Selva Verde Lodge

Had a wonderful two-night stay at this ecolodge. The rooms are very comfortable and spacious with A/C (your towels and clothes will dry in the humid climate). I would happily stay here again. Many of the staff speak English. The rooms are elevated and grouped into clusters of four rooms. Our room had comfortable beds, couch, little table with coffee machine, space to hang clothes, safe, and spacious bathroom with shower. There were plenty of electrical outlets for us to charge phones and camera batteries. Walkways between the rooms, reception area, and restaurant complex are covered and there are several drinking water dispensers located at various locations between the rooms. Our “package” included buffet-style meals in an extensive open-air dining room. The meals were varied, fresh and healthy – typical Costa Rican food (the fresh fruit in the morning was a treat, and palm fruits added nice touch to the salads). In the evening, we were able to sit under a covered area and enjoy a drink overlooking the Sarapiqui River before going upstairs for dinner. One end of the dining room overlooks the bird-feeding station. Much of the vegetation around these feeders had been recently cleared – assume this was to get rid of exotic plants and trees? There is a bar, a separate restaurant serving Italian food/pizza and a well-stocked gift store located on the ground-floor of the restaurant complex. There are several hiking trails around the property – we birded on one located across the highway. They do have a suspension bridge that takes you across the Sarapiqui River where you can explore the extensive native forest. The lodge provides Wellington boots/rubber boots if the trails are muddy. They also have a nice pool area. The one down-side – and not a fault of the lodge – is that the highway running in front of the hotel gets a lot of truck traffic For reasons we could not determine, these trucks “brake-check” as the pass by the lodge creating a lot of noise. Also, and to a much lesser degree, you will hear people walking along the raised wooden platforms between the rooms. We used a white-noise app on our phone and drowned out the noise for a good night’s sleep.

Great hotel. All staff were very friendly and nothing was too much trouble. Nice clean and spacious rooms. Good food. Excellent location with covered walkways around the complex which was a great idea. I would like to put out a special mention to Gilbert, one of their onsite naturalists. I was lucky enough to have 3 nature walks with Gilbert during my stay and his knowledge and enthusiasm was fantastic. I learnt a lot about the nature of Costa Rica and saw plenty of wildlife and birds, including frogs, sloth with baby and toucans. Thank you Gilbert and the staff at selva verde lodge for a great couple of days.

Fantastic accommodation amongst superb habitats and wildlife. The staff were all very friendly and welcoming, and the food was lovely. Joined day and night hikes into primary forest for fantastic wildlife, when in-house guide Carlos was excellent (he worked hard to show us more birds throughout our stay), The fauna around the accomodation was superb, from sloths to caiman to nesting humming birds in the mixture of secondary forest, gardens and river habitat. The white water rafting trip was equally good, finishing up close to the lodge and getting us close up to more bird species.