High on my wish list for our road trip was the opportunity to observe turtle egg laying in Costa Rica. Depending on what time of year you travel to Costa Rica for a holiday, there are a couple of options to observe turtle egg laying on either the Pacific west coast or the Caribbean east coast. It worked well for us to head to the Tortuguero National Park on our Costa Rica road trip where green sea turtles nest from March until October. As Tortuguero means ‘the place where turtles come’, we were hopeful that they would make an appearance for us.
Tortuguero National Park on Costa Rica’s Caribbean coast is a remote, roadless paradise famous for being one of the most important nesting sites for endangered green sea turtles, accessible only by boat or small plane.
Tortuguero National Park, Costa Rica, is a huge national park covering 297 square miles. It was created in the 1950s to protect one of the most important nesting sites of endangered sea turtles in the Western Hemisphere. There are no roads in the Tortuguero National Park and so the only ways to visit are by small plane or by boat along the Canal du Tortuguero which runs through the park.
Tortuguero is in the north of Costa Rica on the Caribbean coast, in Limón Province. As the Tortuguero National Park, Costa Rica, is only accessible by boat, then you first drive to a boat dock to catch a boat to your accommodation. Your hotel will give you instructions about which boat dock to head to (I think there are two options depending on the height of the river) and send a boat to collect you or tell you which boat to catch.
The hotels generally add the charge of the boat transfer to your accommodation booking. Alternatively, you can book a private boat transfer but this is quite pricey. There are also public transport boats which leave at set times. Most of the boats have a luggage restriction of 30 pounds per person which you need to be aware of, so pack light!
We booked a stay at Tortuga Lodge in the Tortuguero National Parkand they told us to make our way to the Cano Blanco Dock. From our previous road trip stop in La Fortuna, Costa Rica, it was a four-hour drive to the Cano Blanco Dock. We found the roads from La Fortuna to Cano Blanco Dock to be mainly good, apart from the last section which was effectively through corporate banana plantations when the potholes started again (and our sat nav sent us off into the middle of the banana fields).
I would advise leaving some additional time to allow for the slower roads at the end of the journey, and any navigation malfunctions. When you arrive at Cano Blanco Dock there are toilets and a small shop where you can buy drinks and snacks before catching your boat.
The boat transfer from Cano Blanco Dock to our hotel took about one hour which made us feel as though we were travelling to somewhere quite remote. It was a very relaxing, almost hypnotic, journey along the river and on the way we spotted kingfishers, river birds and a crocodile lazing on a fallen tree trunk on the riverbank.
The weather was good when we set off and so the sides of the boat were open, but then tropical rain set in and so the driver pulled over to put the sides of the boat down to keep everyone dry. Eventually the boat arrived at the colourful village of Tortuguero on the banks of the river and dropped us at our hotel which was quite a memorable way to arrive.
Part of the Boena Lodges chain which focusses on sustainability and eco-friendly practices, Tortuga Lodge is a gem. Situated on the banks of the Canal du Tortuguero, it is designed in harmony with its environment and built from lumber taken from small tree farms dedicated to reforestation. The Lodge uses sustainable practices such as: solar power for heat and electricity, and on site on-site water filtration.
Like Monteverde Lodge & Gardens, bookings to Tortuga Lodge include a Conservation Fee which contributes to local conservation projects. One of these projects involved sponsoring the last solo calypso musician in Tortuguero to preserve this music brought from Jamaica in the 19th century. As a result a music school for calypso music was founded in the town.
The Lodge offers tours with naturalist guides including hikes around the grounds and kayaking trips on the Canal. The eco-adventures offered include controlled trips to watch turtle egg laying on the beaches (see below).
Tortuga Lodge made Wanderlust Magazine’s 2025 Travel Green List, Issue 239.
Picture standing on a dark Caribbean beach inside Tortuguero National Park, watching a green sea turtle haul herself up the sand to lay her eggs. It is the kind of moment we plan a whole trip around.
Start by thinking about when you would like to go, with the peak falling in July and August, who is travelling with you, and the sort of stay that appeals, perhaps a small ecolodge along the canal. It is worth dreaming big here, because this is one of the most important green turtle nesting sites in the world.
According to the wildlife team at SeaWorld, around 22,500 female green turtles come ashore at Tortuguero every year, so your chances of seeing one are good.
Next, book your accommodation in or near Tortuguero, as your hotel will arrange the official, licensed guided tour for you. You will choose an evening slot, usually 8pm to 10pm or 10pm to midnight, pack dark, non-reflective clothing, and get ready for the short boat ride across the canal.
We would also leave the camera in the room, because this is a moment to watch with your own eyes rather than through a screen. The strict, small-group system exists for a reason. WWF reports that careful protection helped the park's nesting population recover by 417% between 1971 and 2003, so booking the proper guided tour is part of keeping that going.
Finally, follow your naturalist guide in quiet single file to the stretch of beach where local scouts have found a nesting female. Watch as she digs her nest, lays her clutch, covers the eggs and slips back into the sea.
The Sea Turtle Conservancy, which has monitored these beaches since 1959, notes that a green turtle lays around 100 eggs at a time, then leaves them to incubate in the warm sand. Head back the next morning to see her tracks running down to the water, and you will understand why this stays with people long after the trip ends.
Most people visit Tortuguero National Park in the hope of observing turtle egg laying on the beaches at certain times of the year (peak season for green turtles here is July and August).
Each evening during the turtle egg laying season, the village offers two timeslots for observing the turtles: either from 8.00pm-10.00pm or from 10.00pm until Midnight. All the hotels request their timeslots and are allocated either the early or late slots daily. The hotel then asks you to meet your guide at the allocated time and to wear dark clothing.
You are then transported by boat across the Canal du Tortuguero to the turtle egg laying beaches with your guide. By the time you head off to the beach there is a sense of high anticipation – obviously, you do not know whether any turtles will show up and whether you will be lucky.
You are not allowed to take any form of photo or video equipment with you onto the beaches and are given a small torch only to be used if instructed to do so by the guide.
We organised turtle viewing through our hotel, Tortuga Lodge, but if that’s not an option for you, then book via Get Your Guide, as follows:
There are local turtle scouts on the beaches looking out for turtles coming onshore – when they spot a turtle, the scouts radio the tour guides who then lead their groups in complete silence to view the turtle. This viewing can only happen once the turtle has started laying her eggs as she is in a trance during the egg laying process and so won’t be easily disturbed.
As well as the green sea turtle laying her eggs, we watched her cover the eggs with her flippers and camouflage the area before heaving herself back down the beach to the sea.
We found the experience to very closely controlled, with several rules to follow in relation to where you can stand and what you can watch. Everyone in our group was very quiet and respectful of the turtles, as you would hope. It felt like a real privilege to be able to observe this special event in nature.
The beaches in Tortuguero National Park are closed from 6pm each evening, after which only guided tours are allowed access. However, you can visit the beaches during the day and so we returned the following morning and could see the hole that the turtle had dug, and also the flipper tracks that led back to the sea.
Whilst turtle egg laying is the main draw for Tortuguero National Park, there are plenty of other things to do aside from the turtles. Unsurprisingly, many involve the water, such as:
There are numerous different kinds of boat trips along the Canal du Tortuguero, but we decided to take a kayak trip which was a leisurely paddle on the Canal with great wildlife viewing. Being in kayaks allowed us to get close to the shore and into some channels with dense vegetation which was fun.
It was a relaxing and tranquil way to spend a couple of hours – the peace and quiet broken only by the splash of the paddles and the noises of the monkeys in the trees. Our guide helped us spot snake birds sunning themselves on the banks of the river, caiman hiding in the shallows and Howler and Spider monkeys in the trees.
If you want to explore the Canal du Tortuguero in a less physical way, then book a boat tour instead:
We found lots of wildlife in the grounds of the hotel, either on the trails through the trees or even just hanging around on the hotel lawns. Tortuga Lodge comprised of several colourful clapboard houses in lush grounds filled with iguanas, toucans and monkeys. In fact, we had the best toucan sightings of the holiday in a tree outside our hotel room where the toucans came to fill up on berries at dusk.
The hotel was full board, most probably because it really was in the middle of nowhere – the food was of good quality and always served with a smile. If we had stayed an additional night, then we might have taken a water taxi to Tortuguero Village nearby for a change of scene.
You have to go out of your way to visit the Tortuguero National Park, but this effort is definitely rewarded as Tortuguero is a very special place: cut off from civilisation and where the animals, reptiles, insects, birds and turtles rule the roost, and humans come second! This was a real highlight of our road trip itinerary, and a great place to see turtle egg laying in Costa Rica.
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