Hello,

My friend and I are interested in doing a lower budget birding trip to Costa Rica in early spring 2026. We are considering planning this ourselves, but two obstacles we are encountering are that we would prefer not to drive while there, and we would need to hire birding guides. We are hoping that going about it this way might be cheaper than booking a birdwatching tour. But where to find reputable birdwatching guides and responsible drivers, when we are hoping to hit sites that may be hours apart? Would this be a cost effective way to go about it? We'd prefer not to be driving mountain roads and dealing with the traffic there, and leave it up to a local who can navigate the roads well.

We are considering going the following over a 10 day trip (including travel days

- Land San Jose, first night at Hotel Bougainvillea

- Head north, see La Paz Waterfall area, then Sarapiqui region for a day and a half, La Selva OTS

- Head West to Arenal, two days there, likely at the Arenal Lodge

- Head down to Monteverde, possibly stay at Heliconia Hotel (which areas of Monteverde best to explore? how difficult getting from lowlands to upper cloud forest?), probably a day and a half to two days

-Go from Monteverde to Carrera National Park area for two days

- Last day, back to San Jose and fly out

Is this too much for a 10 day trip? I'm thinking we may have to cut something with all the driving.



Where would we go (online) to hire a guide and driver who are reputable? Could this be arranged through our hotel? Would that be the best choice with arranging guides? Would a taxi the day of suffice rather than booking a driver in advance?



Have never been to this region, not comfortable with mountin driving, so this is a new venture for us. Any suggestions would be appreciated regarding, best spots in these places for birds, good hotels, guide and driver contacts. Thank you so much!

We've done a lot of birdwatching in Costa Rica. I'd recommend staying at the Arenal Observatory Lodge. They have a huge property where you can see a lot of wildlife. They also have a free guided hike each morning and a fruit feeder where they put out fresh fruit early every morning. We saw tons of beautiful birds there. There's a big bird watching tower you can climb for a fee; we saw aracaris from there. Hiking around the property we saw toucans. You can also hire a birding guide there if you want to. Would also recommend Selva Verde - also saw loads of gorgeous birds there including toucans. We hired our private birding guide there, and he was excellent. The Osa Peninsula has fantastic birding; we regularly saw scarlet macaws and toucans. Monteverde also nice; we saw a resplendent quetzal in the Reserve with the guide we hired. Savegre Hotel is another great spot; we saw about ten quetzals with the guide we hired through the lodge, also lots and lots of gorgeous hummingbirds buzzing around the property. You might want to visit the La Paz Waterfall Gardens as well; they have a hummingbird garden where you can hand feed hummingbirds at certain times of day.

We've always just hired all our drivers and guides directly through our hotels when we've gone.

One of the many birds we saw at the fruit feeder at the Arenal Observatory Lodge. You can literally just stand on the deck at the restaurant and see them. We loved it.

Here's one of the toucans we saw at Selva Verde - really beautiful.