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‘My Favourite Hotel’ review – Yatama Ecolodge, Costa Rica

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Today, our ‘My Favourite Hotel’ review is the Yatama Ecolodge in Costa Rica.

We are currently running this reader-written feature to provide some positivity and inspiration to Head for PointsYou can find all of the ‘My Favourite Hotel’ reviews so far by clicking here.  This was scheduled to be a series of about 25 hotels, but a good response from readers means that we have commissioned another batch and are continuing the series.

Today’s hotel is the Yatama Ecolodge, a private tropical rainforest reserve in Costa Rica.  It’s reader Cat’s favourite hotel and here is her review:

Where is Yatama Ecolodge?

The Yatama Ecolodge is located near the village of Horquetas, in Heredia province, Costa Rica. The closest airport is San Jose and from there you will need to get yourself to Horquetos. You can either drive in a private vehicle, which takes about an hour and a half, or if you don’t mind a more “authentic” experience, use local buses – with one change it takes just over three hours.

Pedro, the owner of Yatama, will arrange a 4WD pick up in Horquetas to take you on the ridiculously bumpy 40-minute journey to Yatama Ecolodge. Do not attempt this in your own vehicle, wrap clothes around precious electronics and, ladies, wear a sports bra!

The private tropical rainforest reserve of Yatama borders, and provides an ecological buffer zone to, Braulio Carrillo NP, which in turn borders La Selva. This creates an extensive zone of astonishing biodiversity that crosses diverse habitats, for enthusiastic naturalists who don’t mind temporarily trading in some of their creature comforts for an epic adventure.

review Yatama Ecolodge Costa Rica

Hotel overview

Disclaimer: this is not a 5* hotel! There is no pool. You will not get cooled towels to mop your brow when the humidity gets to you (and it will). There is no free WiFi if you book through the hotel website. In fact, there is no WiFi at all, and almost certainly no phone reception, so let your loved ones know that you’re going off-grid for a few days before you head out there to avoid panic and search parties being sent out.

review Yatama Ecolodge Costa Rica

Instead, booking direct gets you a guided day hike and a night hike into this incredible, breathtakingly beautiful ecosystem, with a highly knowledgeable, enthusiastic guide each day, included in the room rate (this is as a group with any other guests of the ecolodge while you’re visiting – as I went at the end of the season, I frequently ended up with a private guide).

The guided day hikes usually take between one and three hours, and might just be a tour of the extensive, jungle-swathed grounds, or there might be a trek through a variety of terrains, fording a river or two along the way to a remote waterfall, where you can expect to swim (if you can navigate the slippery rocks) surrounded by dense, verdant foliage, with morpho butterflies flitting past you on a seemingly never-ending circuit up and down the river.

My room

You can expect your dinky en-suite rustic wooden cabin (elevated on posts above the forest floor) to come with the occasional Insect Of Unusual Size (IOUSes), and intermittent hot water, although the relative frequency of each is a constantly fluctuating thing. There is also a hammock on the veranda.

I can’t even tell you how much I enjoyed that hammock – every day, after my morning hike, I’d make a pot of tea in the kitchen, take it to my hammock and then just lounge there with my Kindle, listening to the din of the aptly-named howler monkeys, the calls of the great curassows that would occasionally strut past, and the faint, high-pitched “chee-dit” calls of hummingbirds as they hover momentarily, just out of reach, and then suddenly are gone. I also enjoyed the rather spectacular view of the resident green macaws’ occasional flight in the middle distance, far behind my feet!

review Yatama Ecolodge Costa Rica

Of course, if you take sugar with your tea, I strongly recommend having a flicking stick at the ready, to get rid of the leafcutter ants (the smaller ones – they will make mincemeat of your skin) and the bullet ants (the bigger ones – they will make mincemeat of your central nervous system) who will definitely congregate. Check said flicking stick carefully before picking it up, and be prepared to fling it if the ants start to use it as a route to your arm. Or be dreadfully un-British, and add the sugar in the kitchen while it’s brewing. I couldn’t bear to do this.

Back to the room – the bathroom was very basic. If you are inextricably attached to your creature comforts and need a bathroom that is an ode to enamel, marble and chrome, this is not the place for you. However, the water for the shower comes from natural springs, as does the filtered drinking water, which you’re welcome to refill your water bottle from. Electricity to light your room and to charge your camera (you will want to bring your camera) is available from 5:30pm – 7am, and is solar panel generated. This is a true ecolodge.

review Yatama Ecolodge Costa Rica

Plan in advance for IOUS removal from your room at night though – it didn’t matter how long I left between switching off my headtorch and unlocking my door, you could guarantee an insect larger than my fist would follow me in. Trying to get them back out again was a challenge that’s not for the faint-hearted.

review Yatama Ecolodge Costa Rica

The night hikes

To be honest, if the swimming under waterfalls with morpho butterflies dancing through the air from one beam of light to another didn’t instantaneously make you decide to visit, then the night hikes are unlikely to appeal.  For me it’s a tough call whether I’m completely smitten with this place because of said morpho-laden waterfalls, the hammock of joy, or the night hikes.

review Yatama Ecolodge Costa Rica

The day hikes were more about the location – the lush, liana-filled rainforest, the waterfalls that you have all to yourself, the moss-covered bridges and rivers that you ford. Sometimes we’d chance across a large bird, an agoutis, or a troop of Geoffroy’s spider monkeys, but the night hikes were when the fauna of Costa Rica really seemed to come alive. The frogs make the oddest variety of noises at night and they come in crazy colours, then there’s the snakes (only 3 of the 5 snakes we saw could potentially kill a human, if that’s any comfort…) and the mad IOUSes – it felt like a new adventure every night.

review Yatama Ecolodge Costa Rica

Dining

The food is simple, homely, delicious, plentiful and greatly appreciated after a hike. However, meals are taken as a group and there is no menu, you all get the same. If you have particular dietary needs, I’d discuss them in advance.

review Yatama Ecolodge Costa Rica

The dining room is a mesh-sided structure that allows for marvellous wildlife watching while enjoying your meal. It has comfy sofas, should you wish to lounge in a communal area, and 24-hour charging points.

Conclusion

This is not the place for everyone, and I realise that many HfP readers will be firmly in the not-on-your-nelly camp. The hikes are properly trekking through undulating jungle – as a Lincolnshire lass (albeit one who did the Tour du Mont Blanc right before this trip), Pedro’s idea of a flat hike and mine differed wildly. If the idea of being off-grid, surrounded by nature in all it’s creepy-crawly-slimy-flying-jumping glory fills you with joy, then this place will be your idea of heaven.

If you book direct, the $70 per person per night rate currently includes accommodation, taxes, three meals per day, fresh fruit, water, tea and coffee throughout the day and two guided hikes per day. Having stayed in various other hotels and guest houses around Costa Rica where I was paying $20-40 just for guided wildlife hikes and boat trips, this is a steal.


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Comments (80)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • Rhi says:

    Great stuff. 👍

  • Qwertyknowsbest says:

    Not for me but an excellent review, thank you.

    • Cat says:

      Yes, this is definitely not the place for everyone Qwertyknowsbest!

  • Gavin says:

    Looks like an amazing experience but not for me.

    I expected the food to be a bit like the feast in Indiana Jones – Temple of Doom with chilled monkey brains etc

    • Cat says:

      😂 You’re unlikely to find monkey brains served in an ecolodge Gavin!

  • Doc says:

    Don’t mind IOUS but poison frogs and snakes of the killing type are not really my go to things😀
    Great review. Reminds of my younger back packing days!!!

    • Cat says:

      I thought that would be the case for quite a few of HfPs readers Doc! There may come a time when my love of luxury travel will overtake my sense of adventure, but for now it’s adventure all the way (with perhaps the odd flight in first class to get me there, and a night or two at a lovely hotel with a spa afterwards…).
      The snakes weren’t *all* deadly, and you’d have to pick up, lick, or eat the frogs to be affected by the poison!

  • littlefish says:

    Just the perfect review. Have been thinking of Costa Rica for years. Chicken that I am, this sounds adventure and authenticity, without too much pain in the travel and having to carry a tent and provisions around.
    The question is 2 nights or three? or more?

    • Cat says:

      I went for 5 nights, because I absolutely love waking and falling asleep to the sounds of the rainforest (once I’ve purged my room of IOUS’, of course), and because hiking to waterfalls and papping mad frogs on night hikes are things I will never tire of doing. You have to judge these things on your own tolerance for being off grid, and dealing with the omnipresent beasties though! I could have happily stayed there for another month, but that wouldn’t be the case for many people.
      It’s certainly an adventure though!

  • cinereus says:

    Thank Christ finally a review of a hotel I’d actually consider staying in rather than the usual soulless corporate crap.

  • AJA says:

    I really enjoyed reading that review Cat. The hammock sounds lovely. The rest not so much, I am much more a lounge-by-the-pool lizard than a use-my-tongue-to-catch-a-gnat lizard. Beautifully written though and I feel like I experienced it vicariously from the comfort of my 21st century internet connected 7th floor penthouse.

    • Cat says:

      I really did have a lot of fun writing this AJA – I was aware that for many readers this place was going to be a complete mismatch, and the last thing I wanted to do was send people off on a holiday that would have them screaming while IOUS’ flew around in their hair, let alone send deeply unhappy guests Pedro’s way. I decided that one important thing was to make it abundantly clear to everyone who wouldn’t cope that they would struggle (for really quite a number of reasons), and that I might as well have some fun with it!
      You’re right – the hammock was bliss though!

      • AJA says:

        Your enjoyment of the actual holiday shone through from the description. It’s obvious you enjoyed writing the review too. I would like to go to Costa Rica but I think I need a few more home comforts although I accept that does mean I won’t quite get back to nature. Still for the price your hotel is good value.

        • Cat says:

          There really are lots of lovely hotels that offer more luxury and a slightly less immersive experience in nature AJA – you’ll have no trouble finding a nice hotel in Puerto Viejo de Sarapiqui town, and then arranging a morning boat tour on the river (which I highly recommend for seeing all kinds of absolutely amazing wildlife), or a day hike. I’m aware that there are some really lovely places to stay near Manuel Antonio, and on the Osa peninsula, both of which offer spectacular wildlife watching too.

  • sayling says:

    Love this entertaining and informative article – thanks, Cat and HfP!

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

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