Bosque de Paz

Incredible location! Incredible staff! Lots of incredible comments about this place. Staff were great! Food was excellent! Rooms were perfect! Loved the trails and feeder areas. Birds galore! Coatimundi, Agouti, and more were seen during our visit. Birders should be able to find many species. Mario, Maria, and all are treasures. Would go back if life finds us near them in the future.

This was an amazing stay, the showers were amazing and the people were even better. Everything was very nice and comfortable. The food was delicious and they accommodated for all of the dietary needs of our group. There are amazing hiking trails to waterfalls and around the area. It was a great stay.

Do not rush through Bajos del Toro on your way to La Fortuna. This town has long been a secret paradise to travelers with an appreciation for authentic local culture and natural wonders unequalled in Costa Rica. But you have to slow down to see the wildlife and hike to waterfalls that you can enjoy without any other tourists. Basque de Paz is the perfect home base for exploring The Valley. Only minutes away from the town, you are nestled in the natural mountains. There is no one else around. The birds and wildlife are incredible. We saw two species of monkey, agouti, agouti paca, coati, at least fifty species of bird, and I saw the tail of a puma on one of the many trails that crisscross the huge property. The staff are incredible. Everyone was so kind. We got to know everyone quite well, they helped my Spanish and I helped their English. The food was out of this world delicious. We are vegetarian and the chef accommodated us for three nights with creative, fresh cooking. We ate breakfasts and dinners at the lodge, and usually found some casado in town for lunch after our day hiked visiting the local waterfalls. Rooms are simple but very clean. Hot showers that worked great (which is not always the case in remote rainforest housing). Sitting each morning with coffee on the front porch and watching the innumerably colored birds and clouds of hummingbirds was the perfect way to start the day. There aren’t any clubs or televisions here. It’s all nature all the time. So yeah, Basque de Paz is amazing. Do yourself a favor and book more than one night.

We stayed two nights at Hotel Bosque de Paz at the beginning of June with rain in the afternoons. The dining hall served excellent “home cooking” style meals and had the best coffee. We were in Costa Rica for almost a month, I swear this place really did have the best coffee. The lodge promotes the natural beauty of the forest to be the landscaping. The hummingbird feeders were great. So many hummingbirds. We saw a lot of birds and agouti at the fruit station adjacent to the dining hall. The property has undergone reforestation for the past 27 years and is now a biological reserve with a huge secondary cloud forest. Our host, Mario, led us on a guided birding tour on our first morning stay. There are well marked trails throughout the lodge grounds. We hiked a little later in the afternoon prior to the rain and again the next morning before breakfast.

It has been 3 years since I have been able to visit Bosque de Paz due to the pandemic. This privately owned biological reserve has stayed true to its mission of conservation, preservation and education. At this time of year (the rainy season), there are very few people so we had a lot of privacy. Generally, the mornings were overcast, partly cloudy or sunny with the rain coming in the afternoon so I was able to go on a good hike every morning. When it was raining, I enjoyed sitting on the terrace listening to the rain beat on the steel roof. If you are an orchid enthusiast, the orchid garden is worth walking through. The orchids are all from the property legally repositioned to the garden from fallen logs and branches. If you are so lucky to be staying when the botanist in charge of the garden is there for the monthly visit be sure to schedule a tour. There are over 240 species that have been documented and as most of the orchids are small and it is easy to walk past extremely tiny orchids in bloom. When we were there 40 species were in bloom. If you are interested in birds ask for a birding guide (at an extra cost) who will enhance your experience. Because of the weather, the bird watching was not optimal but I did manage to observe several species including 3 I have not seen before. The meals are included in the price with generous portions. All the food is prepared on site - including the tortilla's, ice cream and fresh juices made from tropical fruits. The food is tasty. I particularly like the soups served at dinner time. If you have a special diet please inform them when booking your stay. This is located in a fairly remote area so letting those needs be know in advance is a must. Rooms are clean and comfortable. While there is Wi-Fi, there are no TV's or phones in the rooms so it is truly a getaway to a peaceful part of the world.

My wife and I have stayed at Bosque de Paz about 30 times since first coming to the Reserve in 1999 when we fell in love with the place. It is the definitive cloud-forest reserve and lodge with up to 8 meters of rain annually. Although such high rainfall might seem excessive, it occurs mostly in the afternoon and brings with it an exceptional diversity of wildlife: more. than 200 bird species, including 20 species of hummingbirds, mammals, and plants. It is a large reserve at 1000 Ha with 20 km of marked trails, waterfall, and dozens bridges to cross streams. The Lodge is at elevation 1550 m (5085 ft.), so it gets cool at night. Typical of Costa Rican hotels, the rooms are unheated, but plenty of blankets are in each room. The rooms are what we call elegant rustic. The Reserve has reforested hundreds of acres of former pastures and the trails also take you through ancient cloud forest. Make no mistake, there are some places on the trails that are muddy, but consider what wonders these trails take you to. The food is a step above just simple rural food and plenty of it. All the desserts are home made, including ice cream. The staff is friendly and helpful and the owners are attentive. Check out the orchid garden, one of the best reserve orchid gardens in the country. So bring your boots, a rain parka, a fleece jacket, and binoculars and prepare yourself for a treat. A 2022 Four-star National Blue Flag Award for biodiversity, one of just a few in Costa Rica.