Costa Rica Eco Tour: Off the Beaten Track

With a local guide, you will spend the morning hiking through the plantations. The cooler, morning hours will be perfect for a stroll, especially in the elevated highlands. After lunch back at your lodge, you will spend the afternoon trusting your senses. Smell and appearance come before taste when you are guided through the production process of coffee, and your guide will lead you from bean to cup in a series of experiential steps. Your guides will show you how to inspect and grade the beans as part of a cupping session that will end with a gourmet tasting of as many different blends as you want. With a full day on the plantation, you will also learn how organic practices impact the final result.

After breakfast on the plantation, a guide will escort you to iconic vistas for the chance to peer into an active volcano. Irazu is a neat spot on your route to rural Costa Rica. Descending from the volcano, you will enter the Limon province and complete today’s journey by raft. Reaching your next lodge will be part of the attraction: you will drift down a river, twist deeper into a private forest reserve, and toward a lodge that is completely hidden and private. The eco-lodge is a member of the leading lodges of the world and illustrates how guests can enjoy complete luxury while remaining carbon-neutral and completely sustainable.

Your stay in Bajo Tigre will be inclusive of all meals, and almost every ingredient that will be in your meals is grown on the reserve. The lodge even brews its own beer. Your bungalow will feature a private infinity pool, a lazy hammock, and epic views of the rainforest, where monkeys and sloths are among the residents. This morning, you will hike into the Talamanca Mountains for a half-day experience with a local Cabecar community. Eco-tourism is helping them to preserve their ways, and after a two-hour hike to a remote community, you can share many moments with the people. While you are here, you will learn about their customs and connect to the rainforest.

Two days in Bajo Tigre will provide you with a bit of downtime. This is a destination for relaxing in nature and escaping the world. Short and long hiking trails extend from the lodge, so you can indulge in a personal wildlife expedition or take a guide who knows better where to look. These two days will be completely customizable, and you can arrange different activities after you arrive. All the lodge’s activities will be included in your stay, and a private guide will tailor each day to your moods and interests. Some trails can lead you to hidden waterfalls, while others provide idyllic spaces to watch the reserve’s birds. On a canyoning adventure, you can abseil down rock faces, jump into pools, and feel the sheer force of waterfalls.

Your final morning in Bajo Tigre will be a morning to savor. During breakfast, you can sip on organic coffee and sample fruits that have been plucked fresh from the reserve’s organic garden. When you leave the lodge, you will travel by raft, which will be your final chance to look out for monkeys and feel the forest’s seclusion. You will be traveling to Tortuguero National Park and the Caribbean Sea. A network of waterways twists through this national park, making for an incredibly easy wildlife safari. All you have to do is sit back in the boat and be treated to an eclectic array of sounds and smells. After cruising the canals to the coast, you will arrive at your lodge, where the atmosphere will be as serene as in Bajo Tigre.

Tortuguero is a haven for sea turtles. Three turtle species arrive as early as March, giving Tortuguero an eight-month window to nest. You will spend these two days with conservationists who are working on a sea turtle project. On a single day, you can witness hundreds of nests and will probably encounter some of the hatchlings. Both afternoons will be flexible, and what you do will probably depend on what is happening with the sea turtle conservation. Snorkeling is an excellent option each afternoon, and you can usually swim alongside different turtles. You can also venture inland to explore more of the rainforest.

From Tortuguero, it is now possible to fly to San Jose, which will save you a ton of travel time before your outbound flight. You can enjoy some final activities before a short airport transfer by boat and road to the airport. A representative will greet you at the airport in San Jose and assist in transferring you to your international flight.