Tapir Valley Nature Reserve

This was a highlight of our family trip! Our guide, Abner, was very informative about the different wildlife we saw. Plenty of frogs, a few snakes including the Fer-de-Lance, and a last minute appearance from a Tapir! The snack break was quite hefty including flavored drinks, fruit, mini empanadas, and cookies. Feeding the bats was amazing to watch as well! Highly recommend the night tour here. Just remember to book ahead and bring cash to pay since there is no cell service or electricity on site!

A must book tour. We had a great guide who really tried everything to point out the smallest animals, explaining trees and plants. Highlight of the evening were the 2 Tapirs we found.

But the Green Eyelash Pit Viper, the bats during the break (with wonderful pastries, fruit and drinks) and all other spotted animals made this a great evening and 3 hours well worth our time.

Don’t forget you need to reserve in advance and bring cash to pay the tour at their desk.

Booked the morning (3-hour) small group birding tour and it actually just ended up being my wife and I. It rained most of the time but that didn’t prevent Abner from finding good birds for us! Several lifers and even saw a Tapir, which is rare during the day from what I’m told. The preserve is beautiful and the limited number of visitors allowed makes for a more intimate nature experience. Highly recommended! All visits are by reservation only. Plan to do it!

Had a wonderful time on night tour with Donald! It has been a dream of mine to see a Tapir in the wild and we got to see 2 under the full moon! Also, snakes, lizards, red eye tree frog, bats, birds sleeping, and we even tracked the new species of frog which was discovered by Donald himself!
The snacks and stories shared by Donald also made it feel personal! Each time is different, so i would definitely do it again!

Amazing night time (5-8) family walk. We saw frogs, snakes, bats (I think?), and most importantly two tapirs. We were experiencing this magic as two families traveling together , with kids ages 6-10.
Important: make sure to have long socks with you for rainboots (mandatory for safety and for the sake of the ecosystem), and get a bigger size when trying them on. If you have a child that’s not comfortable in shoes that don’t belong to them, bring a pair with you - stores sell them everywhere in CR. Or even bring with you , just to be sure it’s a pleasant experience.

Tapirs, vipers, frogs, lizards, and more on our night walk. The private reserve backs to the national park and they work very hard to protect the animals that call the valley home. We had the opportunity to see two Tapir Valley Tree Frogs--only discovered and reported to the scientific community in the last 5 years. Unique to this area! Try to visit after a heavy afternoon rain, the animals become more active after it stops and the sun goes down. I'm very happy we did a night walk in Tapir Valley.
There was good communication on Whatsapp when we were not able to book same day reservations online.

Wow! Our guides (Donald, Anthony and Jonathan) were extremely knowledgeable and hospitable. They even fed the nine of us a light dinner that was delicious. They spoke great English and were able to answer any questions we had.

We booked a night hike (5:30pm) and it was raining, which increased the frog activity. Tapirs are more active at night so I recommend a night hike. We spent about three hours there and even lengthened the visit so that we could find one of the rarest frogs. You are not guaranteed to find a tapir but they are very good at tracking them (some of them have collars) and one of the guides would usually run off to look for them while we were looking at something else. When they found a tapir we would quietly power walk to see it. The first time we did this we still didn’t see it, but then we got a great view the following two times. I personally enjoyed that we had to work hard to search for them.

We saw a few tapirs, a sloth, and many frogs.

Donald actually discovered a new species of frog about a year ago and it only lives in Tapir Valley. It is called the Celeste or Tapir Valley Tree Frog, you can look it up.

This was my favorite part of my entire trip to CR. Please enjoy and support this incredible organization!

Wow! Awesome experience with Anthony as our guide! We had many targets and we surely hit more than expected. Frogs Including the Endemic Tapir Valley tree frog, snakes, lizards, insects, and birdswere seen. We covered a lot of ground, had some snacks then finished with tapir viewing. They supplied us with rubber boots and head lamps and we had a great hike!

Super awesome night tour experience. We were able to see two tapir’s, a few different frogs, snakes, insects and a sloth! The tour provided us with boots for the walk, a flashlight, and a snack midway. Our guide Jorge was super informative and knowledgeable about all the animals and the surrounding area. He answered all of our questions and did an amazing job at finding all the animals. Highly recommend!

We booked our trip hoping to see a number of frogs and snakes, and roll the dice on a chance to see the endangered Baird's Tapir. Anthony was an incredible guide that really put a lot of work in to show us as many of our target species as he could. We saw a number of frogs, snakes, and birds. Anthony found us an Eyelash Viper and Terciopelo, and the Tapir Valley Tree Frog. After some refreshments, we located a Baird's Tapir as we were finishing up the hike. I cannot speak highly enough of the value of this tour and the work they are doing here.

Amazing experience!!! Very friendly, chill, and accommodating guide for the night walk! We saw 4 different species of snakes (some very venemous and deadly but the guide kept us aware and safe at all times), many different very unique colorful frogs, a large lizard, many insects, birds (some sleeping) , and a tapir! Another guide saw a puma! The guide was very knowledgeable and told us all about the conservation efforts and techniques. He could point out various species animals based on sounds, etc. He pointed out the animal tracks, trails, dung. He went the extra mile and ran up and down the hills finding us a tapir and we found one! We got very close to it! It was perfect. I was honestly not even expecting to see that many cool snakes and frogs! If we didn't even see a tapir I was already very content and happy at everything we saw! But then we saw a tapir too! Amazing! We had empenadas, fruit and juice as well! The hike wasn't hard at all. Not very long or strenuous so anyone can do it. But we saw and learned so much! And they provide headlamps and boots. 10/10 experience. Definitely a highlight of our trip! PuraVida!!

Such a cool place. The guides were super knowledgeable and we saw so many tapirs, frogs, snakes, and some very cool bugs. They also provided some yummy snacks. Totally recommend if you have the time. It is a bit pricey though.

Wonderful nature reserve!!! I could have spent days here exploring.
So I went on a night tour to see the frogs and tapirs and morning bird tour. Both were excellent, led by experienced guides.
They provide good quality, comfortable wellington boots to keep the site free from outside plants and bacteria.
I highly recommend both tours, as you get to see so much. However, the night tour was a bit too quick a pace for us. We would have preferred a much slower pace, but I guess he was on a time schedule and wanted us to see as much as we would in the time allowed. 2 hours goes very fast.

This place was definitely a highlight of our journey! We learned so much about nature, rainforest, wildlife, and tapirs! During our night jungle tour, we had an opportunity to observe snakes, frogs, toads, birds, and tapirs in their natural environment! It was such a unique and incredible experience. Abner was amazing and he elevated the entire experience to the next level. We keep telling everyone about this place and it's a must do if you like nature! Thank you for everything!

I booked this trip last minute (by calling their number directly), so really appreciate the staff making the time for us and accommodating a later starting time for our group. We had a great time during the night walk, learning from our guide and seeing different flora and fauna. Of course, the highlight is that we got to see two Tapir up close towards the end. This tour is expensive as compared to other night tours, but the team runs a very professional operation. We took several other tours in the area and when we mentioned Tapir Valley, all of our other guides held them as 'the best night tour in the area, if not the country'. Thanks to the team for a great experience and for taking the care to keep the area safe and comfortable for the animals.

Fantastic night walk experience. I’ve done several in Costa Rica and this puts them all to shame. Our guide Jorge was extremely knowledgeable and the reserve itself is focused on rehabilitating and studying tapiers, frogs and many other animals.

This was definitely the highlight of our trip to Costa Rica. We did a family night tour and our guide Anthony was incredible. We feel so fortunate to have seen 3 Tapir, the elusive Celeste frog, many other frogs, 2 snakes, and so much more! Anthony was so knowledgeable and made us feel safe the entire time. When we got there he gave us all boots and we quickly saw why the rubber boots were so important. This was a very educational evening for our family and seeing the wildlife up close and personal was something we won't forget. We wish we were staying longer so we could come back and see the birds during the day. Thank you for such a wonderful experience.

Did a night walk it was brilliant. Tapir, frogs, roads, snakes, stick insects it was amazing. The sounds alone are incredible.

Easily accessible trails and a great guide with amazing eyesight it’s a great experience.

This is by far the best wildlife experience we have ever had. We booked a night tour and the 6am bird tour for the following morning. Being June it was raining when we arrived. Donald was our night guide. His enthusiasm and passion for all the fauna on his property makes this trip memorable. We saw many species of frogs, insects, sleeping birds, spiders and …. a mom and baby tapir. Quietly eating while we watched at a safe distance. It is an endangered species so a sighting is rare. What a beautiful experience I will never forget. The next morning our guide Abner took us to the birding platform where we can observe so many species of birds coming to feed on the bananas. We saw 2 kinds of Tucans and many many other tropical birds. If you want an experience outside the usual tourist traps this is authentic. Thanks for sharing your amazing property with those who can appreciate it.

We had an incredible time at the night your at Tapir Valley. We saw 4 tapirs (including a baby) extremely close and learned about the conservation efforts, the trees which they are helping repopulate through restoration efforts. We learned about and saw their newly discovered and classified frog and many other frogs. Including the red eyed tree frog. At the end of our tour we got to see the eyelash pit viper. They gave us delicious snacks including fresh fruit and homemade bean and cheese empanadas. It was dinner with a show since we watched the bats dancing around the sky. It was awesome. Our guide was incredibly informed and explained all of the efforts and answered our questions with ease.
They did mention that we were lucky and that the tapirs are more active at dusk during full moon periods. I hope everyone who comes has the luck we did. It was an incredible experience and the highlight of an already fantastic trip!