Costa Rica: Tortuguero and the Caribbean Coast

1. Day 1: Arrive in San José

   Juan Santamaría International Airport to your hotel in central San José

   • Drive about 45 min
   • Welcome dinner
   • Stay in San José
   Day 1 details

   Fly into Juan Santamaría International Airport (SJO), about 20 km west of San José, and a driver meets you in the arrivals hall for the 30 to 45 minute drive into the city. Plan to land by about 3 pm if you want to join the first walk; the exact times come with your final itinerary. At about 4:30 pm your See Sight Tours guide takes anyone who is ready on a short walk through the centre: the Teatro Nacional and the Plaza de la Cultura, then up to the Museo Nacional in the old Bellavista barracks, whose towers still carry bullet marks from the 1948 civil war; the army was abolished that year and the building handed over to the museum. At 6 pm we meet as a group for a briefing on the days ahead, including what to pack for the boat and the jungle lodge, then sit down to a welcome dinner of Costa Rican home cooking. Turn in early: tomorrow we cross the mountains to the Caribbean.

   Included

   • Pick-up at Juan Santamaría International Airport (SJO)
   • Short walk through central San José with your guide: the Teatro Nacional, the Plaza de la Cultura and the outside of the Museo Nacional
   • Welcome briefing and welcome dinner

   Free time: Free until the late-afternoon walk

   Activity: If you land later, skip the walk and meet us at the 6 pm briefing; for flights landing after about 5 pm we quote an extra night instead. Your San José hotel is central, of at least a 3-star-plus standard and within walking distance of the Teatro Nacional; we name it when we confirm your dates.

   

2. Day 2: Over Braulio Carrillo and by boat to Tortuguero

   San José to La Pavona on Route 32, then by boat to Tortuguero

   • Drive about 3 h
   • Breakfast, lunch and dinner
   • Stay in Tortuguero
   Day 2 details

   We leave after breakfast at about 7:30 am on Route 32, which climbs through Braulio Carrillo National Park, a steep rainforest of tree ferns and waterfalls between the Barva and Irazú volcanoes, then drops to the Caribbean lowlands. We stop for coffee near Guápiles and drive on past banana plantations to the river dock at La Pavona, about 3 hours of driving in all. No road reaches Tortuguero, so the last hour is by covered boat along the Río Suerte, where the boatman points out herons, kingfishers and, with luck, a sloth. Lunch is at the lodge on the canal, where we stay two nights. In the afternoon your guide walks you through the car-free village to the black sand beach where the turtles nest and to the Sea Turtle Conservancy visitor centre. Dinner is at the lodge. From July to October, if the licensed local guides can take us tonight, we walk the nesting beach after dark with a certified local guide.

   Included

   • Drive over Braulio Carrillo with a coffee stop near Guápiles
   • Boat from La Pavona to Tortuguero
   • Walk through Tortuguero village and the nesting beach with your guide
   • Sea Turtle Conservancy visitor centre
   • Turtle nesting night walk with a certified local guide, July to October (on one of our two evenings in Tortuguero)

   Free time: Late afternoon free at the lodge

   Activity: The boat has a roof but open sides: keep a rain jacket and your camera bag close. Bags travel in the boat with you.

   

3. Day 3: Tortuguero canals at dawn

   Tortuguero National Park by boat and on foot

   • By boat
   • Breakfast, lunch and dinner
   • Stay in Tortuguero
   Day 3 details

   This is the morning the trip is built around. At first light, about 6 am, when the water is still and the animals are moving, a licensed local naturalist takes us by boat into the canals of Tortuguero National Park, set up in 1975 to protect a nesting beach for green turtles. Look for howler and spider monkeys, three-toed sloths, caimans in the waterweed, green basilisks, toucans and the small, striped sungrebe. We are back for breakfast at about 8:30. Mid-morning we walk the El Gavilán trail at the park's Cuatro Esquinas station, about 2 km through lowland forest and often in rubber boots, which lodges usually lend. Lunch is at the lodge and the afternoon is free: swim, sleep in a hammock or paddle the quiet canals. In nesting season, if the turtle walk did not run last night, we aim to run it tonight. Otherwise the evening brings a guided night walk for frogs and insects on the lodge grounds.

   Included

   • Dawn boat tour of the Tortuguero National Park canals with a licensed local naturalist, park entry included
   • Guided walk on the El Gavilán trail
   • Turtle nesting night walk with a certified local guide, July to October; a guided night walk for frogs and insects in other months

   Optional experiences

   • Guided kayak or canoe outing on the canals in the afternoon, at the operator's own price
   • Canopy zipline near the village, at the operator's own price

   Easier option: Skip the trail walk and stay at the lodge after the boat tour.

   More active option: In the afternoon, a guided climb of Cerro Tortuguero, the small hill north of the village, for the view over the canals and the sea.

   Free time: Afternoon free at the lodge

   Activity: The turtle walk is up to two hours on soft sand in the dark, with no torches, phones or cameras allowed on the beach; sightings are likely in season but never certain.

   

4. Day 4: Down the canals to the southern Caribbean

   Tortuguero to Moín by boat, then by van to a sloth rescue centre and Puerto Viejo

   • Drive about 1.5 h
   • Breakfast, lunch and dinner
   • Stay in Puerto Viejo de Talamanca
   Day 4 details

   Instead of retracing our route by road, we leave Tortuguero after breakfast, at about 8 am, by boat south through the chain of coastal canals that runs behind the beach to Moín, the port just north of Limón. It takes about 3 to 4 hours, and with the forest close on both sides it is a second wildlife tour rather than a transfer. Our van meets us at Moín and we stop for a sit-down lunch near Limón. From there it is about an hour south along the coast to a sloth rescue centre near Cahuita, where staff care for injured and orphaned two- and three-toed sloths; a guided visit shows how they are treated and, where possible, returned to the forest. There is no handling of the animals. We reach Puerto Viejo de Talamanca, a small town of reggae bars and wooden houses on a black and gold sand beach, at about 5 pm. Watch the sunset over the old wreck in the bay, then sit down to a Caribbean farewell dinner: rice and beans in coconut milk, and rondón, a coconut stew of fish and root vegetables.

   Included

   • Boat from Tortuguero to Moín through the coastal canals
   • Sit-down lunch near Limón
   • Guided visit to a sloth rescue centre near Cahuita
   • Caribbean farewell dinner in Puerto Viejo

   Optional experiences

   • Bike hire for the coast road to Cocles and Punta Uva, at the shop's own price

   Free time: Early evening free in Puerto Viejo before dinner

   Activity: If the canal route is not workable on your date (low water or floating vegetation), we go back by boat to La Pavona and drive about 4 hours to Puerto Viejo, with lunch on the way; we tell you the evening before. Puerto Viejo gets an evening here, not a free afternoon; if it rains, the sloth centre visit still runs, the sunset may be lost, and dinner is under cover.

   

5. Day 5: Cahuita reef, then back to San José

   Puerto Viejo to Cahuita, then via Limón and Route 32 to Juan Santamaría International Airport

   • Drive about 4.5 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   Day 5 details

   After an early breakfast we drive about 20 minutes north to Cahuita, whose national park protects a coral reef and the strip of forest behind the beach. At about 7:30 am a certified local guide, required for snorkelling here, takes us by boat to the reef for about an hour and a half in the water among brain and elkhorn coral, parrotfish, angelfish and, sometimes, rays. Visibility depends on the sea: it is usually best in September and October and from March to April, and if the water is rough the guide walks us along the flat coastal trail instead, looking for sloths and capuchin monkeys. We leave Cahuita at about 11 am for the drive back to San José, about 210 km and 4 to 4.5 hours. This is the one day over our four-hour limit: no shorter road crosses the mountains, and a second night on the coast would cost a day of your trip. We break it with a sit-down lunch near Siquirres and a stop on Route 32, and reach Juan Santamaría International Airport at about 5 pm, or your San José hotel if you are staying on.

   Included

   • Snorkel on the Cahuita reef by boat with a certified local guide, gear and park fee included
   • Sit-down lunch near Siquirres
   • Drop-off at Juan Santamaría International Airport (SJO) or a San José hotel

   Easier option: Skip the snorkel and walk the first part of the Cahuita coastal trail with the guide, or stay on the beach.

   Activity: Book a flight leaving after about 8 pm, or ask us for an extra night in San José. Route 32 is sometimes closed after heavy rain; on those days we take the slower road and keep you informed.

Wildlife and weather: Rain can fall in any month on the Caribbean side, so boat tours run in light rain under cover. Turtles nest July to October; outside those months the evening walk looks for frogs and insects instead, and the canal wildlife is there all year.

• San José1 night
• Tortuguero2 nights
• Puerto Viejo de Talamanca1 night