Arenal Natura Ecological Park

Excellent experience. This eco park/trail is a different from the others in that they have a butterfly conservatory guaranteeing sightings of the elusive Morpheus butterfly. Meyling, our guide joined us to view the reptile areas offering snakes, many varieties of frogs, turtles, crocs and caimans. Knowledge, and delightful staff brought us umbrellas for the at times heavy rainfall that is common in December. The trail is fantastic and well marked with ample seating areas to enjoy the rainforest. Sheryl, Meylink and the rest of the staff is charming and helpful. They advised us they offer rides back to LaFortuna for $10 which we gladly accepted. Enjoy this…very special.

We just did the night walk and it was a very worthwhile experience. Ashley was a great guide and was able to point out animals and insects that we never would have noticed on our own. We saw frogs, spiders, snakes, lizards, bullet ants, a praying mantis, a few other awesome things - like an olingo, which apparently was super rare to see.

My family of five enjoyed a private tour of this special reserve with our tour guide Dennis. Dennis is so knowledgeable about the animals in the park and provided a fun, customized tour. His English was very good and he was very patient with the many questions from our young son. We leaned a great deal about the frogs, snakes and crocodiles on site and loved the experience in the butterfly pavilion. Dennis went above and beyond to help us get great photos of the many animals. If you are looking for an opportunity to learn about Costa Rica’s broad biodiversity up close, this is a great tour to take. The park is an easy drive from the Arenal Volcano area.

Most thoughtful tour guides and fun experience!

The guides were so considerate. My taxi driver was 20 min late and also took me to the wrong place. So we ended up 30 minutes late yet the guides waited for me and were very understanding.
Additionally, my camera phone broke, so the guides took lots of nice photos for me and sent them to me after. How amazingly kind of them.

I ended up being the only person to sign up for the tour and got to explore the park with the 2 guides at our own pace. It was so fun to walk around exploring and seeing so many creatures you usually can’t see in the day. We saw a lot of different frogs, a couple snakes, and lots of different insects.

Overall. What a special and fun adventure! Highly recommend!!!

We went to the night walk. There were only two of us on the tour, so instead of a group tour, we ended up in the private tour. The whole park was empty and only for us. This was awesome! The guide was very knowledgeable and provided us with a lot of information. We saw many spices of frogs and toads. Before the tour, we didn't even know the difference. We also saw a couple of snacks, Lizard and armadillo. Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!

We were directed here by our tour guides recommended and now we know exactly why!
Our guide was Elias (I really hope I have spelt that correctly!) and he was fantastic. The experience from start to finish was brilliant and he had us gripped and laughing from start to finish! We learnt so much about the creatures of the night and were lucky to see so many frogs 🐸 in particular, an incredibly close and happy sloth 🦥 and even some rather ominous crocodile eyes 🐊.
I would definitely recommend both the place and Elias.
Love that they use some of the money to fund such an incredible eco park to look after nature too.

Gracias !

We decided to stop here on a whim and I'm so glad we did! They have such a great collection of native reptiles and amphibians!! There are a lot of birds on this property also and the guides were very nice and knowledgeable.

We did a night tour at 6 pm tonight and our guide was not only knowledgeable but made sure that everyone was taken care of.

He took the time to find rare and hard to spot wildlife which made for a fantastic tour. We saw a viper, rare frogs, crocodiles, bullet ants, and an armadillo. He was very knowledgeable, we learned so much.

He took the time to take great pictures on several people's phones
He even noticed if a flashlight was starting to go slightly dimmer and offered his own to me nstead. At the end of the tour we had not arranged transportation and he called over 5 places to make sure we got a ride back to town.

Thank you for a great night, much appreciated!

This is a great place to see the tree frogs you've seen pictures of, but can't catch in nature because they're TINY! If you do the guided tour they open the glass cages so you can get good picture without glare, and you WILL see every frog! SO worth while!!! Also works as a great rainy day activity. You will get wet, but less so than a long hike in yhe wilderness, and no mud. Highly recommend.

We did the night tour and wow was it amazing. We wandered the ground searching for all sorts of things that go bump in the night and we certainly found them. Multiple varieties of frogs, bats and insects. Doing the tour at night when certain creatures are a lot more active really enhances the experience. The guides were knowledgeable friendly and genuinely interested in ecology. It's a bit pricey but I think it was worth the trip.

Great experience walking through this park. We went at night time. This gave us a good opportunity to see reptiles, amphibians, and insects. There was many different critters to see at night time. Thoroughly enjoyed it here.

Wow, wow, and WOW! We loved our stay in Arenal. It was the most beautiful place I've ever been. With lush forest and a beautiful volcano I couldn't have picked a better place to honeymoon.
We used Costa Rica Vacations to book our whole time in Costa Rica and it was just fantastic. Every driver we had, every tour guide, phenomenal.

Natura Ecological Park wasn’t on our itinerary but a change in our schedule allowed us to spend a morning here. We really enjoyed our guided tour (it’s worth the cost to hire a guide as they are able to point out many of the animals that are nearly impossible to find) though the park. After the guided portion of the tour we were free to roam the trails on the property and enjoy the natural setting.

Go. Worth every single penny.Go with your whole heart. Take in the nature. Cleanse your soul. Do the zipline!!!!!! The walk through the park has signs that tell you to breathe in, think of your joy, not just ," this tree is a _____, that flower is a ______." This park wants you reconnect with nature. It wants you to listen to the forest, to your heart and to the feelings you feel while there. Go. Go. Go. Bish. Go!

Amazing experience!!! We were able to pet a Toucan!!!! Very cool!! It started raining and one of the employees came out with umbrellas for us! This place is full of good vibes!

It's so nice to see nature outside of cages and in its natural state. We loved it.

My wife and I had a great time on the night hike which was guided by Denis. He was very knowledgeable and informative about the frogs, snakes, and other animals around us. I would recommend this hike to anyone and hope that you get Denis as your guide!!

So many animals! Very nice to visit. Loved the butterflies 🦋 There were so many different types of them.

Review by my 11 year old son:
Dear Natura Eco Park. First thing i'd like to say is i loved all your animals. You guys are amazing to be honest you should have even more visitors! You guys have amazing eyes because you managed to spot a sloth. I would have walked pass without realizing.. Thanks for helping us spot the frogs when they hid in plain sight. The butterflies were my favorite spot. Hope you guys have a wonderful time touring and guiding people and only have wonderful reviews about this place.

A really good nature reserve that is good to explore during the day but a wonderful place to visit at night. Our guide on the night tour, Carlos, was very well informed and enthusiastic about the reserve. This is well with a visit.