Does anyone have suggestions for lodging on the Osa Peninsula for February? We are a family of five and have never been to CR. Two places that have interested us are the Black Turtle Lodge and the Iguana Lodge/Pearl of the Osa. (The Iguana Lodge does not have availability, but the Pearl does.)

Thanks for any information.

Cabinas El Mirador is a nice hotel $40 pp including 3 meals per day and good food.
http://www.mirador.co.cr/
or something more rustic near Puerto Jimenez $15 pp would be Los Mineros [email protected] you can also contact Casa Girasol in Sabana San Jose, they will help you with transfers from San Jose airport to Osa either with public bus, private transport or by air. email: [email protected]

The Pearl is very bare bones if you don't mind that. cold water showers no lamps, just an overhead light and some type of fan. I have actually stayed there several times. It is very clean. there are 2 beds in the rooms...1dbl and 1sgl. Not much room between them. No closets. food is very good but not what you would call gourmet. You can eat at the Iguana Lodge for an additional price. Food is included at Iguana but not at the Pearl. I have also stayed at the Iguana. No matter where I have stayed, toby and Loren were always very nice.

The origional owners of the black turtle lodge have moved on and I haven't met the new owners yet so can't really say anything about how it is being run now. It is right next door to Iguana.

I really enjoy the beaches there. They are also in a good location for day trips.

I have seen a couple of decent reports about Parrot bay but it is right by town. People from Parrot bay frequently head down to the Pearl for drinks, lunch, swimming in the beach. the Pearl is a public bar but it doesn't get rowdy and it closes early.

I stayed at Jinetes de Osa in Drakes Bay. I had fun there but be forewarned that you are issolated there hence there is not much to do after 3:00 PM.

Another suggestion:

My husband and I traveled to Bosque del Cabo on the Osa for our Honeymoon in April. Absolutely perfect! Just the right amount of luxury combined with a wilderness, rustic atmosphere, TONS of wildlife, great hiking, beautiful cabins and houses, hot water showers, very friendly staff, excellent food...I could go on and on. The views from the cabins are gorgeous as well...they're on a cliff-side overlooking the ocean!
Go to www.bosquedelcabo.com for more info.

My daughters (18 and 26) and I just returned from cr and the Osa Peninsula. We stayed at Delfin Amor Econ Lodge (www.divinedolphin.com), and had a wonderful time. Delfin Amor is fairly bare bones (cold showers, solar generator) but that was part of the experience that we enjoyed...away from the typical American expectations for a few days. (They do limited access to the internet!!). We did the canopy tour, searched for dolphins, snorkeled at Cano Island while there. We had hoped to go on a night tour with Tracy the bug lady, but she was not available when we were there. Others we met on the canopy tour had taken the night tour and said it was absolutely wonderful. They were staying at La Paloma (www.lapaloma.com) and were very pleased. La Paloma is near Delfin Amor, has a pool, and is a little higher up, so there is more breeze, we were told. Conditions are VERY humid everywhere on Osa, at least when we were there, and I would suggest taking some dessicants (like you get in pill bottles or shoe boxes) for your electronic equipment. Our camcorder didn't want to work the last day we were there due to moisture. I put it in a plastic bag (a must for the trip) with a dessicant for a few hours, and it was fine. Delfin supposedly has wonderful food, but the time we were there the chef was on his 4-day holiday for the month, so the food was not up to par. Alan, the 'maitre' d' of the lodge is absolutely delightful and helpful, and Roy Sancho, the dolphin guide is a joy. He taught us to snorkel, and got us hooked.

I would also suggest you consider Aventuras Naturales http://www.adventurecostarica.com/ also runs the Pacuare Lodge (not on Osa--more central), where we debated about staying. We did white water rafting with them after we returned from Osa, and we were delighted with the experience (Pepe was our guide, and I would highly recommend him as a guide on any of their adventure tours.

Hope this gives you some other options to explore. Let me know if I can provide any other information.

If you want to consider the northern part of drake bay you might also consider casa corcovado. It has some great rainforest trails right from there.

A second vote for Casa Corcovado, where we stayed a couple years ago. Beautiful grounds, neat location right next to park with its own trails as well. Nice staff, nice little cabinas - hot water and electric. Nice bar and screened in restaurant - food ok.

Hi glover,

Do I remember you having stayed at Pacific edge? Hubby is finally going to get to stay there for a night in a couple of weeks.

old computer died and haven't been on much. saw your recent contribution on the PE.

I have been trying to get my hubby to go there with me for the last couple of years but he is going with his father in a couple of weeks. Maybe next time for me. sounds so nice. the were full most of the high season this year or we would have stayed there in feb.

We just returned this weekend from Casa Corcorvado. It is right next to the National Park so you don't need any transportation to get there. The place was lovely with many bungalows in the jungle. We traveled with my 5 teenagers. They had a little rough time without phone, tv and computer but it was quite an experience to be immersed with so much wildlife.

The food we thought was amazing,even my picky son had them make food especially for him. We also had some great tours right from the lodge into the jungle and scuba diving with sharks at Cano Island. Each room was lovely with canopy beds and netting. They had hot showers but very limited electricty in the room. We were able to bring an extra fan and enjoyed the candlelight. They also had 2 pools, one in the jungle. Quite an experience with the birds, snakes, monkeys and spiders!

2 pools at Casa Corcovado now, heh? There was just one when we were there a couple years ago. Glad to hear they're doing well, we really liked it there.

Suzie - yes we did stay at Pacific Edge and I've been touting it ever since! Initially we had planned to stay there 2 nights or so and 2 or so in Manuel Antonio. It was May though and some bridges were problematic. And we were so happy at PE and in Dominical that we just bagged MA altogether - having some concern about the condition of the road/bridges between Dom. and MA. Hope your husband likes it as well as we did.
Setting is spectacular with 270 degree view of ocean. Grounds are lovely and include two great lookout platforms (not that you really need em). Their 4 cabins are rustic, but very well thought out (owners Suzy and George are lifelong sailors after all and know how to make clever use out of small space). Each has a great porch and hammock with view. Also a nice outdoor bar and restaurant area. And Suzy and George are lots of fun.

We had quite a wild experience this week at Casa Corcovado. The morning at breakfast when we were all set to leave, Luis the director informed us that we could not leave. He told us that the wave conditions were so rough that there was no way to get off. The waves reached 20ft and destroyed 2 of their boats! It was the first time in their 10yrs that this ever happened. My kids were not too happy since they were looking forward to electricty and the real world again. It was quite an experience for all of us. I think the conditions were caused from the heavy rain during the night and the moon.

Fortunately, the following day we were able to leave. We were very thankful we used CostaRica Expeditions to book the trip because they were in contact with the hotel changing all of our arrangements. The hotel was able to contact them by radio. Without their help, we would have really have been stuck because they arranged for a private charter plane for us to get us back to San Jose. We were all very thankful and have great memories of our time in the rainforest. The extra day we had, we hiked, enjoyed the birds and we even got to see a snake eating a live bat right outside of the dining room! Pretty exciting...enjoy

wow, what a story. good thing you were not leaving the country that day. we traveled with costa rica expeditions several times when we first started going to c.r..they are miracle workers sometimes. we designed some pretty complicated trips for ourselves but they always seemed to be able to make them happen with everything going smoothly. they have been around for a long time and have a very strong infrastructure.