Costa Rica - Zancudo Lodge

We are pleased that you have chosen Trek Safaris as your agent for this trip to the Zancudo Lodge in Costa Rica. We have designed for you a five day and four night adventure with three days of salt water action at Costa Rica's premier fishing lodge

Your package includes one night hotel in San Jose, RT commercial flight SJO/Golfito, all fishing and meals at Zancudo, open bar at Zancudo, all conventional tackle, and all transfers. You will be responsible for items of a personal nature, airport taxes, meals in San Jose, and any gratuities you wish to give. 

Your typical fishing day begins at first light (5:00a.m.) you will get a wake up call then head over to the main dining room and have a full American breakfast. After your meal you will go fishing for the day. The "early part of the day you may be catching bait. Mostly sardines and blue runners. These are excellent bait for roosterfish, snapper, groupers, snook, etc. Don’t be surprised if it takes an hour to catch enough bait for a full day. The lodge is trying to devise a system where the bait will be ready when you wake, but as yet this has not been done. These baits are very sensitive and die quickly so it is better to catch them fresh. Your boat will be equipped for a full day on the water including tackle, lunch and beverages. You will fish until 4:00p.m. or so then head back to the dock. You will have time for a swim in the pool or the beach and a shower before dinner is served at 7:00p.m.

Zancudo Lodge has 28 foot center console boats with twin Suzuki 140hp four strokes. All boats are fully quipped with the best tackle money can by. All boats will have VHF radios and are outfitted with fish finders. You also have the option of upgrading your program to fish one of the lodges new, high performance, 32ft Contenders with twin 300 Yamahas.

Each day you will head out to the open and backwaters of the Golfo Dulce (sweet water gulf). The longest run to the fishing grounds will be offshore and takes about 45 minutes in calm seas. Most of the time you are running between 20 and 30 minutes. You will be trolling  for sails, dolphin and tuna. You will cast and troll to roosterfish that are feeing the shoreline. You will also be bottom bumping for snappers and groupers. As you can see, there is a wide range of fishing opportunities that you may choose from while at Zancudo. Your guide will do his best to put you on the fish and get back to the docks safely. Most all of the guides are English speaking and all have experience in fishing this area.

The meals at Zancudo are excellent and prepared daily by our chef. With the sun setting on the Pacific out the back door, and rising on the Dulce River out the front, you will be in heaven. Zancudo has its own beach that runs for 10 miles. Swimming here is a must and don’t be surprised if you don’t see another soul along the wide expanse of beach. You’ll have WiFi connectivity throughout the lodge.

You can expect a laid back trip to one of the most beautiful parts of Costa Rica. Your trip will be organized, the food and accommodations as advertised (even better), and for the most part enjoyable trip. We however cannot control the fish, weather, flights, etc. In Zancudo you can expect it to be hot with intermittent showers. By all means drink plenty of fluids and stay as cool as possible. In San Jose you will be at 3500 feet elevation and much cooler temps. Say 80 for highs and 60’s for lows. In San Jose you can dress as casual as you like. But there are some nicer places where you may want to dress up. A nice pair of slacks and a collar shirt is acceptable most any place. Electricity is 110 current in the entire country including Zancudo Lodge and the Hotel Cariari.

The Cariari Hotel is a five star country club and hotel that features three restaurants, and 18 hole golf course, full casino, two swimming pools and the works. It is located five minutes from the airport and 15 minutes from downtown is about a $15.00 taxi ride. San Jose has about a three quarters of a million inhabitants and houses all the federal services. The official language is Spanish and most do speak some English. They have socialized medicine in Costa Rica and the services are quite good and inexpensive. Points of interests in San Jose are the Gold museum and central park near the Grand Hotel.