Tortuguero's all-inclusive tour packages
Flecks of red heliconia hang like vertical piano keys and golden butterflies dawdle in the breeze illuminated against the green walls of jungle as you pass down the Rio Suerte on motorboat. The Rio Suerte, and a few others like it, are the highways of Tortuguero; a network of canals ceding into the Penitencia and Tortuguero Rivers flowing toward the Caribbean Sea.
read more closeThis network protects Tortuguero's rich wildlife and dense forest from the ravages of car exhaust, trash thrown from windows, shattered glass and shredded tires, it also makes it a challenging spot to visit. Tortuguero's tourism industry has developed with these travel challenges in mind.
Today, most lodges accommodate visitors with all-inclusive packages that include round-trip transportation from San Jose, meals, one to three night stays and a variety of tours while staying in Tortuguero.
All of the lodges in Tortuguero offer national park and canal (insert hyperlink), nighttime sea turtle nesting (insert hyperlink) and turtle hatching tours (insert hyperlink) in-season from July 1 to September 30 – sea turtles tours are not included in package deals. In addition, most lodges have at least one specialty tour that includes a guided walk through trails or gardens on their property. The rest of the tours are nearly identical, with alterations based on your guides – who accompany you on all your tours during your stay in Tortuguero.
Tortuguero village tour
Sometime before or after arriving at the lodge, visitors head into Tortuguero village for a loosely-guided tour. This tour lasts around two hours and takes guests from one side of the village to the other while a guide explains a little bit about the town's history and present. Usually, visitors have time to buy souvenirs from the shops or take a stroll down the beach behind the village.
Tortuguero National Park tour
National park tours usually depart from the lodge's dock in the mornings around 6 a.m. and head to the national park's ranger station to pay the national park entrance fee – $10 per person – before heading into the park's canals. Inside the national park, guides and visitors float through the canals for two to three hours searching among the river's flora for spider, howler and capuchin monkeys; caimans; emerald basilisks; green iguanas; two- and three-toed sloths as well as hundreds of different species of birds including toucans, herons, egrets, kingfishers, jacanas and more.
Afternoon and night time canal tour
These tours vary a little bit with each lodge, but the premise is the same: drive around on a motorboat searching for wildlife in the canals around the park and the nearby wildlife refuges including Cano Palma and the Archie Carr National Wildlife Refuge.
In the afternoons, visitors can expect to see much of the same wildlife as in the mornings on the national park tour while on night time canal tours visitors have the chance to see Tortuguero's nocturnal wildlife like the great potoo, insect-eating bats, caimans, tree frogs, kinkajous, sleeping birds and basilisk lizards.
Canoe and kayak tour
Most lodges in Tortuguero offer free kayaks and canoes for guests to travel into town or explore waterways for seeing wildlife and immersing visitors in the rainforest during the daylight hours.
Departure & Return
- Departure point : These tour are part of a vacation package that departs from all major hotels in San Jose. The tours are also offer individually and they depart from all major hotels in Tortuguero
- Departure time : Hotel pickup is between 40 and 50 minutes before tour start time depending on hotel location
- Return details : Tour returns to original departure point after two or three hours of departure time