Costa Rica Photo Tour
January 16-29, 2024 I January 26-February 8, 2025
Maximum Participants: 10 total, including a maximum of 6 photographers
This 13 day photo tour features the best lodges and locations for bird photography in Costa Rica. You will photograph toucans, tanagers, curassows, parrots and King Vultures in the Northwest, beautiful poison dart frogs and roosting owls in the Sarapiqui Valley. We do multi-flash hummingbird photography at 2 different lodges at both mid level and higher altitude elevations to get a lot of different species. We spend a day and a half photographing the majestic Resplendent Quetzal and we will go on a river cruise where we photograph raptors, herons and crocodiles up close. And those are just the highlights of the tour.
Cost and Logistics
$6,150 per photographer with a $700 single supplement. 5,400 for a non photographer spouse. Deposit to reserve your spot $1,400. This includes all in country transportation, lodging, meals, guiding, instruction, property fees and drinking water. It does not include airfare to get to Costa Rica, drinks other than water, tips and items of a personal nature such as phone calls or laundry. 2025 cost $6,450 per photographer with a $800 single supplement. 5,700 for a non-photographer spouse.
Itinerary
January 16th – Arrival in San José CR, transfer to El Robledal Hotel only 15 minutes away from the airport. The hotel has some green areas to start photographing some new birds as soon as you arrive.
Overnight El Robledal
January 17th – We depart after breakfast looking for birds along the way, chances of Crimson Collared Tanager, Blue-Gray Tanager, Emerald Toucanet among many others. We arrive at Bosque de Paz to spend the afternoon shooting in the premises of the lodge. Green-crowned Brilliant, Black-bellied Hummingbird, Spangle-cheeked Tanager.
Overnight Bosque de Paz
January 18th – We drive shortly to reach Blue Falls, our first Hummingbird Multiflash location. Green-Hermit, Violet Sabrewing, Coppery Headed Emerald are possible. Some other birds seen in the gardens like Bananaquit and Black-chested Wood Quail.
Overnight Bosque de Paz
January 19th – We depart to the Northern Wetlands of Costa Rica, we have time to set up at the photography deck and start shooting right away. Best lodge in Costa Rica for photographing birds coming in to fruit feeders. Keel-billed Toucan, Golden Hooded Tanager, Brown Hooded Parrot, Montezuma Oropendula, Yellow-Throated and Keel-billed Toucans, Collared Aracari are just some of the species that regularly show up.
Overnight Laguna Lagarto Lodge
January 20th – We will spend our day photographing at Laguna Lagarto. Mid Morning we will set up at the best King Vulture Hide in Costa Rica where they sometimes show up in great numbers. We use the afternoon to keep shooting at the deck or enjoy the gardens and trails of the lodge. King Vulture, Great Green Macaws, Great Curassow.
Overnight Laguna Lagarto Lodge
January 21st – We continue to photograph at the deck and gardens, in the evening we set up for our Bat Photography session. Learn the techniques to capture nectar-feeding bats at night using a multi-flash setup. The Pallas’s Long-tongued Bat is the most common species seen and captured at our setup.
Overnight Laguna Lagarto Lodge
January 22nd – We will leave the lodge early and spend the morning at a location in the lowlands where we will visit roosting sites of owls, potoos and Honduran White Bats. At this spot there are also fruit feeders which attract some different birds such as Chestnut-headed Oropendula and Orange-chinned Parakeets. In the evening we will arrive at our new lodge, which will work as our base camp for the upcoming activities.
Overnight Selva Verde Lodge
January 23rd – We will spend the morning photographing at a small reserve looking for Rufous-tailed Jacamar, Red-legged Honeycreeper, White-collared Manakin and occasionally, sloths! After lunch we drive shortly to the spot of our Snakes and frogs macro session. We will shoot the Strawberry Poison Dart Frog, Green and Black Poison Dart Frog, Red-eyed Leaf Frog, White-sided Palm Pit Viper, among others. Macro lens recommended but not required.
Overnight Selva Verde Lodge
January 24th – We depart in the morning making a stop where we can photograph Broad-billed Motmot, Long-tailed Tyrant, Crimson Collared Tanager and other nice species. We continue our way and arrive late afternoon at the cloudforest of the Talamanca mountain range. The southmost cordillera of the country is home of the largest Quetzal population in the world!
Overnight Paraiso Quetzal Lodge
January 25th – We will spend a whole day looking for the Resplendent Quetzal split in two halfs, sometimes working on a tree trunk for the upcoming nesting season or simply visiting wild avocado trees to feed, the Quetzal is always the star of the tour! We have set up perches near the trees they frequently visit to have great photography opportunities!
Overnight Paraiso Quetzal Lodge
January 26th – We will set up a Multi-flash in the premises of the lodge, the best place to photograph the endemics Fiery-throated Hummingbird, Green Violetear, Talamanca Hummingbird and Volcano Hummingbird. As we take turns to use the multi-flash we will take advantage of the lodge gardens, Peg-billed Finch, Long-tailed Silky Flycatcher and Golden-browed Chlorophonia are common visitors.
Overnight Paraiso Quetzal Lodge
January 27th – We make our way to the Central Pacific, in the afternoon we will take a boat safari upstreams Tarcoles river and then back towards delta and the mangroves looking for big crocodiles, egrets, frigate birds, pelicans, and more! Overnight Cerro Lodge
January 28th – We spend the whole day with a local expert at Orotina’s dry forest. We will be able to photograph species like the Turquoise-Browed Motmot, Pacific Screech Owl, Black-headed Trogon and many more. We drive less than 2 hours to our hotel near the airport for our last night in the tropics. Overnight El Robledal
January 29th – Transfer to the airport and fly home. Time to enjoy the post-processing!
