentimes without air conditioning. So keep in mind that they’re a great option if you’re looking to save money—not so great if you’re wanting any modicum of comfort!
Uber/taxi
For something slightly less chaotic, you can try to grab an Uber or taxi from Cusco to Ollytantambo, which typically costs between 125 and 150 soles. It may just take a while to find a driver willing to make the two hour drive!
Private transfer
Alternatively, if getting a taxi in Peru makes you nervous, you can hire a private transfer (with delicious air conditioning!), like this option, that will pick you up directly at your hotel in Cusco and take you to Ollantaytambo.
Getting from Ollytantambo to Vertical Sky Suites
Vertical Sky will contact you before your reservation to confirm whether you want to be picked up from either the Ollytantambo train station or from their sister hotel, Casa D Maria, just a few blocks from Plaza Principal.
If you have a lot of luggage, I’d suggest making your way to Casa D Maria, where you can store your bulkier pieces before heading to Vertical Sky. Regardless of what kind of room you booked, you’ll have to ascend a steep set of stairs to access any of the rooms and, for the glass capsules, you’ll need to climb down a via ferrata, neither of which is particularly made easier by carrying heavy or bulky luggage.
To be honest, I’d generally recommend only taking a light backpack (with your valuables and whatever else you need for the length of your stay here) and leaving everything else at Casa D Maria—I brought my very full and heavy Peak Design 45L Travel backpack with me here and it made me feel unbalanced and pretty terrified as I was climbing up and down into our glass capsule (for the record, our guide did offer to carry it for me, but I’m an *adventurer*, gosh darn it).
A car will pick you up at the previously agreed upon time and location and take you for about 20 minutes way up high into the Andes Mountains, just west of Ollytantambo. The road actually gets too narrow and windy for the last bit up to the hotel, so a staff member will come down and pick you up with an ATV and some helmets to make your way to its main building. It’s definitely the most fun and adventurous way I’ve gotten to the reception area of a hotel!
The Grounds at Vertical Sky Suites
Vertical Sky Suites really only has one large main building that serves as reception, bar/restaurant, and lounge area, with a small terrace outside with chairs and hammocks that overlook the Sacred Valley.
This building is well-maintained and modern, with its walls being made of huge, glass windows that allow for spectacular views of the surrounding mountains and glaciers. The building does not have central heating, which generally might be an issue, due to the altitude here (over 10,000 feet over sea level!), but there’s plenty of portable fireplaces that the property has at the ready to move near your table or chair while you’re sitting inside to keep you nice and toasty warm.
There’s also a handful of smaller buildings surrounding the main building, with public bathrooms (that seriously have the craziest view of any bathroom I’ve ever been in!) and the restaurant’s kitchen area, which is in a neat geodesic dome.
But besides these handful of buildings and the area directly surrounding it, most of the landscaping has been left pretty wild and untouched—which, in my opinion, is a good thing! As we hiked to our room, our guide showed us a couple different wild edible plants, which definitely enhanced our experience.
The Rooms at Vertical Sky Suites
There’s two different types of rooms available—geodesic domes and glass capsules.
Geodesic domes
The geodesic domes are almost entirely made of glass panels, allowing you to have spectacular views of the night sky and the surrounding mountains. There’s two chairs and a small table for you to relax in and a comfy queen size bed, as well as an enclosed bathroom with a flushing toilet and a sink and shower with hot water.
To reach these domes, you have to walk up a pretty steep incline (although you don’t need to scale any cliff sides or anything of that sort!). That being said, I still don’t think this is a good option if you have any serious mobility issues.
I can’t really speak to staying in the geodesic domes, though, as I didn’t stay in them. So let’s talk glass capsules!
Glass capsules
The capsules are diamond-shaped tubes, made entirely of glass, metal, and wood. They’re suspended from the top of a cliffside and entered through a hatch in a wooden balcony affixed to the top of the capsule.
In order to get down to the hatch, you need to climb down a via ferrata ladder, which can range from just a few feet long to about forty or so feet. There is always a guide with you when you’re climbing the via ferrata and you’re given all of the necessary safety gear, including a harness, helmet, and gloves.
Still, it’s a bit spooky to climb down a pretty tall cliffside—so, if you’re afraid of heights, I’d consider skipping this hotel, or, at the very least, requesting the “easy access” glass capsule with the shortest ladder.
One of the things I was most worried about was feeling secure in the capsule—I’m a bit afraid of heights, so I was wondering whether I would spend the entire night just being terrified our capsule was going to come loose and tumble down the cliffside. But I’m happy to report that I felt quite secure in it—I never noticed it moving or shaking, even with the high winds the cliff sides get in the afternoon. And I’m no engineer, but, for what it’s worth, they seemed to be extremely well-supported with multiple steel cables and I-beams that are bolted into the cliffside.
The capsule is divided into three sections—one with a queen size bed; one with two twin beds and small “kitchen” area, with a mini refrigerator, electric kettle, and glassware; and one with a bathroom, complete with a toilet, sink, and your very own jacuzzi(!!!). For privacy, there’s opaque roller shades that you can lower on each of the doorways.
The capsule doesn’t have any heating or air conditioning, but there’s plenty of windows you can open to cool it down and three space heaters that you can use to keep you toasty warm at night (as well as hot water bottles and extra blankets if you need it). We visited in May and didn’t have any issues with the temperature inside the capsule—although our space heaters were definitely working overtime at night!
This may be obvious, due to the aforementioned space heaters, but there’s also electricity in the capsules, with several outlets if you need to charge your phone or camera and overhead lightings.
Given the location of the capsules, we were EXTREMELY impressed by how well equipped they were. There’s a standard flushing toilet, hot water for the jacuzzi, a super comfy bed, plenty of electrical outlets—pretty much whatever you need for a comfortable stay for a night (or three!).
Additionally, the vistas you get from your room are sincerely nothing short of breathtaking, with in-your-face views of the Verónica Glacier and the surrounding massive mountains. We considered all of the glass capsule hotels in the Sacred Valley (Sky Lodge, Star Lodge, and Vertical Sky Suites) and chose this accommodation, in part, because of the insane views here (in addition to, at the time, being less than HALF as expensive as the other two options). Plus, the other options are closer to Ollytantambo, so there’s less light pollution here and, therefore, better stargazing!
All that being said, there were a few nitpicky things that I didn’t LOVE about the room.
For example, there was a hole in one of the headrests in the Jacuzzi that spurted water whenever we had the jets on, the temperature of the water was a bit hard to regulate, and, as mentioned above, we found a tiny piece of algae poking out of the overflow drain. Additionally, we were told that there was tea and coffee waiting for us in our rooms, but there was only one SINGULAR coffee packet in a sea of teabags (as a coffee lover, it speaks volumes to how much I love Justin that I made it for him in the morning).
Another thing that’s worth mentioning is that, due to the capsules being made entirely of glass, there’s not a TON of privacy—you can pretty easily see into a portion of the neighboring ones. We were lucky and stayed on a day when we were the only visitors on the entire property, so we didn’t have to worry about any nosy neighbors. But, if you do visit when there’s people occupying the surrounding capsules, you will have to be conscious about opening and closing the curtains for extra privacy.
Finally, if you need constant connectivity, this may not be a great spot for you. The main building has free, fast WiFi, but, during our stay (in the glass capsule that was the furthest from the building), we only intermittently got a weak Wifi signal. We did have decent cell service in our room, but if you need high speed Wifi for whatever reason, I’d suggest asking for a capsule that’s closest to the reception building—or, really, just picking a day where you don’t need connectivity. This is a special place, so I’d suggest not being glued to your phone the whole time, if you can swing it!
In sum, our experience in the room certainly had its imperfections, but, given the property’s remote location and the room’s location on the literal side of the mountain(!!), we thought it was an extremely comfortable—bordering on luxurious—stay.
The Service at Vertical Sky Suites
While we were at the Vertical Sky Suites, we interacted with a number of staff members—car and ATV drivers; two via ferrata guides (one of who also acted as our receptionist); and a few different waiters.
All of them were friendly and courteous, plus they spoke great English, which is always a bonus in my book! Additionally, there was some really nice touches throughout our stay—for example, you’re greeted with a deliciously frothy chicha morada (a Peruvian purple corn drink) and we were given a primer of the surrounding Sacred Valley, including local lore and the Quechua (i.e., Inca) names of the surrounding glaciers and mountains.
What REALLY blew our mind was that, as mentioned above, we were the only people on the entire property and there still had to be around ten staff members who supported us during our stay.
I can’t think of anything I’d change about the service—10/10, in our experience.
Dining at Vertical Sky Suites
Out of everything at Vertical Sky Suites, I’d say dining is their weakest spot.
Because of the remote location, most travelers that stay here are going to have to eat dinner here, unless you plan ahead of time and bring something with you. When we visited, dinner was $30 USD for a three course meal that included a soup, entree, and dessert.
For Peru, $30 USD for a three course meal is a LOT of money, so you’d expect something higher end. However, the menu options were all pretty basic, mostly Western dishes (think quinoa-vegetable soup, fettuccine alfredo, and apple crumble with ice cream) and they tasted pretty bland and texture-less. You do get a LOT of said bland, texture-less food though!
Similarly, the alcoholic beverages were all similarly expensive (e.g., $17 USD for a cocktail), which seems pretty steep.
I totally appreciate that Vertical Sky Suites is a business and they probably know and want to leverage the fact that most people that stay here are splashing out, whether they’re celebrating their honeymoon or just want to experience this very unique stay on their trip to Peru. Still, at some point, it feels almost predatory to charge people who basically HAVE to eat at your restaurant super high prices for meals that don’t justify the cost.
On the bright side, your stay includes a free breakfast that we were VERY impressed by—huge portions, tons of options, and all well-prepared.
The Amenities and other services at Vertical Sky Suites
There’s pretty limited amenities at Vertical Sky Suites—-there’s no public pool, hot tub, or sauna here. Most guests spend the majority of their time here enjoying their unique rooms and the spectacular surrounding views—it’s definitely the coolest place I’ve ever enjoyed my own private Jacuzzi.
If climbing to your room and sleeping off the side of a cliff isn’t enough adventure for you, there’s a variety of other activities that you can do at Vertical Sky for an additional cost:
- A via ferrata course that’s approximately half a mile in length that includes a suspension bridge, zip-line, and rappelling. The full experience costs $80 USD or the zipline alone costs $40 USD.
- Go on a guided forest hike to learn about native plants and, with any luck, spot some native birds. For a two hour experience, this costs $80 USD per person.
- Go on a guided hike to the Inka Yachay Washi School, a private primary school that was built using funds raised by local parents to provide their children adequate education. As far as I can tell, this is a pretty unique activity that generally isn’t available to other tourists in Ollytantambo and costs $80 USD per person.
To be honest, staying here was already a bit of a splurge AND the via ferrata to our room was sufficient enough of an *adventure* for us, so we spent most of our time in our glass capsule, soaking in the Jacuzzi or enjoying tea while watching sunrise on our balcony.
However, if you’re staying multiple nights or celebrating a big occasion, you might consider booking one of these activities—the zipline definitely looked awesome!
The Crowd at Vertical Sky Suites
Given we were the only ones here during our stay, I can’t comment from personal experience too much.
However, from speaking with the staff, most of the guests are adventure lovers, who are either celebrating something big, like a honeymoon, anniversary, or finishing the Inca Trail, OR someone who likes a mix of adrenaline rush and luxury. We were also told most younger guests typically stay in the capsules, while older guests or those who have mobility challenges typically stay in the geodesic domes.
Regardless of what kind of traveler you are, I think most people will LOVE their stay here (…other than, maybe, people who are terrified of heights and those on a shoestring budget).
I WOULD maybe, however, caution parents of small children about staying in the glass capsules.
As far as I know, I don’t think there’s an age limit for staying in the capsules, but I’d imagine climbing the via ferrata may be scary—and, potentially, very unsafe—for children. Additionally, the glass panes that make up the bottom half of the capsule did not seem capable of bearing the weight of a human when I pressed on them (although, I obviously did not test this), so if a kiddo jumped or accidentally fell on one of these panes, I’m not totally confident it wouldn’t break.
Otherwise, come one, come all—staying at the Vertical Sky Suites is one of the coolest things we’ve done!
Vertical Sky Suites Review
So, with all of that information in mind, would we recommend the Vertical Sky Suites?
Absolutely!
Whether you want to celebrate completing the Salkantay Trek or stay someplace cool for your birthday or just want to stay someplace incredibly unique (outside of the Sacred Valley, I’m not aware of ANY other glass capsule hotels dangling off a cliffside), the Vertical Sky Suites is a once-in-your-life hotel stay.
I’d really only not recommend it if you’re expecting absolute luxury (it’s still essentially glamping!), are afraid of heights, or have mobility limitations.
I hope our review of Luxury Sky Suites provides you with a better view of what you can expect when staying at this unique property! Do you have any questions about what it’s like sleeping in a glass capsule dangling off the side of a cliff? Let us know in the comments below!
