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Esquipulas Rainforest Reserve: A Private Birding Tour in Costa Rica’s Less-Crowded Sanctuary
4.8
23 Ratings
Quepos
Experience a private birding tour in Costa Rica's less-crowded sanctuary, the Esquipulas Rainforest Reserve. Observe and photograph iconic colorful birds without the overwhelming crowds of other tourist places.
Duration:
4 hours
Cancellation:
1 day
learn more
Highlights
- Esquipulas Rainforest - Geographically located at the base of the Talamanca’s mountains ridge, the Esquipulas Rainforest property (133.5 acres) is immersed between picturesque evergreen trees, flowering plants, epiphytes, lianas, palms, and fruit trees, all surrounded by patches of pristine primary forest, secondary growth, forest edges, coffee fields, and pasture lands, as a result, you can observe or photograph a variety of species such as sparrows, tanagers, euphonias, trogons, hummingbirds, and occasionally hawks, falcons, even hawk-eagles.
Far from the standard tourist activities, this off-the-beaten-path birding place is popular between local birders, naturalist guides, and wildlife photographers. Today, we are proud to offer a birding tour situated to travelers with any knowledge or birding experience, whether you are a beginner, a keen, or a professional birder we will make sure to cover as many areas during our performance to ensure a successful birding tour.
As true bird guides, we will describe to you the most important characteristics of the species found throughout our 3-4 hour tour, emphasizing the orientation of our tour according to your request (bird watching or bird photography).
What's Included
- Entry pass to Esquipulas Rainforest Reserve
- Use of facilities, bird feeders, and trails
- Hotel pickup and drop-off (Manuel Antonio and Quepos hotels)
- ATX-BTX Swarovski spotting scopes
- HD-quality videos and photos captured by guides
- Bilingual tour guide (Certified)
- Breakfast included
What's Not Included
- Bottled water
- Binoculars
- Transportation from accommodations outside Quepos and Manuel Antonio areas.
- Gratuities
Additional Information
Seize the chance to watch and capture images of Costa Rica’s most emblematic vibrant birds such as Macaws, Toucans, Hummingbirds, Cotingas, Manakins, Trogons, and the extraordinary King Vulture.
Delight in the exploration of our resident avifauna away from the throng of conventional tourist sites and activities within Manuel Antonio.
Esquipulas Rainforest is a privately preserved space that doesn’t permit access to the general populace without a prior booking.
All of our tour guides are equipped with the correct credentials to craft a memorable birding experience expertly. Private tours afford us the opportunity to commit the necessary time and presence to each participant.
- A light cotton t-shirt, tanktop, leggings or shorts are ideal to wear during the walk, comfortable clothing is recommended (long-sleeved shirts and long pants are not necessary) Dress in muted colors (brown, green, etc.) Think blending in!
- Closed-toe footwear (sneakers, hiking boots, Keens or Tevas) is required to participate in the tour (No beach sandals or flip flops allowed)
- Pack sunscreen, and bug repellent, (try to find an organic one)
- Please bring rain protective gear for your camera and optics, rain jacket, and umbrella (early May to late December)
Location
Manuel's Tours. Costa Rica.
If you are staying in Manuel Antonio or Quepos, we recommend our main office as a meeting point, but if you are driving from outside of Quepos (Jaco or Dominical) we recommend meeting us at the Delta La Managua gas station, as it appears on Google Maps: https://maps.app.goo.gl/AaTwib9kj4J3SsVBA
Cancellation Policy
For a full refund, cancel at least 24 hours before the scheduled departure time.
Customer Ratings
4.8
(23 Ratings)
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Angela_k
Apr 5, 2024
Awesome Birding Experience - My husband, daughter and I really enjoyed the private birding tour in the Esquipulas Rainforest. Our guide Dylan was very knowledgeable about the birds we saw and shared a lot of interesting information. Our driver Carlos was also excellent at spotting birds even along the drive up and back down from the rain forest. We were picked up promptly at our hotel at the 5am pick-up time. Getting up early was totally worth it to get to see so many amazing birds. We saw so many cool birds and were able to view them through Dylan's telescope and also take close up photos using our phone's camera through the telescope. We also brought our own binoculars and regular cameras. The reserve was beautiful with a shaded viewing area to bird-watch while waiting for breakfast, which was delicious. The hike on the reserve was also amazing with beautiful views. There were steep areas so make sure to wear sturdy shoes. We really enjoyed the day and would highly recommend the experience to anyone wanting a personalized, private tour away from the more crowded attractions. Thank you Dylan and Carlos for a great adventure!
Review provided by Viator
Evahn562ym
Mar 11, 2024
Unique experience at this beautiful rainforest reserve - We were recommended this tour by somebody else, and were very happy we went. The team was very accommodating and tailored our private tour to our needs. We enjoyed watching a very large number of amazing birds at Esquipulas in the morning, it was absolutely packed with beautiful birds like aracari, toucans, various tanagers, hummingbirds and dozens of others. We then saw some magnificent king vultures and also walked further in the forest with our guide to see and hear dozens more interesting birds, one of the most fascinating being red-capped manakin.
On our way back we even had a bit of a bonus: seeing a common potoo!
We really enjoyed Esquipulas and would definitely recommend it for nature lovers travelling to Costa Rica.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Anna_p
Jan 16, 2024
Great birdwatching with Manuel - Ive had the best time birdwtaching with Manuel! He is so passionate about birds, knows all the good spots to see them. We went to a cool ecolodge, had delicious breakfast and coffee there and went onto various trails to look for birds! I got so many great pictures, learned a lot from him and overall very very happy with this experience! Pura vida!
Review provided by Viator
Celie_k
Jan 1, 2024
Unforgettable - Manuel was AMAZING. We saw birds I never could have even hoped to see. We got up early, saw birds, had a fantastic breakfast at a paradise-like hotel/restaurant in a gorgeous campground, and then continued on seeing more birds in Esquipulas. If you are a birder, I cannot recommend this enough for some absolute GEMS (common potoo, turquoise cotinga!!!!! Insane!!! King vulture, hummingbirds, parrots, trogons, etc) but if you are new to birding it was amazing. Beautiful views the whole way, great conversation, a lovely time. Advice: keep your own list of species you see, wear close-toed shoes, bring water.
Review provided by Viator
Rcalaimo
Dec 31, 2023
Amazing Bioethical Birding Tour - Amazing birdwatching tour. Manuel knows a lot about the wildlife and has an amazing respect for bioethics. We saw a lot of birds that I have never seen in my life, including a Potoo that Manuel showed us on the way to the tour (only because I asked him if we could find one). I would recommend Manuel to anyone who wants a unique nature-filled experience because of his dedication to the craft of guiding, as well as his ability to inspire future generations of nature guides (aka his son who I was so lucky to meet).
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Hirokis647
Dec 30, 2023
Great tour - 非常に良いツアーでした!マヌエルアントニオ国立公園は非常に有名ですが非常に多くの人がいます。このツアーはプライベートに野鳥を観察できます。ガイドは鳥の鳴き声を頼りに野鳳を探してくれ、珍しい野鳥も確認することができました。ぜひ時間を取って参加する価値があります!
Very good tour! Manuel Antonio National Park is very famous but very crowded. This tour is a private bird watching experience. The guide searched for birds based on their songs and we were able to identify some rare birds. It's definitely worth taking the time to join!
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Nancy_r
Oct 31, 2023
Worth every penny if you want to find birds - Manuel was very knowledgeable and enthusiastic about finding the birds we were looking for. He took us all over. By the end of the morning we saw at least 58 different species. A shout out to his driver, Rodney, who is also a great spotter. The two of them were a great team.
Review provided by Viator
Markthesharkohio
Oct 24, 2023
Birds birds and more birds and more birds! - The best tour by far!! Gisele picked us up early in the morning and let me tell you, birds galore! Every color. Every size. Gisele is so helpful at pointing out what each type of bird each is. I have never seen so many birds in my life. We did this tour twice and I took over 13000 photos. No joke! Gisele took us on a tour of the property and it was so beautiful. Did I mention you get an incredible meal as well. I would put this tour as one of the best I’ve ever had. So much to see. The property is just beautiful. The mountains are lush and it’s a bit cooler as well. You get a very educated guide that not only tells you about the birds, but she also tells you where there at. The best part of the tour is that Gisele was in no hurry and literally made us feel like we could be there all day. We will be booking with them on our next trip as they have some pretty spectacular accommodations. This is a must people!! Don’t regret not booking this.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Carolyn_b
Sep 13, 2023
Fantastic day birding! - Well what a day! Both Manuel and Johann were delightfully interesting birding hosts. Can't even guess how many different species Johann located and identified. Several hours of birding fun and a delicious, traditional breakfast and fruit! So informative! Happy to see a scarlet macaw, several yellow throated toucans, woodpeckers, hummingbirds, hawks, and so many others!
Review provided by Viator
Simoncj1169fd
Feb 14, 2024
Great if you are a fully fledged twitcher - Our guide was really knowledgeable. Unfortunately we were not. I don't think he really understand the needs of beginners.
We spent a lot of time getting to the reserve and were very hungry. Apart from eating there we did not explore the reserve.
Disappointing as this trip could have been so much better.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
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