Huilo Huilo: A night in Patagonia's fairytale eco-lodge

After toiling away on gravel roads for about four hours we pulled over to ask an elderly Mapuche man for directions. We were undertaking a bumpy off-road adventure through Chile's southern Andes in search of one of the country's more remarkable eco-destinations – the Huilo Huilo Biological Reserve. Home to bizarrely-shaped hotels crafted from local timber and surrounded by dense Patagonian rainforest and crashing waterways, this magical getaway stands tall as a beacon of sustainable architecture in one of the world's most pristine environments.

The main entrance to the Magic Mountain Lodge is found in the towering Nothofagus Hotel, so named for the surrounding Nothofagus trees (also known as southern beech trees) that inspired its design. Across its seven stories, the building widens from bottom to top in an awe-inspiring imitation of treetop canopy formations. Not a moment after the door closed we were struck with the kind of genuine wide-eyed wonder you always long for in new travel experiences. It's Ewok village meets The Magic Faraway Tree.

For the next couple of hours we get lost in winding corridors, bent stairways and luxurious lounges complete with open fireplaces and grand pianos. Huilo Huilo is sometimes rough around the edges with its bark-covered beams and doors that don't close quite so neatly, but this only adds to its unique charm. It features four different lodges. In addition to Nothofagus and Magic Mountain, there is the high-end Nawelpi Lodge that hosts luxury holiday-makers and overlooks the river snaking through the reserve and Hotel Reino Funghi, which translates to Mushroom Kingdom.

On-site is a classy restaurant where locals don crisp white shirts and serve icy pisco sours, a delicious cocktail of lemon juice, a little sugar and of course pisco, the South American grape liquor. Diners can pick from dishes of wild game hunted in the surrounding forests, such as boar and deer. The breakfast buffet is extensive and certainly caters to international tourists, with waffles, pancakes, eggs and bacon all part of the mix.