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Why Pilar for Sustainable Travel

Pilar was founded on 12 October 1779 by order of Governor-Intendant Pedro Melo de Portugal, with settlers from Asunción, as Villa del Ñeembucú — a troop station to oversee traffic on the Paraguay River. Four years later it was renamed Villa del Pilar, after the Virgin of the Pillar, the patroness of the Spanish priest who served the settlement. Its port made it strategically vital: during the dictatorship of Gaspar Rodríguez de Francia it was the only port in Paraguay authorised for foreign trade, chiefly in yerba mate.

The town's history is written in its architecture — colonial-era houses, the old Cabildo, and monuments to the battles of the Paraguayan War, including the Battle of Pilar of September 1867. But the real draw for modern visitors is the landscape around it: the Ñeembucú department is a vast floodplain of wetlands, marshes and lagoons that hosts hundreds of bird species — jabiru storks, roseate spoonbills, capybaras and caimans — in a setting that has barely changed in a century.

Eco-tourism here is still emerging, which is exactly its charm. Local guides run boat trips into the wetlands, fishing villages welcome visitors, and the pace of life revolves around the river. Staying in Pilar puts you in the heart of a region where conservation and community are still being worked out together — a genuine frontier for sustainable travel.

Where to Stay in Pilar

The Town Centre

Hotels and guesthouses around the central plaza and the riverside put you within walking distance of the Cabildo, the old port, restaurants and the market. Pilar is compact and flat — a town made for strolling, with the riverfront promenade as its spine.

The Riverfront

A handful of properties along the Paraguay River offer water views and easy access to boat excursions into the wetlands. Staying riverside means dawn bird chorus and sunset over the water, with the port's working life as your backdrop.

Wetland Lodges & Estancias

Just outside town, small estancias and wetland lodges offer the full Ñeembucú experience — guided boat trips, birdwatching hides, and meals of river fish and local produce. These are the best base for serious birders and for anyone who wants to wake up surrounded by water and wildlife.

How IMPT Makes Your Paraguay Stay Carbon-Negative

Here's the maths. An average hotel night produces roughly 35 kg of CO₂ — from air conditioning, laundry, lighting, and food service. When you book any Pilar hotel through IMPT, we retire 1,000 kg of UN-verified carbon removal credits. That's 28 times what your stay produces. Not carbon-neutral — carbon-negative.

The cost to you? Zero. IMPT funds the removal from its booking commission. You pay the standard nightly rate — in fact, IMPT is the same price as Booking.com on the same room. The carbon credits are tokenised on Ethereum, retired against a named project, with a public retire code anyone can verify. No double-counting. No greenwashing. Just verified carbon removal, every night.

• €5 free credit when you sign up — applied to your first Paraguay booking
• 5% back on every stay — 3% funds carbon projects, 2% as travel credit
• 8M+ hotels worldwide, 195 countries — Pilar is just the start
• Free cancellation on most rates, typically up to 48 hours before check-in

Sustainable Things to Do in Pilar

The essential Pilar experience is a boat trip into the Ñeembucú wetlands. Local guides navigate the maze of lagoons and channels, where jabiru storks stand sentinel, capybaras graze the banks and caiman slide silently past. Dawn and dusk are the magic hours, and the lack of crowds means you'll often have entire lagoons to yourself.

In town, walk the riverfront to the old port, visit the Cabildo and the monuments of the Paraguayan War, and try the local fish dishes — surubí and pacú are the specialties. Time your visit for the town's festivals, when the plazas fill with music and dance. And when you're done exploring, shop through IMPT's 25,000+ retail partners to earn cashback on every purchase that also offsets carbon, or send someone a trip credit gift to visit Paraguay themselves — IMPT plants trees with named farmers, GPS-tagged and photo-verified.

Beyond Hotels — More Ways IMPT Works in Pilar

Corporate travel to Paraguay? IMPT's B2B Corporate Travel platform gives teams exclusive rates, automatic ESG reporting across Scope 1, 2 and 3, and a single dashboard tracking every booking's carbon impact. Business plans start at $99/month; Enterprise at $250/month. For CSRD compliance needs, automated sustainability reporting is ready out of the box.

Planning to fly? IMPT Flights adds carbon offset at checkout when it launches in H2 2026, with Platinum Goodness members getting an extra 2% discount. In the meantime, redeem carbon voucher gifts — from $40 for 3 months of credits — or explore verified climate projects directly.

Interested in running IMPT in Paraguay? Country Ownership offers 50% revenue share on every transaction from Paraguayan-registered users, with 8% APY staking yield. Book a call →