Braulio Carrillo is a park most people only drive through on the way to the Caribbean. Tapirus is the way to stop in it: the lodge's 475-hectare private reserve shares more than 5 km of boundary with the national park.
So the forest you walk at dawn is not an island. It carries on up the slope into one of the biggest stretches of primary forest near San José.
It is a simple lodge, and it says so. The house speciality is a family of tapirs on the property, and for a birder the point is the bird walk and the night walk, and a last morning in the forest on the road back to the airport.
The lodge protects 475 hectares and runs three guided walks on it: a bird-watching walk, a day walk, and a night walk for the frogs and other night wildlife. The reserve borders Braulio Carrillo National Park for more than 5 km. The lodge's own pages name the Keel-billed Toucan and describe its forest's layers, with a canopy it gives as 40 to 60 metres high, but give no bird list or species count.
Photo: Tapirus Lodge
Braulio Carrillo
Come see nature surround you!
★★★★
Right next to Braulio Carrillo National Park, one of the only lodges that close to it, and tapirs on the property are the house speciality. The lodge itself says it is not the most luxurious place in the world, and the forest is the point.
On the property, the Keel-billed Toucan, the one bird the lodge names, with the rainbow bill.
In the national park next door, our Braulio Carrillo page names two people ask for: the Bare-necked Umbrellabird, a regional endemic of these wet slopes, and higher up in the park, the Resplendent Quetzal, with a guide, all year. Overhead, look for the King Vulture. And the birds of the whole Caribbean lowlands: Great Green Macaw, Great Potoo at dusk and Sunbittern on the streams.
| English | Scientific | Spanish | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Keel-billed Toucan | Ramphastos sulfuratus | Tucán Pico Iris | |
| Bare-necked Umbrellabird | Cephalopterus glabricollis | Pájaro-sombrilla Cuellinudo | Regional endemic |
| Resplendent Quetzal | Pharomachrus mocinno | Quetzal | |
| King Vulture | Sarcoramphus papa | Zopilote Rey | |
| Great Green Macaw | Ara ambiguus | Guacamayo Verde Mayor | |
| Great Potoo | Nyctibius grandis | Nictibio Grande | |
| Sunbittern | Eurypyga helias | Garza del Sol |
The rooms are a short walk from the car park, and steps from where the tram, zip line and guided walks start, so there is little driving once you arrive. Eight Deluxe rooms are built in pairs, each pair with two terraces facing the forest; two Superior rooms sleep up to four and have their own terraces. Rooms are sealed against small night-time creatures, which matters in wet forest. The restaurant is a few steps from the rooms. Days split between guided walks and the canopy, and after dark the night walk goes out. There is an accessible trail, railings and tram gondolas suited to wheelchair users.
Meals. on-site restaurant a few steps from the rooms; name, style and whether meals are included not stated on the site.
Perfect for: a family with mixed abilities who want canopy and forest without long hikes.
Over 108,000 acres of primary forest between the Central Valley and the Caribbean lowlands, a park list over 500 species, and Tapirus Lodge at its edge.
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