Black GuanPhoto: ondrejprosicky
Poás Volcano Lodge is the first night of two of our birding trips, and the reason is the airport: the lodge puts itself about 45 minutes from San José's, yet you wake up high in the cloud forest, with the dairy farm's pastures below and the Caribbean plains on the horizon.
It is a short drive to Poás Volcano National Park, where the cloud forest birds of the volcano are the morning's work.
At the lodge itself there are private trails into the forest edge and a boot room that lends rubber farm boots, which tells you what the trails are like after rain. Then the walk-in fireplace in the evening.
The lodge lists birdwatching among its activities and offers guided hikes on its own nature trails, which run into the cloud forest at the edge of the farm. The library has books on the local plants and animals. The site names no birds and no birding guide, and the rooms named after birds (Tanager, Hummingbird, Oriole, Toucanet, Quetzal, Jacamar) are names, not a list of what is seen.
Photo: Poas Volcano Lodge
Poás
An Intimate Mountain Lodge with Breath-taking Views of the Poas Volcano
★★★★
Eleven rooms of stone and wood on the edge of the cloud forest, beside a working dairy farm, with a walk-in fireplace in the living room for the cold evenings. La Paz Waterfall Gardens is within driving distance, and four of our recent birding itineraries stay here.
In Poás Volcano National Park, a short drive up the road, the Resplendent Quetzal turns up with luck and a guide, all year.
In the same cloud forest the Black Guan and the Sooty Thrush, two regional endemics, with tanagers, toucans and hummingbirds around them that our sources do not yet name by species.
| English | Scientific | Spanish | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Resplendent Quetzal | Pharomachrus mocinno | Quetzal | |
| Black Guan | Chamaepetes unicolor | Pava Negra | Regional endemic |
| Sooty Thrush | Turdus nigrescens | Mirlo Negruzco | Regional endemic |
The lodge feels like a mountain house with guests rather than a hotel. The Superior rooms are in the main building, each decorated on its own in stone and wood, and the smaller Standard Garden rooms sit just off the house among the flowerbeds. When the mist comes in, which it often does in the afternoon, life moves indoors: a big fireplace in the living room, a library, a games room and dinner at the Bromelia Restaurant. Trails run through the gardens and the forest edge for a short walk before breakfast. Most guests stay one or two nights, sleeping close to the park so they reach the crater early, while the morning is clearest.
Meals. Bromelia Restaurant in the main lodge. The rooms page does not say whether breakfast is included.
Perfect for: a first or last night near the airport, with the crater first thing in the morning.
The slopes of Poás above the Central Valley, where two of our birding trips spend their first nights: cloud forest birds, the quetzal with luck, the lodge.
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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