RANCHO NATURALISTA (Costa Rica) - Updated 2019 Prices, Hotel Reviews, and Photos

5.0

Location

Cleanliness

Service

Value

Certificate of Excellence

The premier birding lodge in Costa Rica, Rancho Naturalista is among the finest in Central America. There are plentiful hummingbirds on the large, open upstairs balcony where you can view the distant smoking volcano. Over 430 species of birds have been recorded in the area. You can hike and bird the trails on your own, and excellent guides are available as well. At Rancho Naturalista the atmosphere is warm and relaxed, and the staff are friendly and welcoming. This comfortable lodge is famous for its excellent food, well prepared, and made with the best fresh local ingredients. (All meals are included.) The weather is almost perfect, not too hot and not too cold. Rancho Naturalista is a wonderful getaway for bird watchers, hikers, and nature lovers!

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Property amenities

Free parking

Free Internet

Restaurant

Breakfast included

Breakfast Available

Laundry Service

Multilingual Staff

Non-smoking hotel

Public Wifi

Room features

Family Rooms

Non-smoking rooms

Good to know

HOTEL STYLE

Great View

Charming

Hotel links

Visit hotel website

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Contact

1 Km este de Tuis de Turrialba Tayutic, Turrialba 7150 Costa Rica

011 506 2100 1855

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Getting there

Juan Santamaria Intl Airport45 mi

See all nearby hotels

Nearby restaurants

Adriano's Restaurante

4.6 miSouth American

Bar Restaurante Familiar La Casona de Cucho

3.7 miCajun & Creole

Pollos Crispy La Suiza

3.6 miSouth American

See all nearby restaurants

Nearby attractions

Pacuare River

4.3 miBodies of Water

See all nearby attractions

291Reviews

513Photos

9Q+A

79Room tips

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Popular mentions

Nice but a little noisy

We stayed here for 2 nights on a birding tour and it was a good place to stay with a variety of wildlife on the grounds. Service was good and the wait staff were very attentive at meals. Unfortunately, we had the room right above the kitchen so it was a little too early wake up…

Date of stay: February 2019

Great Birding, but Disappointing and Overpriced Accommodations

I want to start this review with the fact that I am being completely objective in my observations, but I have reviewed years of private reviews for the resort and expect the owner / manager will write a response contesting some of my observations. I am not writing this review…

Date of stay: March 2019

Birder's Paradise

We carefully planned our recent 28-day trip to Costa Rica to include eight special stops where animal life and natural history would create lifetime memories. We began with four days here, planning the rest of the trip around this universally praised retreat. Everything…

Date of stay: February 2019

Beautiful location, nice rooms, food good

I stayed here for 2 nights in February 2019. Had a nice room with kitchenette and easy chairs. However I didn't like the bed because it had a nylon type mattress cover which felt rather like sleeping on a hospital bed. That aside the food quality was excellent although it was a…

Date of stay: February 2019

Response from LisaErb_CR, Manager at Rancho Naturalista

Responded 1 week ago

Hello and thank you for your nice recommendation! We couldn't do anything on the road at the time you were here due to the drought. Now that is has began to rain a bit we have put 6 truckloads of gravel on the road and now it is an much better shape. We realize that its a bit difficult at times but it is a rainforest reserve and not as easily accessible as a lodge that is located on a main hi-way. We believe that good places are worth the extra effort in getting there. We also recommend that anyone driving to Rancho Naturalista should have (not necessarily4x4) a high clearence vehicle. A regular automovile will not make it easily.

Room was spacious and comfortable. Surroundings are lovely and birds and other wildlife were abundant. Staff went out of their way to ensure we were able to see and do what we wanted. The food was excellent and the best we had of the places we stayed in Costa Rica. We loved…

Date of stay: January 2019

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Looking from the baclony

Volcan Turrialba view from the patio

Las habitaciones son increibles

Clean and met our needs

More than adequate

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Hello, I am looking to spend 2 nights first of August is the weather okay then? also can I see the Quetzal in this area? sloths? Thank you

Hello from all of us at Rancho Naturalista! Yes the first 2 weeks of August can be very nice weather. It may also be raining during the afternoons which is normal for this time of the year. Everything is lush and green and the rivers are perfect for whitewater rafting. Most species of birds are finishing with nesting and many species are showing up. Northern migrant species are not yet present although a few may begin to show up at the end of August. It is too low for the Quetzal at Rancho Naturalista but can be seen in higher elevations on a day trip. If you have any other questions please do not hesitate to send us an email.

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What is the check-in and check-out time for the hotel?

Sorry I didn’t see this sooner! We aren’t strict about checkout times. We allow guests to stay and have lunch -even if they arrived for lunch on the day they checked in. As long as it’s not a large group, we don’t charge extra for this. Also some guests would rather stay and see more birds before leaving for the airport or hotel in San Jose, that is ok with us too. Rancho Naturalista is a family owned and operated business and we want our guests to feel at home. Just let us know what you need and we will be happy to help.

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Is it necessary to travel with a birding company to see the optimum number of birds? Are there guides at the lodge who offer daily walks? Trying to decide if this a place we can do on our own (like Canopy Tower in Panama) or we need to book through a tour company.

Hello and Saludos from all of us here at Rancho Naturalista! Although many of our guests do come with a tour group we also have guests that prefer to come on their own. We try to help our guests plan every detail, from guides to transportation, special events like birthdays, special diets etc. We can help arrange to see any special "target birds" you may want to see while you are here.We have extra activities available like whitewater rafting and canyoning. Just let us know what you want and we will be happy to help you plan an exciting vacation.

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Can you arrange a transfer from San Jose Hamton inn for my wife and me to Ranco Naturalista? We plan to come in February or March, maybe sooner if room available. We do not yet have a room reservation, muchas gracias. Dr. Robert Myhr

Hello sorry for the delay I didn't see your message! Yes we can arrange for a local taxi driver from our area who will pick you up at The Hampton Inn or any other hotel that you would like to be picked up from. He also will pick you up directly from the airport and the time doesn't matter. For more details feel free to send an email. Oh and the drive from San Jose takes 3 hrs. If you are renting a car we will be happy to send you driving directions. Have fun planning your trip to Costa Rica!

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A question for serious bird photographers. I'm wondering if the birds you see are primarily in good light (meaning, you're able to get decent shutter speed with reasonable ISO), or do they tend to be in deep shadows - from the photos of the area, it does look like there is a lot of tree cover. Just thought I'd ask ahead of time. :)

No doubt that you will encounter all sorts of lighting conditions. For the hummers I got many images without flash and some with flash. Going into the trails you will find deep tree cover with scattered small clearings. I used a flash Better Beamer/Flash Extender quite a bit. A monopod was very helpful when I used a Sigma 150-600 but I discovered that sometimes I could not follow the action so I used a Nikon 300 f4 PF with a 1.4x teleconverter. That is a very light combination that allowed me to walk 6-8 hours at a time. You sacrifice some reach but will not miss rapidly moving birds. I used a full frame DSLR that allowed me plenty of cropping. It is important that your camera can handle high ISO's, I shot some at 24K as flash was not advisable that came out pretty decent. You will love Rancho Naturalista! Awesome food and very friendly people that know how to cater to bird and nature photographers.

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