FROMMER'S COSTA RICA 2004:

Costa Rica Expeditions: "The most consistantly reliable outfitter...and its customer service is excellent." (Page 58)

Corcovado Lodge Tent Camp: If you're looking for a balanced blend of comfort and adventure, check out Corcovado Lodge Tent Camp, which is built on a low bluff right above the beach. Forested mountains rise up behind the tent camp, and just a few minutes' walk away is the entrance to the national park. Accommodations are in large tents pitched on wooden decks. Each tent has two twin beds, a table, a couple of plastic garden chairs on the front deck, and an ocean view. Toilets and showers are a short walk away, but there are enough so that there's usually no waiting.

Meals are served family-style in a large open-air dining room furnished with picnic tables. A separate screen-walled building is furnished with hammocks, a small bar, a Ping-Pong table, and a few board games. Services at the lodge include guided walks and excursions, including hikes through the national park and horseback rides on the beach. The newest addition to the lodge is a canopy platform located 120 feet up an ancient Guapinol tree. If you're truly adventurous, you can spend the night in a tent atop the platform (just don't wake up on the wrong side of the tent). Package rates that include transportation and tours are also available and are the way most people come here.

Just reaching this lodge is an adventure in itself. Most guests take a five-seat chartered plane to the gravel landing strip at Carate and then walk for around 30 minutes along the beach to the lodge. Don't worry: Your bags are hauled in on a mule-drawn cart. If you have a four-wheel-drive vehicle, you can get as far as Carate, arrange for safe parking, and then walk the remaining mile (1.6km). Once you're there, you have a real sense of being very away from it all. (Page 298)

Tortuga Lodge: This is Costa Rica Expeditions' oldest hotel, but thanks to several years of renovations and additions, it's not just aged well, but it has improved over time. The nicest feature here is the long multilevel deck, where you can sit and dine, sip a cool tropical drink, or just take in the view as the water laps against the docks at your feet. There's also a small pool, built by the water's edge and designed to create the illusion that it blends into Tortuguero's main canal. All the rooms are considered standards, with one double and one single bed, ceiling fans, and a comfortable private bathroom. I'd opt for the second-floor rooms which feature varnished wood walls and floors and come with a small, covered veranda.

...Service here is generally quite good, as are the family-style meals. There are several acres of forest behind the lodge, and a few kilometers of trails wind their way through the trees. This is a great place to look for howler monkeys and colorful poison-arrow frogs. (Page 319-320)

Monteverde Lodge: Operated by Costa Rica Expeditions, the Monteverde odge is one of the most upscale hotels in Monteverde. It's located 3 miles (5km) from the preserve entrance in a secluded setting near Santa Elena. Guest rooms are large and comfortable and have angled walls of glass with chairs and a table placed so that avid bird watchers can do a bit of birding without leaving their rooms. The gardens and secondary forest surrounding the lodge have some gentle groomed trails and are also home to quite a few species of birds. Perhaps the lodge's most popular feature is the large hot tub in a big atrium garden just off the lobby. After hiking all day, you can soak your bones under the stars.

The hotel's dining room offers great views, good food, and excellent formal service provided by how-tied waiters. The adjacent bar is a popular gathering spot, and there are regular evening slide shows focusing on the cloud forest. (Pages 230-231)

NEW KEY TO COSTA RICA:

Costa Rica Expeditions' Corcovado Lodge Tent Camp has an enviable setting: off a pristine beach near the La Leona entrance to Corcovado National Park. Guests arrive via horse-drawn cart from Carate, and stay in ten-by-ten-foot tents on wooden platforms. There is a large rancho with hammocks for reading and relaxing up the hill, and a family camp-style restaurant. A two-day, one night package including charter flight to Carate and all meals costs $499 per person. Tours in their own reserve, in the park,and to Isla del Caño are available. They are very proud of their platform 120 feet off the ground in an ajo tree. You hike about an hour through the forest, ascend via a rope-and-pulley system, and may spend up to two hours on the platform. An experienced guide accompanies you. This half-day experience costs $69, with a minimum of two participants. (Pg. 444)

Tortuga Lodge is on 125 acres of forested spit, two kilometers from the village across the canal from the airstrip. Tortuga Lodge was the first nature lodge in this area. Architecturally, it has expanded in a tasteful, harmonious way, and maintains its tradition of excellent service. A new riverside dinning room adds special tone to the atmosphere. (Pg. 247)

Monteverde Lodge is located on a road to the right at the entrance to Santa Elena. The lodge, built especially to accommodate tour groups from Costa Rica Expeditions, is spacious, beautifully designed, and comfortable. It features an indoor atrium with a large Jacuzzi. The grounds include a botanical garden. A multimedia slide show incorporating sounds of the rainforest is shown several times a week. (Pg. 294)

LONELY PLANET COSTA RICA: SURVIVAL KIT:

Corcovado Lodge Tent Camp: This comfortable tent camp is just 500 meters from the southern border of Parque Nacional Corcovado, and 1.5 kms west of Carate along the beach. Owned and operated by Costa Rica Expeditions, it makes an excellent base from which to explore Corcovado in reasonable comfort as well as being a restful place to stay for those who have hiked through the national park. A new feature here is an exciting canopy platform that can be accessed for day and overnight trips.

A sandy beach fronts the camp. A steep trail leads to the rainforest 100 meters away where a 160-hectare private preserve is available for hiking and wildlife observation. Currently, the lodge is low impact, with 20 tents, two bath houses (with eight individuals showers, toilet, and wash basins), a dining room, and a bar/lounge area. A small generator provides electricity to the dining room and bath houses only-a flashlight is needed in the tents. Each tent is three meters square, high enough to stand up in is pitched on a platform, and contains a canopied deck and two beds with linen. All sides are screened to allow maximum ventilation. Food is served family-style and is excellent and plentiful.

Tortuga Lodge: This remains the most comfortable place to stay in the Tortuguero area, especially after a 1996 renovation which gutted the old 'standard' rooms. The result is superior rooms (spacious, screened, cross-ventilated, private hot shower, fans), a new upgraded bar/restaurant, and a swimming pool. A solar energy system and water-saving fixtures were also added - they didn't receive an honorable mention in the 1995-96 Condé Nast Traveler Ecotourism Award for nothing. The food is plentiful and very well prepared. A radiotelephone is available to make connections with anywhere in the world. The staff and guides are helpful and speak English.

The lodge is on 20 hectares of attractively landscaped gardens with a variety of ornamental tropical trees, palms, shrubs, orchids, and other flowers which attract many birds. Beyond the gardens the tropical rainforest begins, and a troop of howler monkeys is usually heard within a few minutes walk of the lodge. Red and black poison-arrow frogs are common in the forest behing the lodge.

The Monteverde Lodge is 5 km from the reserve and is the most upscale hotel in the Monteverde area. A progressive recycling policy, a solar energy system, and a procedure whereby sheets and towels are changed on guest request (just as at home) rather than every day, are noteworthy environmentally sound aspects of an upscale hotel . The 27 rooms are larger than most, and have picture windows with garden or forest views. Apart from a smoking wing, most guest rooms and the restaurant have a nonsmoking policy. There is large lobby graced by a huge fireplace and, adjoining the lobby, a huge solar-powered but nice and hot Jacuzzi which will allow up to 15 guests to soak away the stresses of hiking steep and muddy trails. The grounds are attractively landscaped with a variety of native plants, and a short trail leads to a bluff with an observation plattform. The bluff is at the height of the forest canopy with good views of forest and river ravine.

1,000 PLACES TO SEE BEFORE YOU DIE:

Osa Peninsula, Costa Rica: At the park's southern border, the Corcovado Lodge Tent Camp is the highlight of a Costa Rica trip for many ecotourists. There's no electricity, shared baths only, and drinking water comes from a crystal-clear stream that runs by the twenty platformed tents. A unique "canopy tour" hoists awed guests up eight stories by pulley into the dense jungle canopy. Neither the canopy tour nor the tent camp is for everyone: Where the road from civilization ends, it is a forty-five minute walk along a pristine beach for arriving guests, while luggage is transported by horse cart.

FODOR'S COSTA RICA: THE COMPLETE GUIDE:

Corcovado Lodge Tent Camp: It isn't easy to get here - the lodge is best reached by air - but the effort's certainly worth it. Costa Rica Expeditions owns the lodge, as well as the 400-acre forest reserve that surrounds it and borders the Park. The 20 tents, with two single beds each, are pitched on wooden platforms just off the beach. There are communal bathrooms and a bar and restaurant that serves family-style meals. Resident naturalist guides will lead you through the jungle and hoist you into the forest canopy to a platform 120 off the ground. Bring a flashlight - there's electricity only a few hours each day - and insect repellent. Charter planes depart from San José via Carate every Wednesday and Friday; otherwise you can fly to Puerto Jiménez and hire a taxi to Carate, and from here it's a 45-minute walk. (Pg. 148)

FROMMER'S COSTA RICA '99:

Costa Rica Expeditions: Run by native New Yorker Michael Kaye, who has lived in Costa Rica for nearly three decades now, this is without a doubt (and widely acknowledged to be) the finest tour company in the country. In business since 1978 and originally a river rafting outfit, (whitewater raft trips are still a part of many itineraries), Costa Rica Expeditions offers a huge variety of packages, with groups from as small as three or four people to no more than 18-20. Many groups have fewer than 10 people.

Specializing in nature and adventure travel tours, the guides (and many of the bus drivers, too!) are all experts in Costa Rican flora and fauna, and are extremely adept at helping you spot birds, reptiles, exotic plants, and arboreal critters high up above you in the trees. The company operates three of the finest properties in the country: Tortuga Lodge in Tortuguero, Monteverde Lodge near the Monteverde Cloud Forest, and Corcovado Lodge Tent Camp in southwestern Costa Rica. This last lodge is the most rustic of the three and requires you to hike in a ways from the nearby airstrip. More details about each of these accommodations can be found in each respective destination chapter later in this book. Whether you decide to go on one of their many tours, if you are in any of these three places, do yourself a favor—try and book accommodations in one of their fabulous lodges." (Pg. 5)

Monteverde Lodge: Operated by Costa Rica Expeditions, the Monteverde Lodge is one of the most upscale hotels in Monteverde. It’s located 3 miles (5km) from the preserve entrance in a secluded setting near Santa Elena. Guest rooms are large and comfortable and have angled walls of glass with chairs and a table placed so that avid bird-watchers can do a bit of birding without leaving their rooms. The gardens and secondary forest surrounding the lodge now have some gentle groomed trails and are also home to quite a few species of birds. This lodge’s most popular feature is a large hot tub in a big atrium garden just off the lobby. After hiking all day, you can soak your bones under the stars. Scheduled bus service to and from San Jose is available ($45 each way), as is a shuttle to the preserve ($6 each way), horseback riding, and a variety of optional tours.

The hotel’s dining room offers great views, good Tico and international food, and excellent formal service provided by bow-tied waiters. The bar adjacent to the dining room is a very popular gathering spot. There are regular evening slide shows focusing on the cloud forest. (Pg. 234-235)

Corcovado Lodge Tent Camp: If you’re looking for a balanced blend of comfort and adventure, check out Corcovado Lodge Tent Camp, which is built on a low bluff right above the beach. Forested mountains rise up behind the tent camp, and just a few minutes’ walk away is the entrance to Corcovado National Park. Accommodations are in large tents pitched on wooden decks. Each tent has two twin beds, a table, and a couple of plastic garden chairs on the front deck. Toilets and showers are a short walk away, but there are enough so that there’s usually no waiting.

Dining: Meals are served in a large open-air dining room furnished with picnic tables. A separate screen-walled building is furnished with hammocks, a small bar, a Ping-Pong table, and a few board games… The newest addition the lodge is a canopy platform located 120 feet up an ancient Guapinol tree. If you’re truly adventurous, you can spend the night in a tent atop the platform (just don’t wake up on the wrong side of the tent). Package rates that include transportation and tours are also available and are the way most people come here.

Just reaching this lodge is an adventure in itself. Most guests take a five-seat chartered plane to the gravel landing strip at Carate and then walk for around 30 minutes along the beach to the lodge. (Pg. 301-302)

Tortuga Lodge: This is Costa Rica Expeditions’ oldest hotel, but thanks to several years of renovations and additions, it's not only aged well, but improved with time. The nicest feature here is the long multi-level deck, where you can sit and dine, sip a cool tropical drink, or just take in the view as the water laps against the docks at your feet. There’s also a new pool, built to create the illusion that it blends into Tortuguero’s main canal. All the rooms are considered standards, with one double and one single bed, ceiling fans, and a comfortable private bathroom. I’d opt for the second-floor rooms, which feature varnished wood walls and floors and come with a small covered veranda. Despite the high rates (considerably higher than at other area lodgings), the rooms are not substantially larger or more luxurious than those at the Mawamba, Laguna, or Pachira lodges; what you’re paying for is all the years of experience that Costa Rica Expeditions brings to Tortuguero. Service is generally quite good, as are the meals.

Dining: The meals are much more creative than those you’ll find at other lodges in Tortuguero. Although served family style, they go far beyond the typical rice and beans that usually define meals in the region. They include homemade bread and special treats, such as cold fresh-seafood salad.

Amenities: In addition to the small pool, there are several acres of forest behind the lodge, and a few kilometers of trails wind their way through the trees. This is a great place to look for Howler Monkeys and colorful Poison Arrow Frogs. (Pg. 322)

Costa Rica Expeditions offers everything from 10-day tours covering the whole country, to 3-day/2-night and 2-day/1-night tours of Monteverde Biological Cloud forest Preserve, Tortuguero National Park, and Corcovado National Park, where they run their own lodges. They also offer 1- to 2-day whitewater rafting trips and other excursions. All excursions include transportation, meals, and lodging. Their tours are some of the most expensive in the country, but they are the most consistently reliable outfitter as well (and their customer service is excellent). (Pg. 71)

FODOR'S COSTA RICA '99:

Rafting and kayaking: It’s no coincidence that half a dozen Olympic kayaking teams use Turrialba as their winter training ground: it lies conveniently close to two excellent white-water rivers, the Reventazon and the Pacuare. And despite their appeal to the Excerpt, these rivers can also be sampled by neophytes. The Rio Reventazon flows right past Turrialba and has several navigable stretches; the most popular stretch has unfortunately been cut short by the construction of a dam (the Turcurrique sections, class III). The Florida section (class III), above Turrialba, is a rip-roaring alternative for experienced rafters.

Just southeast of here is the Rio Pacuare, Costa Rica’s most spectacular white-water route, which provides rafters with an unforgettable, exhilarating, adrenaline-pumping experience. The 32-km (20 –mi) Pacuare run includes a series of class III and IV rapids with evocative nicknames like Double Drop, Burial Grounds, and Magnetic Rock. The astoundingly beautiful scenery includes lush canyons where waterfalls plummet into the river, and vast expanses of rainforest—stretches of the Pacuare stood in for Africa in the otherwise forgettable 1995 film Congo. That riverine landscape is inhabited by an array of birds—toucans, kingfishers, aracaris, and oropendolas (golden orioles) among them—along with blue morpho butterflies, the odd river otter, and other interesting critters. (Pg.61)

Corcovado Lodge Tent Camp: This rustic lodge and the surrounding 400-acre forest reserve are owned by Costa Rica Expeditions. The 20 tents each with two single beds, are pitched on wooden platforms just off the beach. Bathrooms are communal, and a bar-restaurant serves family-style meals. Resident naturalist guides will lead you through the jungle and hoist you into the forest canopy via a platform 100ft. high. Bring a flashlight (there’s electricity only a few hours each day) and insect repellent. Charter planes leave San Jose for Carate, a 20-minute walk from here, several times a week, but it's cheaper to fly to Puerto Jimenez and take a cab to Carate. (Pg. 157)

Tortuga Lodge: Owned by Costa Rica Expeditions, this thatched riverside lodge is surrounded by lush lawns, orchids, and tropical trees and renowned for tarpon-and snook-fishing packages. The second-largest tarpon ever caught in Costa Rica weighing 182 pounds, was reeled in here in 1987. Guest rooms are comfortable, with fans and mosquito blinds.much needed, as mosquitoes can be voracious. Wear repellent and long sleeves on the hiking trails. Considering that most of the restaurant ingredients are flown in, the chefs do an excellent job preparing hearty food. The lodge is across the river from the airstrip, 2km (1mi) from Tortuguero. (Pg. 175)

Costa Rica Expeditions has won awards for its commitment to conservation and the quality of its tours. (Pg. 257)

COSTA RICA - THE ROUGH GUIDE:

Excerpt from Costa Rica - The Rough Guide, 1996.
Costa Rica Expeditions: Longest-established and most experienced of the major tour operators, it has superior accommodations in Tortuguero, Monteverde and Corcovado, a superlative staff of guides and tremendous resources. You can drop into the somewhat chaotic downtown office and talk to a consultant about individual tours. (Pg. 25)

Tortuga Lodge: Owned by Costa Rica Expeditions. The plushest lodge in the area, but rather far-flung. Large rooms, with private baths, and elegantly landscaped grounds with lots of walking opportunities. Meals are usually extra and, while of the "all you can eat" variety, are not cheap. (Pg. 173)

Corcovado Lodge Tent Camp: A 45-min walk along the beach from Carate. Eight self-contained "tent-camps" fully screened, elevated on short stilts, with bedroom and screened verandah, in an amazing beachside location in front of the breakers, sheltered behind a little clutch of palm trees. Communal baths and good local cooking served on site (rates include meals). Very good value; packages available, some that will fly you right to Carate. (Pg. 328)