Pachira Lodge

We stayed here for 2 nights . A terrific experience from beginning to end. The boat ride from the dock through the lush forest takes about 1.5 hours and you can just watch the forest go by. The restaurant part of the hotel overlooks the swimming pool and the canal, so incredible views. The lodges where you sleep are very , very basic. No a/c or fridge. But thinking about green footprints it’s no problem at all. And you can still get a decent nights sleep because the windows do not have glass but netting, which allows a breeze, mixed with the ceiling fan it’s fine. There is not a great choice of food but we enjoyed every meal we had and there was always plenty of it.. we were there 19th April and the mozzies were out in force but plenty of deet did keep them at bay. A very good experience, and I would do it again.

We stayed at Pachira as a family of 6, myself, my husband, our 2 daughters (14 and 11) and my parents. The lodges at the hotel were simple but had everything we needed. To get to the hotel you arrive by boat, this was a lovely experience that we all really enjoyed, the hotel is isolated, but is very peaceful. The tour guides we had during our visit were fantastic, they made us feel very welcome. We are all very interested in wildlife, birds and photography and they helped us get the absolute most out of our stay here. The guided boat tour around the canal was excellent. The gardens at the hotel are amazing, we spent a lot of time walking round, looking at the wildlife. We were woken up by the howler monkeys and managed to see armadillo and raccoons in the garden, alongside countless species of birds. We all enjoyed the food, this is served buffet style at set times, the selection isn’t huge but it does change each day and in our opinion there were more than enough options to keep us happy. The staff were always friendly, the bar was lovely and service was fast and friendly. I would love to visit this special place again one day.

This was a good stay, the first stop on our trip. The journey to get here is quite long, so be prepared for a lengthy ride on the river. I understand that this is another reason it feels so secluded and hard to get any produce there, but I think the main let down was the lack of food options. I wouldn't say that either the breakfast, lunch or dinner were anything special, but otherwise the location of the hotel is perfect for wildlife spotting. There's a trail next to it you can walk, it's on the river so you can just sit and stare all day, the walking paths to the rooms provide an excellent opportunity to see anything from monkeys to frogs at night, snakes, sloths, iguanas, etc. We saw a lot by staying here for two nights only and the Tortuguero village is only across the river on a boat ride too. The rooms are all you need, comfortable and the bathrooms spacious. Rocking chair equipped too. Additionally, I would say that due to the secluded nature of the area, you are also stuck with your guide on this stay and they should make a better effort to be approachable and pleasant with the guest, although I know this is not the hotel's responsibility.

Such a disappointing introduction to Costa Rica. The rooms are basic, but absolutely fine. The main issues are the food and the staff. It looks like hotel policy is to be as rude and grumpy as possible. Never a smile, not to mention an hola. This is a management issue, as clearly the culture is not about creating an environment where guests can feel welcome. Tours were unenthusiastic and like ticking off a list for the stupid tourists. Pile them in and get rid of them quickly. I have never felt so hated in a hotel, anywhere in the world. Food was tasteless and bland, overcooked eggs and fish, served up at set times like an institution. The only good part was the fresh fruit. There are so many little things that could be done to make this hotel better. And I’m willing to share them directly with management!

We were here with a tour group of 22 people for 2 nights. The rooms were cute lodges where you walked on a lovely concrete path through beautiful, natural surroundings. Being a tour group, our rooms were quite a distance from the main area but that gave us a chancre to work off the many delicious meals we had. The buffets were varied and plentiful. Staff were most friendly and helpful at all times.

Pachira Lodge is a well-situated lodge for exploring the plentiful wildlife in the locality. We benefited greatly from our fabulous guide, Ray, who aside from being unbelievably knowledgeable about all the animals and their habitats, seemed to never stop working! He made our visit here informative and memorable. Thank you Ray!

Can’t disagree with the last review more. This is classed as a 3 star and miles above the other hotels in our CR tour. The staff were all friendly, the guides very knowledgeable. The park is beautiful and the amount of trips gave us a good balance of tours and down time at the pool. (Lovely pool, again not all other 3 stars had a pool). This was our first stop in CR and set the bar high. I’m vegan and there was food for me. I don’t ever expect much when travelling especially in a remote national park but there was plenty i. could eat (unlike Europe!) Would highly recommend this trip and would love to come back with other members of the family. This trip was me and my 11 year old.

I think perhaps the Tortuguero experience was just not for us. The park is beautiful, and we loved the netted windows of our room that allowed us to hear the river and forest noises all night. Pachira has a nice central pool and bar area that is possibly better for seeing wildlife than the park itself - loads of montezumas and spider monkeys around. The river safari was ok, though again lots of other people and big boats. I don’t recommend the extra excursion offered to Tortuga Hill, it was fine but too late on in the day to see much wildlife and the price point of 38 USD pp. felt a lot for what it was. Our guide was great, but the lodge staff all seemed really fed up - I don’t expect people to fall over themselves in excitement at serving me, but when the majority of staff seem deeply disgruntled it sets alarm bells ringing. The general atmosphere was, as some others have described, a bit like being at a weird holiday camp. You have to sit at the same table every night (no upstairs seats for us!) and have buffet food eked out to you by the unhappy staff (food is terrible, if you are strict veggie or vegan take snacks!). You get sent places in very large groups and it all just feels a bit packaged and sterile? This was our first stop in CR and I think with the benefit of hindsight we would have skipped this trip. Large groups are kind of the set up throughout, but we saw so much more wildlife in Corcovado and had a much better remote stay experience at a similar price point. It’s fine but steel yourself for huge groups and I think you pay a lot for what you get.

The experience starts with a stunning 90 minute boat trip up the Caribbean Canals. We were greeted with a welcome drink our room keys and lunch. Our room was lovely and more modern than we were expecting. It's in the rain forest with a ceiling fan but no air conditioning so very warm during the day but cool enough to sleep easily at night. The food was fresh, warm and plentiful. But as mentioned in other reviews it's set up for tour groups so its not fine dining and can be quite busy. There loads of wildlife around the grounds the Spider Monkeys were fun to watch and we were fortunate enough to have a Sloth in the trees by our room for the 2 days we were there. Went on a dawn river trip one morning it was amazing our boat pilot took us down lots of little back waters an obviously new the areas where the wildlife was. Woken early on the second morning by heavy rain. It stopped at 5am so I went and sat on the Dock and watch the sun come up for an hour. Which was one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen. Overall we had an amazing stay and were sad that we only stayed 2 days.