Tortuguero

Extend your Costa Rica adventure with a trip to the “Little Amazon of Costa Rica”.

Early morning pickup (around 06:00) from the city hotels in San José. Followed by a drive through the Braulio Carillo National Park to the Atlantic coast. On the route you will have a stop for a hearty breakfast in Guapiles in the restaurant of your lodge. Then you will drive through extensive banana plantations to the boat dock. There you will board a motorboat that will take you via the main canal through the Tortuguero area to a rustic but comfortable lodge perched on a promontory between the canal and the sea. After lunch, if you wish, you can visit the picturesque Caribbean village of Tortuguero with the local guide, then return to the lodge. The rest of the day is at leisure to relax by the pool or take a leisurely stroll along the beach. After dinner, if you wish, you can join a guided night hike on a private trail provided by the lodge (optional).

Depending your former destination you can arrive on your own with your rental car or a private transfer to Guapiles, where you would join the lodge transfer at the breakfast time. At the restaurant is a guarded parking place which you can use for your rental car for free meanwhile you are in Tortuguero.

Before breakfast (coffee and tea provided), you can  watch the rainforest awaken on a boat ride through Tortuguero's natural canals in an optional tour. The chance to see animals is at this time of the day the highest! After this optional adventure you will return to the lodge where a hearty breakfast awaits you. Afterward, your naturalist guide will lead you across the extensive grounds near the rainforest to admire the varied landscape, flora and fauna. In the afternoon you will visit the world famous Tortuguero National Park by boat, one of the most important habitats of the green sea turtle, the leatherback turtle and the hawksbill sea turtle. Here you can admire tropical nature at its best: caimans, crocodiles, poison dart frogs, monkeys and manatees are just a few examples of the overwhelming wildlife in Tortuguero.

After dinner, there is the optional tour of a guided night hike to the beach to watch the sea turtles laying their eggs (season: July to September/October).

After breakfast, the next morning at around 9:00 a.m., the boat takes you back to the small river port. After a drive through extensive banana plantations, you will have a  stop for a local lunch in the same restaurant where you took the breakfast while the arrival.

From here depending on your next destination you will pick up your rental car (again) or will meet your private transportation, your shuttle transfer or you will go back with the lodge transfer until San José.