El Tesoro CR Monteverde — Attraction in Monteverde

El Tesoro opened just a couple of months ago, so everything is nice and new here, and well organized. It's outside of Monteverde, and not overrun by tourists. For us, this meant the chance to call just 2 hours ahead and still find a night tour available, with a guide who showed us all the local fauna, and flora, too. One of the nicer things the guide mentioned was that they do not bring in animals, displacing them just to please the tourists. So we didn't see any sloths, but we did see many gorgeous birds (they look like balls of feathers when they're asleep!), including the regular tucán and the emerald one (so hard to spot at night!), an orange collared trogon, a rare sunbittern, and others I can't remember the names of. We glimpsed a huge tarantula in her nest, shying away from our flashlights. Tiny frogs and big grasshoppers, stick insects, both with and without wings... Many other insects whose names escape me. And we ran after an olingo which darted so fast on the higher branches! Being in the tropical forest at night was magical. A great experience, totally recommended!

More practical info: bring a raincoat, it rained a little while we were walking. I ended up using my phone's flashlight as backup, as the tiny flashlights from the guide were too weak for my eyes. But my husband had no trouble with his. And the guide had a really powerful one that lit up anything we needed. He also had a scope that allowed us to take close up pictures of the animals in the trees. Sneakers rather than sandals are a good idea, in my opinion. We didn't see any snakes, but they're a...

Juan was AMAZING! He took us on a night walk where he went above and beyond to teach us about all the different insects, animals and plants that CR has to offer. His explanations were so captivating and really informative. It was also really cool to learn the land we were walking had been in his family for five generations! So we also learned a lot of history. The walk itself was a bit spooky because of course it’s a night walk but also very fun (they provide flashlights) and a very unique way to seem some of the most beautiful creatures native to the country. Remember not to wear bug spray, (easily remedied with long sleeves and pants), as you could scare away or repel any potential sightings. We saw the biggest grasshopper I’ve ever seen in my life, kinkajous, frogs, spiders, and more. Thank you Juan and the El Tesoro team! (Side note: bring cash as sometimes the card machine doesn’t always work or connect, we had to make special arrangements to pay the next day due to this issue but they were SO...

We had an amazing time at El Tesoro Nocturno!!!!! Just from the very beginning we felt the magic of this place. Surrounded 360' by pure nature with a breathtaking atmosphere. We knew we were in for a trip of our lifetime. From the starting point to the very last step we where amazed how many animals were around us. We dont have enough words to thank Roy our amazing Nature guide and his son for their professionalism, and patience with our kids. For showing so many interesting things we would probably would have missed on our own, from birds, mammals, insects and our very favorite all the varieties of frogs. We even got to see snakes! Thank you so much, you made our trip to Costa Rica!!!!!! 🇨🇷 We will certainly be back with friends and family next year. Just the most wonderful experience at night in the beautiful area...