Tortuga Lodge & Gardens

Where is Tortuga Lodge & Gardens?
Tortuga Lodge is located on the north east coast of Costa Rica, 47.5 KM or 29.5 miles from the Nicaraguan border, as the crow flies.

You cannot drive to Tortuguero because there are no roads; the only way to get there is by a combination of bus and boat or domestic flight.

The Tortuguero region covers a total of 190,000 square kilometers or 73,350 square miles. The lodge sits on the river bank directly across from the airstrip and 2 KMS or 1 mile from the mouth of the Tortuguero River.

Complete Package
By far the easiest way to get to Tortuguero is to buy a complete package that includes round trip transportation, lodging, excursions and meals, if you are interested in booking a complete package, please click here, Complete Packages.

Tortuga Lodge & Gardens, situated on 146 acres of private land on Costa Rica's northeast Caribbean coast, was our first hotel. It is now our newest hotel. Everything we have learned about designing nature lodges has gone into the remodeling of Tortuga Lodge. What we learned can be summarized in three words: "Reflect the place." The Lodge has 26 deluxe rooms and one penthouse.

Deluxe Rooms Penthouse Suite

The Lodge's restaurant starts at the river dock and reluctantly moves inland. A delectable daily menu is created by our kitchen which specializes in local and international dishes. Designed to blend into the river environment, the pool features an environmentally-friendly purification system that uses an undetectable amount of salt instead of commercial chlorine. The water does not irritate the eyes.

The all-pervasive presence of the water blurs distinctions. As your boat moves slowly through the forest, you are immersed in a world where the forest merges with the rivers and the water becomes part of the tree. Land and water, indoors and outdoors lose part of their meaning. The first ten rooms built at Tortuga Lodge were dark and enclosed. Now whatever was useful from those rooms has been recycled into the community, and all rooms at Tortuga Lodge have almost as much window area as walls.

During the season (July through October) the highlight of your trip to Tortuguero is actually standing a few feet from a 300-pound Green Sea Turtle while she lays 80-100 eggs, covers up her nest, perhaps digs a false nest to throw off predators, and, finally, after more than an hour, returns to the sea.

Tortuguero is conservation. In 1962 the late Dr. Archie Carr began to study and tag the thousands of Atlantic green sea turtles that every year from June through October come to Tortuguero Beach to lay their eggs. The study has continued without fail ever since, under the auspices of The Sea Turtle Conservancy Visitor Center, formally known as the Caribbean Conservation Corporation (CCC). It is the longest running continuous study of its kind in the world, and it has had a profound effect on the community of Tortuguero. Many of our staff has worked for the CCC, as have their parents. Caring for nature is woven into the fiber of the community.

With over 80% of Tortuga Lodge's personnel from the Tortuguero area, we are committed to playing an active role in the Tortuguero community. In July of 2010 we began the Word Adventure program, This is a program where guests help local kids learn English. For children in the developing world nothing beyond the Three R's in their own language is as valuable for them to learn as English. Young adults with a working knowledge of English have vastly more opportunities than their mono-lingual peers.

Tap water at Tortuga Lodge is 100 percent potable. The water comes from a well. A state of the art purification system using filters and ultraviolet light was installed in November 2010. You can purchase bottled water at the restaurant and bar.

Originally intended to protect a major nesting beach of the Atlantic Green Sea Turtle, Tortuguero National Park now protects 51,870 acres, one of the last large areas of tropical rain forest in Central America. Eleven habitats are found in the park. Three species of monkeys (Spider, Howler, and White-faced), Three-toed Sloths, and river otters are frequently seen along the natural inland waterways and canals. Caiman, iguanas, river turtles, Basilisk Lizards, and Poison Dart Frogs (Dendrobates) inhabit the area, along with more than 320 species of birds including all six species of kingfishers found in the new world, 3 species of toucans, 8 species of parrots, and other neotropical species such as the Slaty-tailed Trogon, White-collared Manakin, Purple-throated Fruitcrow, and White-fronted Nunbird.