Aninga Lodge

This place is very different to most hotels we've ever stayed at. No windows in the rooms, only mesh to prevent insects coming in (there are curtains for privacy), a ceiling fan to try to keep you cool and the wooden room buildings are built on stilts to prevent damage to the rain forest. The rooms, restaurant, swimming pool and bar are all linked by walkways through the forest. We really enjoyed the experience although it did make clothes a bit damp. There's a nice restaurant serving more than decent food and a pleasant bar by a turtle shaped pool. The wildlife here is all around you and we saw an abundant amount during our stay.

Visited here for a couple of nights as part of our travel around Costa Rica. The canal trip pickup by the lodge is about 1.5 hours and is where the adventure begins - the guide and driver were great spotters and we'd seen crocodile, monkeys and loads of birds before even arriving at the lodge!
On arrival we were welcomed with a refreshing drink, which is what is needed with the 32C plus temperatures and high humidity!
The rooms are individual lodges, which don't have glass in the windows, just insect netting - obviously no air conditioning so they're the same temperature as the jungle surrounding. But it does mean you get to hear the jungle sounds all night which can be quite relaxing, although the howler monkeys start making noise around 5am! The monkeys actually spent some time right above our lodge on a couple of occasions, very close and great to watch. The main lodge has WiFi and most of the lodges can also still access that from in them.
The food is all buffet, but surprisingly pretty good and a good choice that differs each time, and drinks are reasonably priced too considering the location.
The pool is in the shape of a turtle, and has a small jacuzzi area as well as a good sized swimming area, and there's a bar that does very good cocktails with fresh local fruit too.
The lodge staff were very friendly, and the organised excursions were very good - canal trip early in the morning to spot animals, and a walk in the afternoon too, saw loads including sloth, toucan, Caymen and crocodile.
Overall this was a real sense of living in the jungle and as close to wild Costa Rica as you can get, definitely recommend it - just make sure you prepare for the intense heat and humidity, as there's no escaping it anywhere the whole time you stay!

Amazing lodge literally in the jungle. Good tours included with the booked package. The food was pretty decent and the service really friendly. The howler monkeys above were something else! Lots of animals around.

Absolutely loved our stay here! Feels like staying right in a rainforest! We honestly couldn't believe how much wildlife we saw here in just two days, iguanas, butterflies, two different types of monkeys, sloths, toucans the lot! Often right outside our room (102). The nature trail is well worth doing with a guide and by yourself, we also opted for the additional hike to the high view point which we felt was worth it and also the excursion to see turtles nesting, that was amazing too, saw a giant green sea turtle laying her eggs, covering them and then returning go the sea, amazing!
The food here was good, though my only negative would be that there could be more options available, I don't eat fish or beef and there were not really many other options one night so I had a very basic dinner of rice and vegetables that night! I understand there were not many guests staying when we were so maybe why less options I am not sure.

You should be aware,there are SO many spiders in this area around the grounds 🤣 have to watch your face walking around sometimes to not walk into webs lol!!

My only other negative was that we had a huntsman spider in our room one evening, and another spider appeared in the shower with me, also a couple of beetles, thankfully my partner caught them and took them out or I would not be sleeping very well!! Orher than those,no other insects in the room. Expected that some creepy crawlies would get in given the abundance of wildlife around, but maybe some better bug proofing needed in the room 🤣

We were not too hot in the room to sleep at night, was just right with the ceiling fan :)

Coffee/tea station open all the time was a nice touch.

Thanks to the wonderful staff and our fabulous guide noel for a great experience x

Favorite part of my Costa Rica trip, really felt like living in the rainforest. Special highlight is the early morning boat tour, the guide was very knowledgeable and pointed out animals that we wouldn't have seen otherwise. Our tour guide Margel was outstanding! Can't wait to come back!

This is one quite a few places that they call lodges in Tortegüero. I don't really know how this lodge compares to some of the others but access is by boat only. There is no air conditioning anywhere and it was very very hot in humid. Perhaps none of the largest have air conditioning. Having said that our room was nice, it had two beds and a fan and a decent bathroom. There was no refrigerator and you had to go to the front desk or the bar to get ice. Which of course did not last very long. The lighting in the room was very dim. The highlight was seeing monkeys in the trees right outside of our room! The area is teeming with wildlife!

Tranquil small hotel in the jungle. The bungalows are comfortable and spacious. Food is varied enough for a few days stay and there are plenty of activities available. We had a guided walk to spot the wildlife literally on our doorstep, a guided boat trip through the backwaters and a trip to tortuguero village. Pool is the right temperature for the Caribbean and bar staff make a good cocktail. The best bit though is the wildlife, something so special to wake to howler monkeys!

Amazing lodge in Tortuguero. Very comfortable considering the location and the fact it's only accessible by boat. Howling monkeys might wake you very early but that's part of it's charm.

The hotel experience starts from collection from your San Jose hotel. Our guide Jhonny who collected us and guided us over the 2 days gave great information during the bus journey to a tasty breakfast. There was a shirt delay as our coach had a puncture but this was rectified remarkably quickly and we set on our way via gravel roads through banana plantations and then via a speedboat through the jungle to arrive at the lodge. Lunch and a guide to Tortuguero beach and village in the afternoon.
The rooms were nice, no aircon but with netted windows and a ceiling fan this was generally OK.
Food was buffet style but always tasty and decent options ( our fussy 7 year old boy did not go hungry!). The pool was nice and we watched toucans and iguanas from the pool!
An early morning small boat exploration of the national park was good. The heavens opened and the whipped out heavy duty Ponchos for everyone. The canals were magical and we saw both howler and squirrel monkeys aswell as multiple bird species.
Some free time was welcomed around the pool and then a walking tour through the grounds ( we didn't do this as our boy needed some pool time).
We did the turtle tour in the evening (an additional $42 each but a big chunk goes to turtle conservation). This was magical in the moonlight on the wild beach, we saw a turtle laying eggs and covering them. Awesome!
The guides looked after us so well and were so attentive to our boy. They love interacting with kids.
Highly recommend the whole experience here

Amazing place, we spent the first part of our honeymoon here and it was an incredible experience. The wildlife is all around you, and the staff are really friendly and lovely people, we felt very looked after. We loved our honeymoon piña colada!! And our nature guide Bernardo was excellent.

OK - for those of you who read my posts, brace yourself.....the small boat for 30 people dropped us of on the dock of Aninga lodge and after a quick briefing of what to do and not what to do where shown our lodge. For the first 10mins the wife would not let me in because she was so exited she wanted to take pictures of everything before i messed everythng up with my clutter! WOW.... big bed (i think it was Tzar sized), no tea or coffee, no telly, no hair dryer, no free water but who cares when you are in one of these. So difficult to describe but remember you should be at one with nature and trust me, you are - oh, there is wifi and a pool / bar. Wildlife excursion at 6am was fantastic, sloths, howlers, birds and the odd iguana gave a nod as we passed. Bteakfast is really varied as is evening meals. Dont go swimming, you will be eaten. Enjoy.

Excellent hotel and service from all the staff. Rooms were very comfortable. Our tour guide Ancelmo was the best, very informative and patient. You can hear the howler monkeys in the morning.

The hotel is made up of walkways that connect cabins/ bungalows. Onsite restaurant and bar. Boats are needed to get to Tortuguero village or any tours. No cars here. Eco friendly type hotel, no TV, but has electric and wifi that works surprisingly well for such a remote location.

Don't forget this is in the rainforest, tried sitting on the porch of cabin in the evening, got swarmed by insects not biting, but annoying. First experience on staying somewhere that has no glass on the windows, everything had a fine mesh window screen to maximize air circulation. When it was raining in the evening, swarms of hatching termites came out, bits of termite wings were everywhere.

The climate is very tropical, meaning hot and humid. It rains frequently, sometimes a lot of water coming down. It can be pretty great to sit in the room and relax while listening to the rain.

Food and staff are good. One minor negative, we flew into the airport, no one came to pick us up, spotty cell service in the area would have meant we would have been stuck at the landing area for a while, fortunately a local guide was there and contacted the hotel for us, then gave us a boat ride to the hotel.

Limitation are that this corner of CR is great for nature watching, food at the hotel is good, but basic and limited in choices as they try hard to be eco friendly. Since you are on an island, the only way to get to Tortuguero village is by boat, either from the hotel or a water taxi. The village is pretty small and main focus is tourism, so shops and stuff in the village are pretty much tourist focused; did not see any "must eat" at restaurants. There is beach on one side of the village, from July-Sept is turtle season, which mainly happens at night.

Lots of guides available if you want a tour of the park or would like to see if you can see turtles coming in to lay their eggs at night.

Excellent, isolated little resort in the jungle. Service was fantastic and eager to help with anything we needed. I wish I could remember the young lady's name who worked at the front desk, because she was exceptionally pleasant and helpful.

Pros:
-Nice feeling of privacy with all the separate bungalows
-Easy to get water-taxi to Tortuguero or back to La Pavona
-Bar-staff was very accommodating (at one point we had a bunch of pineapple from town that would have gone to waste, but they blended it into a Pina Colada for me, for example)
-Very nice pool area
-Lots of birds and other animals (including howler monkeys that make sure you don't sleep in too long)

Cons (minor):
-Meals were fine, with good variety, but it's the sort of buffet where you have to ask for each thing, rather than serve yourself. This might be a COVID policy thing, but meals were a little awkward.
-Bungalow could use more comfortable seating

What a fantastic experience in the Costa Rica rainforest! Individual rooms with mosquito net for windows - yet spaced apart enough for privacy. Excellent staff and concierge service. Meals were delicious, with many healthy options and dining staff were attentive. Comfortable and very clean rooms. This hotel is beautifully integrated with the jungle with winding raised boardwalk paths between the pool, dining area and our bungalows and I especially appreciated the nature trail on site that traverses between Aninga hotel and it's sister hotel, Pachira Lodge. Our bilingual guide Noel was excellent at sharing the history and conservation efforts of the local area along with information about the animals and plant life, and Enrique has an amazing eye as an animal spotter as he piloted the boat on our canal trip through the Tortuguero National Park. One tip, try a fresh coconut and have a pina colada when you vist Tortuguero.

I call this clamping. Such a beautiful resort.

Staff is friendly and attentive especially the bartender (Stephen) by the pool.

Animals everywhere in fact we had a sloth in a tree right out our hotel room.

Perfect place to get off the grid despite the fact there is Wi-Fi available.

I really enjoyed my stay at this place. The food was good and layout felt very "naturalistic" for lack of a better word. By that I mean the grounds, though very comfortable and hospitable, felt extremely integrated with the surrounding jungle. You can see a lot of wildlife right from your cabin - I personally saw a sloth, a trogon, and a howler monkey all right outside mine. The only downside is, due to its placement, one requires a boat ride to Tortuguero. This isn't that bad however because the staff is very accommodating and a boat ride isn't difficult to arrange. I wholeheartedly recommend Anhinga and definitely plan to return there on my next visit to Costa Rica.

Great location. Really helpful and pleasant staff. I'm just giving you the heads up, but the body wash/shampoo isn't great, so you might like to bring some small bottles of your own.

What a privilege to have stayed here in the midst of nature. Our lodge was very beautiful and clean, I loved the feeling that you are sleeping in open air. Waking up from the howler monkeys in the tree next to our lodge and the birds singing their songs. Such a wonderful experience. Be sure to take a boat tour around the Tortoguero National Park, chance is you will see many animals.

Amazing facility, very nice for being in the jungle. Staff was kind and helpful. I would most definitely come back without hesitation. Such an incredible experience!