Hotel Bougainvillea is a garden, not a reserve, and it is the honest first or last night of a birding trip: ten acres of botanical garden at Santo Domingo de Heredia, with 53 bird species logged there.
A garden this size gives a birder an easy morning: hummingbirds, tanagers and a motmot on the grounds, and a Peregrine Falcon among the birds the hotel names. No guide is stated, so it suits the person who is happy to walk the paths with binoculars and a coffee.
It is also the lodge on this list we know best from booking: sixteen of our birding trip drafts include a night here.
The hotel's garden page describes ten acres of botanical garden at Santo Domingo de Heredia, 53 bird species logged, and names hummingbirds, tanagers, the Blue-crowned Motmot and the Peregrine Falcon. It states no guides and no reserve.
Photo: Hotel Bougainvillea
Heredia
Surrounded by Lush Gardens, the Hotel Bougainvillea is a Hidden Jewel in the city!
★★★
A family hotel in ten acres of botanical garden at Santo Domingo de Heredia, where 53 bird species have been logged, hummingbirds, tanagers and Blue-crowned Motmot among them. A garden rather than a reserve, so it suits a first or last night.
The motmot the hotel calls the Blue-crowned Motmot is Lesson’s Motmot on the official list; your field guide may still call it Blue-crowned. The other species it names is the Peregrine Falcon, which the official list marks as a migrant, so the month matters.
The hotel also names hummingbirds and tanagers without naming species, and we will not guess which.
| English | Scientific | Spanish | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lesson’s Motmot | Momotus lessonii | Momoto Coroniazul | |
| Peregrine Falcon | Falco peregrinus | Halcón Peregrino |
Bougainvillea is a city hotel that does not feel like one, because the 10 acres of gardens put space between you and the traffic. Paths wind through orchids, bromeliads and big trees, so an early walk before breakfast is the natural start. The rooms have adobe-style floors and dark wood furniture made by Costa Rican craftsmen, and the upper floors look across the valley to the mountains. Vitrales, the restaurant and bar, serves a breakfast buffet and a sit-down dinner, which matters when you land late and do not want to go out. A solar-heated pool, tennis and a gym fill an afternoon before you head for the mountains or the coast.
Meals. Vitrales Restaurant & Bar: breakfast buffet and sit-down dinner. Breakfast is listed with direct bookings; standard inclusion not confirmed.
Perfect for: the first night after a long flight, or the last before it, with a garden to walk at dawn.
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