Boat-billed HeronPhoto: alexanderkonsta
Laguna Lodge is on the thin strip of land with the lagoon on one side and the Caribbean on the other, and it has its own dock on the water you bird from.
That matters most at dawn. The lodge's Nature Awakening boat leaves between 5:30 and 6:00, its first boat of the day, before the park tour.
Between boats there are six hectares of gardens with trails, and on the far side of them the beach. For a birder who wants both the canals and the sea at the door, this is the one of our four Tortuguero lodges.
Six hectares of gardens with their own trails, guided or on your own. From the lodge, two boat trips: the Nature Awakening tour at dawn, about two hours, and the Tortuguero National Park tour through the canals with a naturalist guide and a local boatman. On foot, the lodge runs the Jaguar Trail in the park on raised walkways, about two hours, and a walk up Cerro Tortuguero, which the lodge gives as 119 metres. It cites more than 400 bird species for the area but names none on its site.
Photo: Laguna Lodge
Tortuguero
★★★
On the strip of land between the Caribbean Sea and the Tortuguero lagoon, reached by boat, 106 rooms in 6 acres of gardens. Tortuguero is birded from the water, and the lodge sits on the water you bird from.
From the dawn boat, the Roseate Spoonbill among the water birds, and before the light is up the Boat-billed Heron, the chocuaco, with eyes made for the night.
In the trees along the canals, the two birds of the Caribbean lowlands, the Great Green Macaw and the Keel-billed Toucan, with the Sunbittern at the water's edge and the Great Potoo on a dead snag.
| English | Scientific | Spanish | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Roseate Spoonbill | Platalea ajaja | Espátula Rosada | |
| Boat-billed Heron | Cochlearius cochlearius | Pico Cuchara | |
| Great Green Macaw | Ara ambiguus | Guacamayo Verde Mayor | |
| Keel-billed Toucan | Ramphastos sulfuratus | Tucán Pico Iris | |
| Sunbittern | Eurypyga helias | Garza del Sol | |
| Great Potoo | Nyctibius grandis | Nictibio Grande |
Laguna Lodge is a garden village more than a hotel block: wooden rooms spread across 6 acres between the lagoon and the sea, linked by paths through the plants. Our About text describes wide porches with rocking chairs and ceiling fans rather than sealed, air-conditioned rooms, so the evenings come with frogs and rain on the roof. Meals are buffets three times a day in the restaurant on the riverbank, and the main bar's deck over the water is where people gather to watch boats and wildlife at dusk. Most stays here are one or two nights built around the canal tours, so the pace is set by boat departures: early out on the water, a swim in the pool, the beach on foot, dinner, bed.
Meals. Main restaurant on the riverbank, buffet breakfast, lunch and dinner; main bar on a deck over the water, plus two pool bars. The lodge sells 2-day/1-night and 3-day/2-night packages; what they include is not stated on the page read.
Perfect for: a family on a first Tortuguero visit who want the canals, a pool and a beach walk in one or two nights.
Tortuguero National Park has no road and is birded from a boat on the canals: spoonbills, the Boat-billed Heron, macaws, and the lodges we use there.
See the placeWant to add a luxury stay to your trip? See every hotel we represent on CostaRica.Org (opens in a new window). We plan birding lodges and beach resorts in one trip.
Tell us the birds you want, your dates and how you like to travel, and we will come back with a first itinerary: the lodges in the right order and how many nights each one really needs. That first version is just a place to start.
Or call us: 1 (800) 996-1139 from the US and Canada, +506 4052-2140 in Costa Rica.
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