La Tigra Rainforest Lodge

Fun experience of being in the forest. Simple cabins, nothing fancy, but you are up in the hills amongst the trees. The drive up is not for the faint of heart. Thankfully it was dry because it is steep and very rocky at points. A low clearance vehicle will not make it. And international cellular service in this part of the country is spotty so you need to know where you are going. The staff was kind and friendly. Dinner requires a reservation, but this was not a problem -- and the food was great! We had multiple of the 'traditional' meals and was well liked by all. The food is fresh as a lot the ingredients are grown on the property. It was a fun stay but it is far from activities. About 45 mins from La Frontera which is not convenient.

What you expect might not necessarily be what you get. This Ecolodge is tourist-factory with the Charme of a train station. 1. Staff Staff was friendly though not very personal or interested. They were not even interested in our names and we had the feeling we were just numbers (room numbers) , very different to other Eco lodges we visited, (for example Lirio Lodge), which was probably the case as LaTigra is more like a tourist-factory. They push through large travel groups on a two-nights stay basis. There was no manager present, staff changed on a daily basis, no-one talked with you or explained anything beside taking your orders. 2. Location First , this is a 50 minute drive from La Fortuna and about half of it is a really rough dirt road, only drivable with 4x4. As most activities take place around LaFortuna this is an almost 2 hour waste of time every day. Second, if you drive up a mountain, what would you expect? I think the only reason to drive up a mountain is to get a gorgeous view. The pictures of the bungalows they advertise with suggests that, however, if you are not in a large travel group you are prioritised away to the so called “new” bungalows which lie around 400m off to the other side and are almost dug into the jungle ground. 3. Description of “new” bungalows: Very dark, absolutely no view, no Charme. Just plain dark wood bungalows with lots of spiders and creepy stuff inside, which is no surprise as our bungalow was literally dug into the forest ground. The lighting consisted of two naked light bulbs which hung from the roof and even during daytime you had to use a flashlight if you were looking for something in your bag. Reading was impossible. No Moscito nets, no fan, and no internet in the bungalows !!! Internet only available at the Restaurant. The bathroom smelled very unpleasantly even though the bungalow was new and we were not tempted to take a shower in there. 4. Restaurant The food was okay, though not very tasty. The only upside was, that the food was comparably reasonably priced. My daughter said this was the worst ever accomodation we had had in years of travelling.

When we went to la tigra, we were very disapointed. We did not get what we booked. Because we were not in a travell group, we got one of the so-called new bungalows wich, is, justlike a hole in the graund. This bungalow was dug one meter in the ground and we needed light to search for something in our bags in the day! The worst thing was that there was a really big spider in our bungalow and we didnt know if it was dangerous. There were no mosquito nets over the beds and there were tons of big bugs in the bungalow. Staff was ok but not very helpfull or aproachable. Very anonymus. The food wasnt very good. We wont go there again. Wouldn’t recommend it if you are not in a travell group. There are a lot nicer lodges.

If you love cockroaches and tarantulas in your room and rude staff, this is the place for you. We had such an unfortunate experience at La Tigra Rainforest Lodge. I experienced less insects in my accommodation when I was camping in a jungle in Colombia. My two friends and I were so looking forward to our rainforest lodge experience (which we had booked months before arriving), but we were treated poorly by the staff, given a room that isn’t even listed on their website, and ended up with cockroaches in our bags from our room. On the La Tigra website, they describe their “10 rustic tent cabins [which] are located on raised platforms with ample balconies”. They don’t, however, describe the *very* rustic cabin that we were given (and we are people who camp and are not needing luxury accommodations). Details are below: - Room #3 (toucan room) - #1 and #2 would also be similar - wooden cabin with small balcony (no hammock, no mosquito netting) - away from the main resort area (seems to be almost an overflow area) - one foot off of the ground (not on a raised platform with views) with an unfinished wood plank floor with gaps between planks and the jungle directly below - large gaps between the walls and the roof - we encountered over 15 cockroaches in our room, including in our bags - a massive spider was on our ceiling every night Communication with staff: - we were laughed at when we asked about the spider and told “you are in the jungle” - when we complained about the cockroaches we were also told “you are in the jungle” and laughed at by the manager - we (unfortunately) waited until our last morning to look on their website and confirm that our room wasn’t even advertised. When we asked about this, the manger replied that we should have realized this when we arrived and it was our fault for not doing so (again, we had booked months ago, and tend to trust that we would be given a room advertised). We were not given so much as an apology for the wrong room or insects DO NOT STAY HERE and support these dishonest hosts.

We have stayed 2 nights in the lodge. It was a pleasure, even when the rain was pooring down. Friendly staff that explains all specialties. Waking up in the jungle is an absolute must do. The restaurant was good, and the views from the restaurant (whenever it was not cloudy) breathtaking

Very beautiful nature, very good facilities and VERY good food; almost like an upscale restaurant. … now I don’t know why I’m required to use a minimum of 200 letters, but since I want to give a well deserved good review, I’ll just fill it up by writing this.