Took the trip of a lifetime in Feb/10 to beautiful Corcavado Jungle Eco Lodge, Costa Rica. It was everything you could hope for and more with the most hospitable, knowledgeable and friendly hosts and staff. Even the food was presented in a wonderful appetizing way. Our hosts Marna & Carlos arranged many of the day trip adventures that we took during our stay. Ziplining is literally only minutes down the road. The most refreshing waterfalls are worth the hours hike. Even the wildlife will stay for a photo appearance. Will most definitely have fond memories of this trip for years to come. Thank you Marna & Carlos.

5 of us rented 4X4 (with Marna's help) & drove down the coast & into the Corcovado Jungle, arriving at night. Not wise but sooo much fun on the roads. There were at least 6 fords thru streams & rivers (that I walked thru to check the depth!) You can also fly & boat in but we wanted the SUV so we could be free. Marna did a great job organizing everything for us & had us fed whenever we straggled back to the Lodge. The wide variety of food was delicious & delicately flavoured. We fished, picniced & snorkelled at Cano Island & off another beach/boat tour. We also hiked to a fresh water lagoon (Rio Claro) & waterfalls & kyaked, canoed, swam, picniced & hiked to a huge waterfall near the Lodge. It was so powerful it was hard to breath! We rode horses & Zip Lined/ Canopy Tour. We were in safe hands with our gracious guide Gravin (?), who also spoiled us by bringing ice...to our verandahs). We didn't use our mosquito net ever & didn't even see anyone with bug repellant!! This amazing trip of a lifetime was adventurous but still doable by city folk. We met wonderful people from around the world, sharing meals in the open air dining room, where even the Kinkajoos could come & snack on bananas hung for them! ( Hi to Paris, Germany, Belgium, US...) We all loved it. PS my excellent ratings of rooms & location is taking into consideration that we were up in the Tree House with the Makaws & monkeys - excellent for an out of the way rustic environment! Thankyou Marna & Carlos Looking forward to a return trip! Ciao

Several friends had said Corcovado National Park was a must see, but since an injury kept us from backpacking, we stayed here. We were very pleased with the
friends we made, the excellent location, very yummy food and
opportunities. The lodge isn't a resort, so yes, there might be a few
bugs and the room wasn't brand new, but other things made up for it.
Carlos (the owner) was an amazing guide: a wonderful guided hike, a day horseback riding with lunch on the beach, and a guided night hike. We also did a day by ourselves hiking and swiming, and finally a snorkeling day to Cano Island with a local outfitter.

The food was very good, always with fresh fruit and juice- we especially enjoyed the day we had juice from two organic giant starfruit that Carlos picked for us on the way
home. A tip: get the meal package- even for "do-it-yourselfers" it was worth having the meal plan. Other highlights included Carlos using a machete to chop open fresh coconuts and cocoa beans for us to try, taking a trip to a private beach (one other person came up in a kayak) with monkeys and coconuts all around. Carlos taking the time every night to show us by flashlight the local kinkachoo in the trees. Friendliness of other staff, esp Jessica the cook and Juan the handyman. We were upgraded from the basic room to the bungalo at no extra charge.

Though it wasn't "cheap", in retrospect I felt like the prices were fair, and considering the poverty all around there, fair was good enough. Getting there is a challenge but worth it: the taxi rides from Palmar Norte to Sierpe (where you get the boat to Bahia Drake) is a rip off, though this is true no matter where you are staying and shouldn't reflect on Corcovado Lodge. The taxi drivers know they have you in a bind, but what can you do? We thought the boat ride from Sierpe to Drake bay was great fun- a mix of tourists and locals, with baggage such as chicks in a box, a well wrapped TV, a banana tree sapling (we never did figure that one out). Once we were to Drake Bay, Carlos picked us up, and all our transportation from there out were included in our fees for daily activities.

Corcovado Lodge seems to have mixed reviews- with some people giving it 5 stars and other 1. I think some of the complaints are likely legit: 1. A few of the comments mentioned isolation/transportation issues- legit because the lodge is out of town and there is no public transportation. That is a trade off that we were willing to make. One day we walked into town and the beach as a full day trip, yes it is a long walk that most people wouldn't be willing to do, but for us it was a day adventure. Other times we had Carlos arrange transportation. 2. I think the other legit complaint was about Carlos being "flaky"; one day we had a pickup from town that was 1.5 hours later than we had arranged. We also had a screw up with our bus tickets (that Carlos had said would arrange) which cost us about $20 but I didn't let that ruin an otherwise great trip. Part of this I think is CR and the lifestyle down there- its hard I think for Americans (ourselves included) to just go with the flow; "the bus will come when it comes" still is how much of transportation outside of N.America and Europe works. 3. Cash only. Carlos explained we would either have to pay in advance with Pay Pal or cash when we got there. Once we got to the lodge it made sense- I think they are the last place (on the one road out of town- dirt of course) that had electricity. I suspect a hard adjustment again for many Americans to not whip out the credit card for everything!

Some complaints I don't think were legit: 1. This is NOT a luxury resort. It was never presented to us as such, but part of the problems I'm sure is expectations. It is a cool place to be have access to an amazing ecosystem. We had clean sheets, running water, clean towels. yes there were bugs, we were in the middle of the jungle. I thought the photos on their website were accurate, but I've also attached a few. 2. People complained about being charged for transportation from Drake Bay to the lodge. But this is clearly stated on their website. Once you get down there and realize how few public services (buses/taxis etc) there are it makes sense.

To give you a frame of reference we are two Americans who normally try to be on a moderate budget, usually camping and "do-it-yourself" adventures. But I was really glad to not be camping in this area, and for the first time ever hiking was actually glad to have a guide (Carlos)- we could not have easily found our way around the jungle- plus Carlos took the time to show us many birds, cool plants etc. We saw lots of wildlife including closeup white face monkeys. We got away from more of the "tourist" trap lodges that are right in Drakes Bay; once we got there I was glad to be staying out of town. We were willing to make the trade off of no access to nightlife in exchange for hanging out in the open air dining room at night practicing my Spanish with Juan, drink cheap beer, playing cards, or listening for night creatures.

In summary: a great place to stay if you want to be off the beaten track but still have a flush toilet, a fun adventure for folks willing to be a little flexible.

We stayed at this location for 9days and enjoyed every minute of it. The owners Marna & Carlos are very accommodating. The staff are so very friendly and are there for you when ever you may need them. The food was so good, we were there 9 days and did not have the same dinner twice. We were able to kayak, canoeing, snorkling, waterfall hike, horseback riding and even the canopy tour and I can't tell you which we liked the best, they were all so memorable. While we were there we met people from Thanks to Marna and her staff, we hope to go back.