Our Grand Costa Rica Tour features excellent birding sites in northern, central, and southern Costa Rica. Sites covered include Ceiba-Cascajal Road, Carara National Park, Osa Peninsula, La Camba Road through Piedras Blancas National Park, Wilson Botanical Gardens near San Vito,, San Gerardo de Dota, the Talamanca highlands, Reserva El Copal, Hotel Quelitales grounds, La Selva Biological Station, Arenal Observatory Lodge, Monteverde, and La Ensenada. The tour has the potential of recording over 500 species in 16 days. The best time to take this tour is during early dry season from January-March. During this time birds are in full breeding plumage and are most active. Accommodations are good to excellent throughout the tour.

The tour begins, with a transfer from our hotel near the international airport to the Pacific lowlands where we'll spend much of the morning birding along the productive Ceiba-Cascajal Road through dry forest and open areas. During a two night stop at Cerro Lodge, a full day will be devoted to birding nearby Carara National Park. A transfer south that includes a couple birding stops takes us to Osa Peninsula and Danta Corcovado Lodge near the Yellow-billed Cotinga Reserve and Corcovado National Park. Two full days birding these southern lowland forests is followed by a transfer to the Talamanca highlands including Cerro de la Muerte and San Gerardo de Dota. One morning will be devoted to seeking Resplendent Quetzals at Paraiso Quetzales followed by an afternoon birding highland areas above our lodge. We then continue on to a productive forest site full of tanager species at Reserva El Copal. We'll spend that night and the following morning at nearby Hotel Quelitales where over 70% of all hummingbird species in Costa Rica occur. From there we move on to the Sarapiqui area for a morning of birding on the Caribbean middle elevation site at La Selva Biological Station. We then proceed north to Arenal Observatory Lodge located adjacent to Arenal National Park. After birding the productive forest there, we move on to the middle elevations of the Pacific slope at Monteverde. We'll depart early to look for some secretive crakes and bird a nice trail through dry forest at a private reserve near Fortuna. That afternoon we'll be birding at Selvatura Reserve, best site for seeing Three-wattled Bellbirds. We'll spend the following morning birding nearby Monteverde Cloud Forest Preserve. Our last stop will be La Ensenada Reserve, where we'll spend an afternoon and following morning birding dry scrub and open forest before returning to Alajuela and end of the tour.

 

 

 

• Photos from Past Tours
• Travel Information

BIRDING LOCALES
FOR THIS TOUR

• Arenal National Park
• Bogarin Trail
• Carara National Park
• Ceiba-Cascajal Road
• Cerro Lodge
• Danta Corcovado Lodge
• El Tapir Nature Reserve
• Hotel Quelitales
• La Ensenada
• La Quinta Inn
• La Selva Field Station
• Monteverde Area
• Reserva El Copal
• San Gerardo da Dota
• Selvatura Park
• Talamanca Highlands
• Wilson Gardens