Curi-Cancha Reserve
Curi-Cancha Reserve
4.5
7:00 AM - 3:00 PM
Monday
7:00 AM - 3:00 PM
Tuesday
7:00 AM - 3:00 PM
Wednesday
7:00 AM - 3:00 PM
Thursday
7:00 AM - 3:00 PM
Friday
7:00 AM - 3:00 PM
Saturday
7:00 AM - 3:00 PM
Sunday
7:00 AM - 3:00 PM
About
To protect of natural resources of the planet operating through an economically and environmentally sustainable business that preserves local forests and biodiversity, benefits people of the area, and provides the highest quality experience for the visitor. Walk along beautiful natural trails with an experienced guide and see different species of birds and mammals. Learn about the amazing diversity of the cloud forest.
Duration: 2-3 hours
Meets animal welfare guidelines
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Admission tickets
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$122.00
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See what travelers are saying

  • Penny T
    Harpenden, United Kingdom88 contributions
    5.0 of 5 bubbles
    A fabulous bird-hunting location
    Our guide Kevin was excellent. We could definitely share his enthusiasm and excitement when he found any unusual bird or creature to view. Background information was given to us too for most creatures. I’d most definitely recommend booking a guide, as you’d struggle to find any of the smaller birds (or larger) without expert knowledge.
    Visited November 2023
    Traveled with friends
    Written November 30, 2023
  • bugdoc1
    Cumberland, Maryland127 contributions
    4.0 of 5 bubbles
    Quiet reserve
    We saw surprisingly few birds, although we had an excellent guide, Jorge Alpinzar. Enjoyed seeing the different parts of the preserve and cloud forest. Jorge told us a lot about the plants there as well as the habitat, and showed us tiny orchids.
    Visited December 2023
    Traveled with family
    Written December 27, 2023
  • MarkO
    Naperville, Illinois37 contributions
    4.0 of 5 bubbles
    Three hour hike with lots flora and fauna
    We took a 3-hour afternoon tour with Jorge through the Reserve. He was very helpful and knowledgeable about the flora and fauna. We saw everything from micro orchids to large trees to hummingbirds to an agouti to a motmot. We learned a lot about the reserve itself, and learned that next time, to see more wildlife when it's more active, we should plan a morning tour. Overall, this was a very enjoyable visit and we will likely return.
    Visited December 2023
    Traveled with family
    Written December 28, 2023
  • Ann T
    Wilmslow, United Kingdom84 contributions
    5.0 of 5 bubbles
    Excellent quiet park with superb guide
    I went on a three hour nature walk this morning. . David was an excellent guide and we were a small group of 6. He had a new telephoto lens on a tripod which allowed us to see the birds up close and take photos. We were lucky enough to see a hummingbird in her nest and a toucan. After a tour I walked further enjoying the forest and seeing 6 white nosed coatis. A very good experience in a very quiet reserve.
    Visited January 2024
    Traveled solo
    Written January 16, 2024
  • Matthew A
    Reading, Pennsylvania118 contributions
    5.0 of 5 bubbles
    Great birdwatching
    Very nice trails and rainforest…close to Monteverde but apparently better bird viewing because there are open areas. We spent an entire day here from open to close and would’ve been happy spending 1-2 more days here. The birding was excellent! Beautiful place.
    Visited January 2024
    Traveled as a couple
    Written January 23, 2024
  • Greenlakereener
    Vancouver, Canada713 contributions
    5.0 of 5 bubbles
    Great Place To See Wildlife…
    We were lucky enough to have Carlos as our guide and he really contributed to making our day here an amazing experience! He is so enthusiastic, is so determined to spot wildlife for you, he knows what to look for, and makes sure your walk through the forest is the best! Even if you don’t spot much wildlife, it’s a beautiful place to walk. But we were incredibly lucky and we saw toucans, 3 peccaries, 15 coatis, hummingbirds, spider monkeys, a tarantula, motmots, crested guans, parrots and other colourful birds. It was a spectacular day! If you are lucky enough to get Carlos as your guide, you’ll be guaranteed a wonderful experience! Wildlife viewing cannot be guaranteed, but the possibilities here are endless!
    Visited January 2024
    Traveled as a couple
    Written February 8, 2024
  • Travelbugreviewer
    69 contributions
    5.0 of 5 bubbles
    Beautiful private reserve - great for birds and animals
    This is my favorite reserve in the Monteverde area. Entrance is near Stella's Bakery. Lovely area to walk around. Very varied scenery in the reserve, forest, open fields, planted flower areas and woodland. The trails are well marked, some are flatter than others. Great place to see animals and birds. Early morning is great, but you see all sorts of things all day long. Love the tree tunnel and the flower gardens in the center were extremely pretty. Best if you go round with a guide as they have eagle eyes. (We went with Esteban on a previous trip and he was excellent and came highly recommended (10 / 10). There are toilets at the reserve, but no cafe, but you can leave the reserve and reenter on the same day. There are seats and tables for picnics. Opens at 7am and closes around 3pm. They'd just enlarged the parking lot in November. $40 for two.
    Visited November 2023
    Traveled as a couple
    Written February 9, 2024
  • MItravelwriter
    Detroit, Michigan45 contributions
    5.0 of 5 bubbles
    Take a natural history tour to see wildlife and learn
    This wonderful private reserve is under the radar and not as crowded as the other parks. I highly suggest taking a natural history tour. Your guide will help you find wildlife and teach you so much about the jungle and its inhabitants. With our guide’s help, we saw spider monkeys, agouti, toucanettes, a hummingbird nest, a tarantula and microscopic orchids.
    Visited February 2024
    Traveled with family
    Written February 16, 2024
  • Laura C
    6 contributions
    5.0 of 5 bubbles
    Great way to see beautiful birds and the Quetzal bird!
    Our family had a wonderful morning visit at this reserve. We were able to see a variety of different birds and even got to see the Quetzal bird. I would recommend hiring a guide to help you find the birds unless you are a well trained bird watcher. We hired a guide and were appreciative of her knowledge of the flowers, fauna and birds we saw throughout our visit.
    Visited February 2024
    Traveled with family
    Written February 27, 2024
  • Rebecca E
    Montreal, Canada32 contributions
    5.0 of 5 bubbles
    Wonderful educative birding visit to Curi Cancha
    We had a wonderful experience at Curi Cancha with our guide Roberto. Our group had all already seen the Quetzal so we decided to focus on exploring other birding activity in the reserve. He was extremely knowledgeable about birds, plants, animals of the rainforest and his passion was felt across our small group of four. We saw some unique and interesting activity such as a hummingbird nest, coati, agouti, hawk and monkeys as well as several other birds. We booked the 8am tour with a Curi Cancha directly via WhatsApp 2 days before. $50 total for guide and entry per person. Our tour ended up going 3.5 hours as we spotted some interesting birds on our way out and spent some time trying to wait for toucan activity. It is an easy walk with large paths and mix of new and old growth as well as open areas which gives you the chance to see a wide variety of birds and wildlife.
    Visited March 2024
    Traveled as a couple
    Written March 17, 2024
These reviews are the subjective opinion of Tripadvisor members and not of TripAdvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews.

Most Recent: Reviews ordered by most recent publish date in descending order.

Detailed Reviews: Reviews ordered by recency and descriptiveness of user-identified themes such as wait time, length of visit, general tips, and location information.

Popular mentions

4.5
4.5 of 5 bubbles1,731 reviews
Excellent
1,350
Very good
283
Average
68
Poor
19
Terrible
11

laraBrussels
Overijse, Belgium301 contributions
3.0 of 5 bubbles
Jan 2020 • Couples
Why only 3 stars? Let us face it, 20 dollar (without a guide!) for a forest walk is a bit over the top. That is more than what we paid for the hanging bridges in Arenal (as seniors we pay 5 dollar less there) which is more interesting, needs maintenance for a complicated infrastructure, etc.
The only highlight was the place where the humjing birds are fed but you can get that for free in the colibri cafe at the entrance of the Monte Verde Reserve.
We went to Curi Cancha because it is less crowded. That part was true, but it is overpriced.
Be sure to have passport of all participants as they ask that for each individual. In all, reception at other reserves is quite a step higher in friendliness to tourists.
Written January 20, 2020
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

Yorkspuds
Leeds, UK452 contributions
5.0 of 5 bubbles
Jan 2020
t was so worth setting off at 6am to start our guided walk with such an experienced guide as Giovanni. He was professional, patient and knew the reserve extremely well. He has an encyclopaedic knowledge of the birds, flora and fauna. We saw too many birds to mention here but all the usual suspects were around and he made several stops to set up his top quality telescope so we could get a better view.
We always knew we would be lucky to see a Quetzal but we did find a female near the top of the reserve. We were making our way back to the entrance when Giovanni spotted something. We followed in his wake and lo and behold, there was a male Quetzal in all his glory, perching quite contentedly for us to take a photo - a magical moment.
There are modern toilets at the entrance and a couple of small toilet blocks in the reserve itself.
We think a number of people do this reserve on their own, but for us Giovanni was absolutely brilliant at spotting birds that we would never have seen without his expert help. How he spotted two owls snuggled together high up in canopy, I have no idea, but he did. Highly recommended.
Written January 30, 2020
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

Florida_family_kids
Ocala, FL389 contributions
3.0 of 5 bubbles
Feb 2020 • Friends
Nice walk. No animals .few birds. The crossover bridge and view points are beautiful very little wild life so only two birds might be seasonal maintenance of the trails was poor had to climb over trees twice and walk up in water often. Cost $25 if you enjoy walks with nature and plants I would recommend if you’re looking for animals not so much
Written February 22, 2020
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

lilyazalea8
Wellington, FL136 contributions
5.0 of 5 bubbles
Mar 2021 • Friends
My sister and I have mobility issues but we love Costa Rica and it’s amazing nature . David provided us a wonderful tour in an electric Golfcart we were able to go on so many of the trails and we saw the elusive quetzal bird here ! In fact we saw one female and several males so beautiful 🤩 this place is un crowded and easily accessible I highly recommend you add this to your Monteverde area stops .waddle bill birds with their bell sounds really interesting....thank you David for a truly amazing day !
Written April 25, 2021
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

Jason S
21 contributions
3.0 of 5 bubbles
Jan 2020 • Couples
I don't understand the race reviews about this place. It's a pretty generic forest, nothing special. We done a bird watching tour, saw a few cool birds but nothing spectacular. Think the $20pp entrance fee is steep too. For two people the two hour tour cost us nearly $100 including hiring binoculars - not worth it. Our tour guide however was excellent and he's earned the place a third star.
Written January 25, 2020
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

Living Life
4 contributions
5.0 of 5 bubbles
Mar 2020
We were so happy that we decided to be included in a guided tour that was just heading out. The extra money was well worth the views of all the birds and animals that we saw including a male and female Resplendent Quetzal and Spider Monkeys. The guide took pictures on our cell phones giving us great closeups of these wonderful creatures. The guide was also very informative about everything involving the cloud forest.
Written March 15, 2020
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

lsjacquart
3 contributions
5.0 of 5 bubbles
Feb 2020
My husband and I enjoyed a private 4.5 hour bird watching tour with David who works for the Curi Cancha Reserve as a guide. We were deeply inspired by his knowledge, enthusiasm and commitment to creating a memorable experience for us in this beautiful, fairly new reserve.It is much less crowded than Monteverde Cloud Forest preserve and is very good for bird watching because it has primary and secondary forest as well as open areas. Shortly after we finished the tour, David sent an email detailing the bird species we saw or heard (64) and how many of each. He helped us get some remarkable pictures and videos through his spotting scope. Meeting a young man like David lifts our spirits and makes us optimistic about the future of our planet. Thank you, David. Larri and Steve Jacquart
Written February 10, 2020
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

Nancy K
Lancaster, PA54 contributions
5.0 of 5 bubbles
Feb 2020 • Couples
We did a self guided hike here...twice The trails are nice and wide. The area is set up with some open areas with trees and shrubs to attract birds. While the parking lot was full we rarely saw other people away from the open pond and avocado tree area. This area though was great to see a variety of birds including quetzals. The coolest thing we came across was a group of paccary. We had the chance to speak with some of the guides later. I was very impressed by their knowledge of the area and people skills. This was the best hike we did in monteverde.
Written February 22, 2020
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

Jay K
Ottawa, Canada100 contributions
5.0 of 5 bubbles
Jan 2020 • Couples
This was one of the highlights of our one month visit to Costa Rica. The trails were easy to walk, well maintained, and traversed different habitats with different things to see in each. A local said this was one of the few places where we were likely to see a Resplendent Quetzal and we were not dissppointed.

What really made the trip so special was our guide Roberto. He was obviously very knowledgeable about the local flora and fauna, helped me see many birds and plants that I would otherwise have missed, spoke English and had lots of interesting facts to share about what we saw. He brought along a high powered scope that made a huge difference in seeing the birds and used my phone camera on the scope to take great ("professional quality") close-up photos and videos. He also knew how to get the most out of my phone camera, for example using slow motion for the hummingbird shots. He also sent me a list of the birds we'd seen. I booked the afternoon tour and saw 28 different birds including the Quetzal, a mottled owl, and beautiful Trogons and Redstarts. I must have seen eight different kinds of spectacular hummingbirds at the hummingbird feeders.

One word of advice. The website says to bring insect repellant and I wish I had done do.
Written February 11, 2020
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

Maia
6 contributions
5.0 of 5 bubbles
Feb 2023
I went on an early morning birdwatching tour and it was worth every penny and then some! My tour guide was David Madrigal R and I couldn't recommend him enough. Thanks to his expertise we saw 52 different species, including a Northern Emerald Toucanet, and several types of hummingbird. He put up with all my questions and was extremely knowledgeable about everything avian and he also brought an extremely high quality scope through which we got excellent photos on our phones. There was a Resplendent Quetzal in the area that we couldn't quite see but he told us that it takes about twenty minutes for them to metabolize their food so she would most likely return to the avocado tree we were next to in if we could just be patient for a few more minutes. Like clockwork she appeared and we got excellent looks at one of the most beautiful birds I have ever seen! I would have walked right past if it weren't for David. The park was also a great alternative to the Cloud Forest as it wasn't nearly as busy, and my birding group was only five people which was just perfect.
Written March 11, 2023
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

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