Our first time visit to Costa Rica and our main interests are birding and hiking. I thought the perfect place to stay was the Arenal Observatory Lodge and Spa after reading their good reviews. Our hope was to go in January but they were full. January and February is the high touristy season for Costa Rica due to their dry months. We took a chance in visiting in December. It can be iffy with the weather and we learn from the locals that the rainy season has been extending through December in the last few years. We got lucky with our share of sun and rain during our one week visit.

We landed at San Jose airport and paid the resort to have a private driver meet us at the airport. Our arrival was in the early morning 7:30 am and it is three hour drive to the resort. The last couple miles is bumpy. Luckily, our driver was experienced and knew how to avoid hitting the potholes.

Our first day there was overcast but the sun peaked in and out during the day. The clouds can roll in quickly but we did have a few days where the majestic Arenal volcano and lake was in view. The lodge sits on over 800+ acres in the Arenal National Park. Our lodging was in the Smithsonian building, room 29, and it was next to the restaurant and deck. You have a view of The Arenal Volcano and luscious tropical garden from your deck. We ate all our meals at the lodge and it was surprisingly good. They had a good happy hour (5-6pm) and the only thing they could improve on was having better appetizers. The lodge puts out fresh fruit every day for the birds on the restaurant deck. It was so special to see the birds right away. Our room had the best view of the feeding stand so we could watch them from our covered balcony on rainy weather.

We enjoyed the trails and hiked every day and hiked every trail on the property. All trails were well maintained except probably the River trail which was muddy after rain so it was slippery in some spots. We hiked this trail on our first day and didn’t use our trekking poles. We had traveled with them but didn’t used them until our second day when we hike to a waterfall. The river trail was the only trail where trekking poles were helpful if it had rained the day before. You really don’t need to bring trekking poles on other trails. We did wear hiking boots and that helped with the terrain. There are four waterfalls (2 are seasonal) found on the property and the fauna and flora is stunning. They have lots of raccoon creatures called coatimundis that are harmless. We did not see any monkeys or snakes. We saw only few other tourists on the trails so it was lovely and peaceful. There is a trail along the farm with stunning eucalyptus trees surround the farming area. On clear days you can see the magnificent Arenal from some of the trails. What was so interesting to see is the leaf cutting ants. They can carry parts of a leaf ten times their weight. I was fascinated by watching them but careful not to step on them.

We met other tourists who paid to spend the day here and they just loved the hiking trails and bird watching. I was greeted on our first day by a colorful red and blue bird (Painting Blunt) landed next to my feet on our hike. I couldn’t get my phone out fast enough to take a photo before it flew away. I learned to have my camera ready in my hands at all the time. It was exciting to see so many birds during our stay here.

There were two days where we had heavy rain!! I mean the kind of rain where you have to seek cover under the many rain shelters that surround the property. I had not seen this much rain and we had more rainfall in 2 days than months in our home town of Seattle. One of the locals I met said October is the rainiest month so I can’t imagine what that must be like if it rains every day. I had made reservations for a private birding tour on the third day at 2:30 but it was raining hard all morning so I was going to cancel but when I went to the reservation desk the guide was already there as he did a morning tour and was waiting a couple of hours to take us later in the afternoon. I decided not to cancel and he was able to take us right away since the downpour had let up a bit. We got so lucky as it had stopped raining on our last hour and more birds were spotted. I was so surprised that our birding guide, Gustavo could point out over 20 bird species that I had not seen earlier on my own. It was so worth paying for a bird guide. He pointed out a rare sighting of a Resplendent Quartzel high in the trees. Just amazing! One of the many highlights of the day was when he pointed out a Yellow Throated Toucan and Fiery Collared Acarinas high in the trees. His birding expertise was outstanding. We returned to the Lodge right as another downpour started so very lucky to see so many birds on this tour. The other nice thing is that the guide brought his scope and sets it up so you have a great view of the bird. It was stronger lens then our binoculars. I had ordered a scope right before our trip that advertised a phone adjuster so you could take photos with your iPhone. It didn’t work so I returned it. It was for the best as our guides came with powerful scopes and lasers to point what area the birds were.

The next day, I had made prior reservations with the lodge for a sloth tour with One Million Trees tour. We were so lucky as it was a sunny day. A driver came to the lodge and picked us up to go to the nearest town called La Fortuna. (25 min drive). Our guide, Max, was excellent. We only had to walk a few steps along the creek and he had spotted a sloth. He had a scope and easily could get the sloth in the frame. He would take my iPhone and took photos and also short videos of the animals. After days of rain, the sloths were active so that was fun to watch them. He said they don’t like to move in the rain. He spotted 5 sloths, 2 green iguanas in the trees and a few more birds I did not have on my list. These guides have eyes in the back of their heads. He called a tiny red frog with blue legs called a strawberry poisonous dart frog over to us. That was amazing and we bent down nervously waiting for what was coming on the ground. He didn’t tell us what we were waiting for and in my head I was conjuring up a boa constrictor. This was after he tells us the predators of sloths are boa constrictors and pumas. I was relieved when I saw this little red dot (little bigger than a ladybug) coming closer to us. The jungle along the creek was muddy and the other tourist who joined us had her white walking shoes covered in mud. He wore rain boots so he was prepared. We wore mosquito repellent and didn’t get too many bites but she was attacked wearing a tank and shorts. We were thankful to wear long sleeve tops and pants. In La Fortuna, it was 20 degrees hotter than in the Arenal National park, where it was much cooler. In fact, when we were looking at the weather (pre-arrival) it was readings in the 80’s, it was La Fortuna weather not in the mountains where it was 20 degrees cooler. We didn’t spend any time in La Fortuna but from the car we could see that many of the cafes are open air and the shops are spread out a bit in the small town. The meeting place of our sloth guide was at a open air restaurant which had beautiful wood floors and tables. If I had known ahead of time it was meeting at a restaurant, I would have wanted to have a later lunch before the driver came back to pick us up. Max had cold bottles of water which we were happy to have.

There was complimentary one hour walking tours provided by the resort but whenever we thought of doing it we discovered we had hiked the trail on our own. We climbed the observatory tower on a fairly clear day to take advantage of the views. it is about 9 flights and 150 steps. I wouldn’t go up on a windy day as the frame does shake a bit but the views were amazing and the clouds were lifting from Arenal volcano. It was incredible to see the views.

I used the spa during the last day and had a wonderful massage. The gal was excellent but didn’t speak much English but it was ok because I could listen to the birds singing outside and just relax.

Restaurant viewing deck
Arenal's restaurant

Guests sitting room

View from our room


As a birder this was a perfect place to enjoy the outdoors and see wildlife. Merlin and Ebird apps didn’t seemed to work too well while in Costa Rica (other birders confirmed it, too). I’m still trying to figure out how to report the over 80 bird species I saw. Costa Rica is an amazing place and it was a birders delight to be here.


Scarlet Rumped Tanager

Great Curassow

Collared Aracari

Green Honeycreeper?

Coatismundi

Yellow Throated Toucan

Collared Aracaris

Double waterfalls

Hike to Phil's Villa - great view of Arenal Volcano

Hike to one of the waterfalls

Sloth

Beautiful photos! Thank you for sharing.