Tortuguero & Pacuare, Costa Rica
Pacuare Lodge
For the experience of arrival and departure alone – either by white water raft, or by 4x4 and a cable car - a stay at Pacuare Lodge is unforgettable. Once there, you are justified in relaxing in this secluded piece of paradise.
For the experience of arrival and departure alone – either by white water raft, or by 4x4 and a cable car - a stay at Pacuare Lodge is unforgettable. Once there, you are justified in relaxing in this secluded piece of paradise.
For the experience of arrival and departure alone – either by white water raft, or by 4x4 and a cable car - a stay at Pacuare Lodge is unforgettable. Once there, you are justified in relaxing in this secluded piece of paradise.
For the experience of arrival and departure alone – either by white water raft, or by 4x4 and a cable car - a stay at Pacuare Lodge is unforgettable. Once there, you are justified in relaxing in this secluded piece of paradise.
Location
Pacuare Lodge is about 100km east of San José and is set amongst 10,000 hectares of protected jungle parkland on the banks of the Pacuare River, flowing from the slopes of Irazu Volcano. Your options for arrival are either a 30 minute bumpy off-road jeep ride (including a cable car across the river) or a 90 minute adventure negotiating class I-IV rapids in an inflatable raft.
Accommodation
From the manner of your arrival, you will appreciate that a stay at Pacuare Lodge is styled on a sense of adventure. The 19 bungalow rooms (17 of which are suites) are lit by candle rather than electricity, and you won’t find windows; screens rather than glass allow you to have an immersive experience of the soundscape of your surroundings. Each bungalow has hardwood floors, a kingsize canopy bed, indoor and outdoor showers, and a veranda with a hammock. For a more luxurious stay, you could opt for one of the suites with an infinity pool, or go for the honeymoon suite, accessed by its own private suspension bridge.
You will love spending the evening dining by the fast-flowing river in the Pacuare Lodge Restaurant.
You will love spending the evening dining by the fast-flowing river in the Pacuare Lodge Restaurant.
Here, award-winning chefs create sumptuous local fusion cuisine, prepared with the freshest ingredients from Las Nubes de Tuis, the hotel’s organic farm. The farm-to-table approach to food is just one of the dozens of things that happen at this lodge to achieve sustainability. We love the fact that there are genuine ventures to engage with and to prosper mutually with the Cabécar people; they are the origin of the striking art that dots around the lodge and grounds.
The Jawa Juu Spa incorporates the soothing powers of the rainforest in its massage and body scrub treatments. The spa or the lodge’s swimming pool are the perfect ways to relax after an early morning safari or shooting the Pacuare rapids.
The Jawa Juu Spa incorporates the soothing powers of the rainforest in its massage and body scrub treatments. The spa or the lodge’s swimming pool are the perfect ways to relax after an early morning safari or shooting the Pacuare rapids.
Experiences
- For a treetop dining experience, you can glide down a 130 metre cable to El Nido, The Nest, perched 20m above the ground, where you can enjoy breakfast or lunch with the birds.
- Climb, abseil and generally get wet and exhausted during a canyoning adventure in a nearby jungle gorge.
- The still air and subtle light of the morning is the best time to take a ranger-led birdwatching walk. Costa Rica, with 850 species of bird is a twitcher’s paradise. We love the toucans.
- A strenuous local hike known as “The Loop” comes with the reward of bathing in a stupendously beautiful waterfall plunge pool. .
- Visit a nearby thatched house built by local Cabécar Indians. A shaman will introduce you to the traditions of his people.
Positive Impact
We prioritise working with properties that collaborate with local communities and address location-specific needs from education to anti-poaching. We assess our partners to ensure the people we work with share our values of ensuring our trips continue to act as a force for good. Here we share some of the positive impacts your stay here contributes toWe prioritise working with properties that collaborate with local communities and address location-specific needs from education to anti-poaching. We assess our partners to ensure the people we work with share our values of ensuring our trips continue to act as a force for good. Here we share some of the positive impacts your stay here contributes to
Conservation
Pacuare Lodge supports multiple projects within the Pacuare Protected Zone, one of which is the Jaguar Conservation Effort. The lodge serves as a base for biologists working on this particular study, and has financed the installation and monitoring of more than 100 camera traps to ensure the hard work set up by the Costa Rica Nature Adventures can continue.
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Environment
Water management is key to the lodge’s environmental plan; the bathrooms are equipped with biodegradable soap and shampoo and the water for their showers is solar heated. All the lodge’s wastewater flows into state-of-the-art septic systems to avoid pollution of the nearby river. In addition, rooms are illuminated with lanterns and candles and what little electricity used is clean energy generated by a turbine in a nearby stream.
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Community
The lodge was built with minimal impact on the surrounding forest and river. No trees were cut to accommodate the bungalows and main lodge; the buildings use lumber from a reforestation project run by small farmers and the thatch roofs were made by local Cabécar Indians in their traditional style using palm leaves collected in the forest reserve. All lodge staff are from nearby communities and 95% of the rafting guides are from Turrialba, the closest city to the lodge.
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