Curú Wildlife Refuge — Attraction in Paquera

Great experience! This national park is a less touristy place, which means you can see many animals.

We rented a „cabina“ through the national park’s website to stay overnight. The cabina is very simple, with a dining area and two sleeping rooms. Unfortunately, we were the only guests staying overnight, even though there were six cabinas in total.

There is also a dining area, so we booked lunch and dinner. The salad and burger were okay, but the nachos and breakfast menu were great!

Even near the main paths and next to the reception, we saw white-faced monkeys, raccoons, and coatis. In the forest, we encountered howler monkeys (a crazy experience!), an animal similar to a capybara, many deer, and a variety of birds.

The park offers extra tours, including guided walks, snorkeling, and a bioluminescence night snorkeling tour. We chose the bioluminescence tour, and it was an amazing experience! We had no idea such a thing existed. Tiny plankton in the water light up when disturbed, creating small glowing effects when you move your hands or any part of your body in the water. We were seven people on the tour, and we all jumped in. The guide and captain were very kind and helpful (even holding you in the water from behind so you can put on your snorkeling gear if you haven’t done it before jumping in :D).

In the morning, we took the longest trail, Quesera, leading to the beach. To go there, you need to get a (free) ticket from the reception. It’s best to do this the evening before, as the reception only opens at 8 AM. At first, we were a bit nervous about walking alone, but we quickly got used to the different sounds and enjoyed spotting animals along the way.

All in all, we are more than happy that we stayed overnight! The cabina is very simple, but it is located directly on the beach, so you have your own private access for swimming and...

Playa Curu and Wildlife Refuge are a wonderful experience to really experience the beach and the local wildlife. Howler monkeys and Capuchin monkeys are abundant throughout the refuge, as are Coatis, raccoons, parrots, and small native deer. We even encountered a river otter and numerous seabirds.

We did take the boat out to snorkel at Tortuga Island which we found to be overwhelmed with tourists on Easter weekend. The snorkeling area was very crowded with many boats and too many people trying to see the reef fish etc. Tortuga Island is a popular tourist destination but the experience is diminished by so many people. By the way, the snorkeling area was very mediocre, as visibility was somewhat murky and bumping into other swimmers was a constant occurrence.

We rented one of the six small very rustic cabins in the reserve that are located steps from the beach. We were there when the day trippers left for the day and had the beach largely to ourselves in the evening and early morning. The cost is $100 nightly and an additional $20 daily for 3 simple but fresh and delicious meals at the dining room. We hiked some of the nature trails in the Reserve and encountered numerous monkey, especially on the Sendero de los Monos. We had hoped to take a horseback trip to a nearby beach but had not made reservations in advance. Highly recommend this Schutt Family Reserve for a couple of nights away from the fancy resorts on the Guanacaste coast. Check out the details on...

Loved it here, $15 entry per person is expensive for a Scot but the money appears to be spent well. The buildings are lovely and it was great to find out about the international and local opportunities for young folks to get involved. I wish we'd went earlier in the day to spend more time on the trails...

We ended up doing a bioluminessence tour from here too. Sofi and Dixon were brilliant. It was a lovely evening and swimming in the bay was like bathing in fireworks.

The restaurant was lovely too.

I mis-spoke and said 'te quiero menu?' Instead of 'tienes menu?' But the kitchen team didn't give me a hard time and when we followed the ordering process, paying and ordering at the reception and bringing the voucher to the kitchen team they made the most delicious Fajita Chicken I've ever had. Served with chips rather than tortillas but very delicious the meat was so tender.

Muchas gracias un mil!

Can't not mention the animals! We had capuchin the closest we'd ever had too. Beautiful geckos and Iguana and flocks of Scarlet Macaws as well as pretty pink burrowing crabs and hermit crabs of every size.

When I went for a paddle in the bay I disturbed a Ray and it then ran circuits around the bay leading to rainbows of little minnows jubbing from the surface all around me and the family's we were paddling with.

Lovely cows and peckaries too.

Would do this day a thousand...