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This guesthouse is exceptionally well-run, with superb facilities and a friendly atmosphere. A dip in its inviting swimming pool provided the perfect antidote for two hot, tired and weary travelers after a long bus journey from the north. Comfy and attractive rooms, attentive and knowledgeable staff and a well-resourced communal kitchen offering a great place cook up a treat after a day’s walking and swimming. All set within a stone's throw of Costa Rica's magnificent Manuel Antonio National Park, WMF is the perfect place to relax, unwind and explore some of the beautiful areas Costa Rica has to offer. (Dorm beds from $10; Private Rooms with a Bath $40).
www.widemouthfrog.org/
125 m. Este de la Parada del Bus, Quepos.
Google map: bit.ly/K7VDuz
Nesting turtles on the beach a few minutes walk away, dawn boat trips along the flooded jungle waterways, birdwatching from your balcony, huge amorous iguanas around the swimming pool (only amorous towards each other I should explain – we were there in their mating season) – this is a bit of paradise in Tortuguero, Costa Rica. We stayed at Pachira Lodge as part of an excellent tour with Llama Travel (llamatravel.com) but you can book independently too. The spacious but simply furnished rooms are in wooden cabins on raised walkways amidst 34 acres of beautiful butterfly-filled gardens where you hear (and sometimes see) the strange bark of howler monkeys on your way to meals. The rates are inclusive of all meals plus boat transfers and tours. Doubles $289 for two days, one night. Just one warning – it’s in the rainforest, so it does, well, rain a lot. We were lucky but the welly store in the hotel was a clue.
www.pachiralodge.com
P.O.Box 1818-1002, San José, Costa Rica
+ (506) 2257 2242
Google map: bit.ly/JIqNYQ
A couple of hours out of San Jose, the small town of Turrialba nestles in a verdant valley of coffee plantations and montane forests. The fresh air and mild climate make it perfect for outdoor activities, and adrenalin seekers can enjoy world class white-water rafting on the Rio Pacuare. If you prefer a more relaxed approach, take a day trip to the country's largest ruin site Guayabo National Monument, or trek around the Turrialba Volcano National Park. Casa de Lis is an excellent hostel in the centre of town, offering spotless dorms and private rooms at rock-bottom prices (£6.50 and £10 p.p. respectively). The delicious free coffee served in morning is the icing on the cake!
www.hostelcasadelis.com/
Avenida Central, south of Bancrédito, next to ICE, Turrialba, Costa Rica
+ (506) 2556 4933
Google map: bit.ly/JAkveN
At the more luxury end of the market, Bosque del Cabo offers everything you need; comfort, great food, rainforest, wildlife, unspoilt beaches and even an education. A research scientist can take you on a four hour tour of pure rainforest where you learn about the ecology of the surroundings. Electricity is supplied via solar power, recycling and composting all done on site and food and staff all sourced locally.
All supplied toiletries are natural and you're not supposed to use your own unless they're also 100% natural. Monkeys, coaties, armadillo's, frogs, toads, snakes, scarlet macaws can all be seen from your cabin and the whole place is TV free.
www.bosquedelcabo.com/
Cabo Matapalo, Puerto Jimenez, Costa Rica
+11 506 2735 5206
Google map: bit.ly/J5QLrM
El Sol Nuestro is near the Monteverde Cloud Forest (about a 10 minute drive) but you feel a world away from anywhere with spectacular views over the valley from your own wooden shack with hammock and rocking chair. Even though the shacks are basic the property has a beautiful rock swimming pool and sauna. They can organise the local neighbours to provide a typical Costa Rican dinner, or you can go to their house across the road to see how the locals live for a meal. We also had an incredible horse ride to a waterfall where we went swimming - it's the most idyllic place - in my favourite country Costa Rica which is full of idyllic places to stay.
www.elsolnuestro.com
La Lindora, Monteverde, Puntarenas - Costa Rica
+506 2645 58 38
Located on the Nicoya Peninsula on the Pacific coast in Costa Rica. I spent a whole month on these two beaches during a gap year before university. Both are very laid back in their own way and unspoiled. Curu as a wildlife reserve is untouched and really basic. I was there for a conservation project and slept in hammocks on the beach. Montezuma when I went ten years ago was a bit of a hippy resort with plenty of cheap accommodation a long sandy beach and the biggest waves I'd seen.
www.curuwildliferefuge.com/
+506 2641 01 00
Google map: bit.ly/oGogyH
It's a little deceptive, as there are no yachts and no club. There is however a lovely big shaded grassy area to swing a hammock or pitch a tent (as we did). There are also showers and toilets - bring a torch though. The great thing about the yacht club is it's probably the cheapest place in town to stay. The caretaker will charge a couple of dollars and he even looked after our bags. The beach and restaurants are just a short stroll. For the budget conscious this place can't be beaten. It's the perfect base from which to chill out or to return to after the rigors of a few days on the trails in Corcovado NP.
Corner of Aeropuerto Este and Parrot Acces. From the Boat Pier turn left walk 100m, the junction is in front of you, Yacht Club marked by a small house.
+506 2735 5051
Google map: bit.ly/pp7l6R
Tourists and locals alike park at either end of the road bridge over the Tarcoles River in order to walk along the narrow footpaths on either side to peer down at these monsters on the river banks. These crocodiles are huge - the ones we saw were 10-15 feet in length.
www.costarica.com/places-to-see/parks,-reserves-and-protected-areas/carara-national-park/
Google map: bit.ly/eyupiJ
We did this 3-hour tour with a naturalist guide in April 2010 and it was well worth it. Not only was he very informative, but he spotted animals and birds that we would not have had any hope of finding on our own. Even when he had pointed them out to us and trained his telescope on them we still sometimes had difficulty seeing them due to their excellent camouflage. We ended our visit with a swim on one of the lovely beaches there, accompanied by iguanas and hermit crabs.
Casa de las Tías is a small B&B (six rooms) near San José airport and close to town. With very friendly and helpful owners it is a relaxing beauiful place to stay.
An excellent small lodge with floor to ceiling windows overlooking the cloud forest on the side of steep hills( at roughly 8500ft altitude ). The views are wonderful and the windows mean you can sleep with the curtains open to enjoy the night sky from in bed.
San Gerado de Dota, 80km south of San Jose on the Pan American highway, then 8km down the hillside from the highway.
San Gerardo de Dota, Costa Rica
Phone: (506) 2740-1067, 2740-1069
www.dantica.com/
Google map: tinyurl.com/yemtzgn
This must be one of the most authentic rain forest retreats that you’ll find. About a 1.5 hour drive from San Jose you have to get to Las Horquetas to pick up some wellies and wrap your bags in bin bags to protect them from what’s to come. The journey then begins. The lodge is 15km away, but to get to it is like a world away. The only way to get there (unless you rent a horse from a local) is to get taken up in the trailer pulled by a tractor. This takes about four hours along a very bumpy track that you even wonder whether the tractor will make it – at one point we had to get out while the tractor got pulled up a steep slope. This journey is not for the faint hearted and on the way back down we and our bags got completely soaked – but that was part of the fun. As it's so cut off you really need two days here at least. We stayed three but could easily have stayed longer.
The ride up gives you your first glimpse of pristine virgin rainforest with velvet and feathery leaves of various patterns and textures. The final few kilometres you can get out and walk up to the lodge and the guide points out frogs and snakes and identifies trees and flowers. The forest gets thicker and deeper and then you come to a grassed clearing where the wooden lodge of Rara Avis sits.
You really are in the middle of the rainforest here, completely cut off in a pristine green wilderness. The ethos of this place is to conserve the rainforest in a truly natural environment. There is no electricity, no mod cons, the rooms are basic but clean with hammocks on private balconies, there’s no need to lock the rooms and a convivial atmosphere is encouraged with communal eating in the main lodge building. The food is plentiful and there’s an honesty bar. When you’re not walking around the forest you watch in amazement at the hand sized butterflies and moths in the butterfly house, look at the orchids in the orchid house, swim in the pool at the bottom of the waterfall or play football, Guests Vs the Rara Avis team or just hang out chatting to guests whilst trying to photograph hummingbirds or bats at the feeders or just relax to the sounds of the forest in your hammock!
The naturalists are knowledgeable and friendly and the lodge is even used for biological research, with much more of an array of flora and fauna than we saw in any of the other rainforests we stayed at, including stained glass palms – only found at Rara Avis, walking palms, 250 year old mahogany tree, bromeliads, leafcutter and bullet ants, eyelash vipers, frogs smaller that a one pence piece, coati’s and loads of birds. There are walkways through the forest but again these aren’t like the cleared wide pathways in other rainforests reserves such as Monte Verde. They are natural and very muddy (hence the need for wellies) and on one walk our guide was having to hack his way through the forest with a machete – this was a truly magical and authentic rainforest experience and nothing compared at the other places we stayed at in Costa Rica.
It’s not for the faint hearted though – this is a truly wild experience where you feel at one with nature.
Rara Avis Rainforwst Lodge and Reserve
Las Horquetas de Sarapiquí
www.rara-avis.com/
info@rara-avis.com
Tel (+506) 2764- 1111
Google map: tinyurl.com/yc8srba
The only way to reach Costa Rica’s Jungle Lodge in the Tortuguero National Park on the Caribbean coast is by river launch, which takes you on a two hour journey right into the heart of dense rainforest. We were warned not to dangle our hands in the water - crocodiles are lurking. Howler monkeys serenade your arrival at the lodge, a charming and comfortable one storey wooden affair with long trellised veranda. The purpose of the overhanging roof was explained when a hammering tropical downpour woke us at 5am. Doors opened and one by one we guests abandoned sleep and enjoyed the warm rain together in the swimming pool. My daughter will always remember the jungle walk where two people’s shoes squelched off in the mud (they do lend you wellies), tiny green frogs that sat on her hand, and the boa constrictor in a tree. My favourite was the 'just after dawn' silent boat rides where our guide pointed out iguanas on the bank, spider monkeys and toucans high overhead in the jungle canopy. The richness of the exuberant foliage around the lodge itself was overwhelming, and just sitting around the pool or watching butterflies from the veranda was enough to experience the jungle and its creatures, barely restrained on all sides.
www.anywherecostarica.com/destinations/tortuguero-costa-rica/hotels/tortuguero-jungle-lodge
Tortuguero, 26-1017, Costa Rica - 223 1200
Google map: tinyurl.com/ycg2zlr
It's a lovely home not too far from the international airport at San Jose - from where Steve will meet your plane. You will be taken to their beuatiful home overlooking a deep canyon full of butterflies and lush tropical plants that will amaze you. Steve and Rita will welcome you to their little patch of paradise and feed and wine you and if you want, even have someone come in and massage you or give you a pedicure to relax after that long journey. As wecloming a hostelry as you'll find anywhere. And if you need to get to places further afield in Costa Rica, their good friend Luis will be your private driver and guide!
www.casabellarita.com/
asa Bella Rita, Brasil de Santa Ana, San Jose, Costa Rica
If you are looking to experience Costa Rica's rainforest, but like to be away from hordes of tourist, this may be your place.
Set just outside Braulio Carrillo National Park getting there is part of the adventure. A very easy bus ride to Horquetas followed by a two hour jumpy tractor ride and another two hour walk through the forest.
Their accommodation goes from extremely basic, in the Casa de Guias, set 200 metres in the middle of the forest, with no electricity to a much more comfortable Lodge.
The walks around, guided by bilingual locals, or volunteers, are through some deep jungle and are everything you would ever should expect in this environment. You will hear a lot of noises, and you may see some birds, and your guide may find some snakes, monkeys, frogs or pacas. However, always remember animals are and should be shy of humans.
This is not Manuel Antonio, a tiny park where animals can't hide, this is proper jungle, but still showers, great food, beer, and some card games after trekking for a day... and if you are brave you can swim in the cold waters of the waterfall.
www.rara-avis.com/
This is my account of the day: adegreeaday.blogspot.com/2009/08/rara-avis-spiders-and-other-thrills.html
The Sky Trek is a series of very high, and sometimes very fast, zip lines which whisk you through the canopy of the Monteverde cloud forest!
As we were being kitted up in safety gear we got our first glimpse of the previous group whizzing down the final stretch far above our heads, at which point I was a hummingbirds wing beat from turning back. But, determined not to miss this once in a lifetime experience I launched myself out hundreds of feet over the treetops… and loved it! Two and a half miles of cable later I was securely back on the fertile Costa Rican soil thanks to the professional and friendly safety guides.
For the faint hearted, vertigo sufferers or anyone wanting to observe the biodiversity of the forest there is the far more sedate Sky Walk.
This is a nice cheap place to stay in Santa Elena from where you can easily visit the Monteverde attractions.
The rooms are basic and have shared bathrooms, but they are in quaint little wooden cabins set in a nice garden which has beautiful views over the forest.
There is a shared kitchen if you want to cook for yourself and which is a good place to socialise with other travellers.
They organised a horse riding trip with a local guide for us which was really worthwhile.
As a girl travelling alone in Costa Rica, I felt really safe here and was very grateful for all the tourist information they had. It has only just opened so isn't in the Lonely Planet yet, but is definitely worth a visit. Good value for money and a really good location on the main road.
www.molinorojohostel.com
Phone: 506 2221-6868
On Paseo Colon, the main avenue, in front of the Spanish Embassy.
If you're staying in Santa Elena, Monteverde, it's worth paying a visit to the butterfly garden- especially if you have kids with you.
Included in the price (about $10) is a great tour of the insect room (most are alive!). This is fascinating and will help you come to appreciate the magical worlds of creepy crawlies (don't worry you don't have to touch them!). They even have a full leafcutter ant colony with micro cameras so you can see what's going on in the heart of the colony!
The butterflies in the gardens include the magnificent morphos, transparent glasswings, red postmans, and the glorious owl. You also get too see crysallis and if you're lucky butterflies hatching from them!
This is a great place for kids and adults to really learn about the smaller species of Costa Rican wildlife... and the staff/volunteers seem very passionate about it all.
Just ask someone in Santa Elena where it is, they should know- you can easily walk there - it's just down one of the smaller roads but quite difficut to explain here (takes 20 mins from central S.E). The best time to visit is when the sun is shining cause the butterflies will be basking in the sun in their full glory!There are good views of the valley too. They also run a volunteer programme with free board and meals. www.monteverdeinfo.com/butterfly-garden/butterfly-garden.html
This area has a great vibe: very laidback and friendly and a wonderful collection of beaches from calm snorkelling beaches to great surfing spots. Superb choice of accommodations and restaurants too. The website www.PuertoViejoSatellite.com has the most comprehensive information source for the area with info on transport, hotel, activity and more.
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