Evergreen Lodge — Hotel in Colorado

We booked a three night package stay that includes all meals, guided nature walk shortly after arrival, a guided boat tour (extra tour with 3 night stay) and tour into the tiny town of Tortuguero.

Unfortunately the stay did not get off to a great start mainly because of a lack of communication between the staff taking us in upon arrival.

BEWARE that if you are not with an organized tour group communication regarding your included excursions is exceptionally POOR without anything written.

Visiting WITHOUT A GROUP TOUR IS NOT ADVISED. Your stay cost includes planned excursions but without anything written (digital email or paper) it is exceptionally easy to MISS outings due to lack of precise communication.

Basic: you’re in the tropical rain forest. Queen bed for two (other options exists but this is what we were assigned). Clean yes. Two hand towels two bath towels plus a couple of pool towels…NO WASH CLOTHS TO USE IN SHOWER???? Liquid body wash in pump bottle in shower, same for soap at basin. No note to inform you to DO NOT PUT TOILET PAPER DOWN THE TOILET!!!! Should be posted??

Fully screened room (separate cabins). Ceiling fan, Thank God!!

Plenty of 110AC outlets for your devices though No hairdryer

We almost missed several excursions simply due to POOR COMMUNICATION AND NOTHING WRITTEN PAPER OR DIGITAL BECAUSE WE WERE NOT TRAVELING WITH A TOUR GROUP, EXCEPTIONALLY FRUSTRATING Boat ride into national park, nature walk guided, tour into town guided. All provided as part of your package depending on number of nights lodging. Made for a stressful first day.

The food is a fixed menu with little variation, though since we stayed the extra 3rd night they made something different. Unfortunately it wasn’t very good so we went back to the standard buffet.

To summarize the pros and cons:

Pro: staff is generally very friendly and will do whatever they can to make your stay comfortable. Guided tours were very good. Their guides have an exceptionally keen eye and can locate animals hidden in the jungle; they take the time to allow everyone to get photos. They are knowledgeable about the flora and fauna. Cabins, though rustic as you are in the Caribbean rain forest. My only real complaint was a lack of places to hang your clothing as everything gets damp.

Cons: Showers use water that is pretty salty: do not drink from the cabin water sources! Several other guests also mentioned this as a surprise. No washcloths Limited variety of food though it was pretty tasty most of the time. Communication upon arrival: POOR unless you are with a large organized group tour. It is very easy to miss some critical information and ultimately miss out on an “inclusive tour”. NOTE: YOU MUST PURCHASE YOUR NATIONAL PARK TICKET AHEAD OF TIME!! Neither my tour company nor the lodge made any arrangements for the ticket. We were exceptionally lucky that a couple canceled and we were granted their access pass. Another group touring on their own also made similar comments regarding the arrival communication.

Overall I would recommend this lodge for people wanting that rustic jungle experience but just be aware of the communication issue if you are not part of a large tour group.

Staff 5 Location 5 (though it might feel isolated) Food 3 (poor variety, ok quality) Service 5 Cleanliness of cabin 5 Cleanliness of bathroom 4 Guided experience...

In summary, this place feels more like a low-cost budget bus tour than a luxury resort, except for the prices for drinks.

While this place indicates it is a luxury stay in Tortuguero, if you are lucky enough to receive one of the separate cabins then the accommodation can be relatively nice, but the tours and transfers are rushed and the food very basic. But beware if you get room 16 it is adjacent to a wastewater pumping station where the pumps constantly churn water throughout the evening, so you cannot sit on the veranda out the front to relax.

During the dryer months, the transfers to and from the lodge have to use alternative routes which mean 1-2 hours longer transfers. They know this well in advance and should have this scheduled, instead of on the return trip we were delayed by over 3 hours having to wait to stand around the transfer station for over an hour waiting for the incoming buses.

The buffet food menu is very basic and on a two-day cycle which ties in with the standard stay at the lodge. Buffet meals are very restricted – the expectation of a buffet should have a choice – this is more like old-style canteen food where is if want a second scoop or spoon of anything because you do not like the other item, the servers belligerently give you a small portion of another spoon or scoop of food. This is by no means luxury and at best equates to low budget food. Make sure you arrive at the start of the seating times so that the food will be warm; otherwise you could have cold food or be left with s scraggly piece of lettuce and slither of tomato as an attempt at a salad.

We stayed an extra night and were told the tours were flexible, and we could choose our times by the travel company, only to find out things were very prescribed. In most cases, people go for the boat (canal) tour on the afternoon of their arrival straight after the transfer and rushed lunch. Then the next morning there is a rainforest walk activity at another "partner" lodge which really is lacking unless you want to see an insect or few. The afternoon boat ride to the small township of Tortuguero offers a small respite from the lodge for 2 hours, which allows you to either walk through the town or along some of the Caribbean coast. The only activity which we found really engaging was the boat (canal) tour, which again seemed awfully rushed. When you do wait to go on an excursion (as they call them), you have to wait near a closed kiosk, except for an older guy who seems to be there every day watching the only TV in the resort at a loud volume. This does not make for a tranquil space when you are supposed to be going off to see nature.

The only things which seemed decent were the WiFi which for the most stayed connected, though was terribly oversubscribed around food times or after dinner when people attempted to do a video on their smartphones.

This place needs to lift its...

We came here as part of a trip booked through Trailfinders for a two night stay which seems to be the standard trip for everyone we came across. The majority of us had 3 different tours and we also opted to go and see the turtles nesting which was an extra charge. I give it 5 stars for the overall experience, a large part of which was delivered by our two excellent guides Jorge and Elston .Jorge was actually with us from the coach in San José and guided us from the beginning of the bus journey through to the end of our stay and our next pick up. Both of our guides were great at telling us what was happening when so that we knew what to do and where to go at all times. Their ability switch between Spanish and English was amazing. Their knowledge of our environment was outstanding. All the tours we did as part of the package were fantastic. As for the lodge itself, the accommodation is great but obviously basic. I really enjoyed falling asleep to the sound of the jungle, I even enjoyed being woken up by the howler monkeys (it's such an unusual sound!!). The bed was comfortable, the lodge is huge, the shower had good power but the tap didn't. Bring your own shampoo. The food was basic but tasty. They had salad available at lunch and dinner and there was a veggie option each time. Breakfast was good and they always had fruit and could make you an omelette. There are two restaurants and you are allocated which one you go to based on proximity to your lodge. We were told that we might be sharing a table but we were allocated one for just us. They had beer and wine available for purchase at the restaurant There is a bar (Monkey bar) by the pool where we had cocktails before dinner as I believe it closes quite early. There are water stations so you can always fill up your water bottle. We saw lots of capuchin monkeys by the pool which was entertaining but there was also lots of other wildlife. Take deet for the mosquitos. It rained a lot while we were there but miraculously not while we were on our tours but be prepared with a waterproof. A very special experience. We didn't have much downtime because of the tours but that's what we went for and I highly recommend making sure your time is full there to make the most of...