Costa Rica Travel

No Turtles Needed to Enjoy Turtle Beach Lodge Costa Rica

Turtles, Schmurtles: Turtle Beach Lodge in Tortuguero, on the northern Caribbean coast of Costa Rica, is a great getaway even in turtle off-season.

In Tortuguero Costa Rica, you expect tourism to revolve around turtles. The turtle-shaped pool at Turtle Beach Lodge, a few miles north of the town on the northern Caribbean coast of Costa Rica, does little to dispel this expectation.

But a recent stay at Turtle Beach that was well outside the traditional turtle high season proved there is more to the lodge than just turtles. Located on 175 acres, the lodge embodies jungle seclusion. You can explore its garden and trail, take a canal tour or kayak on your own to a nearby lagoon – and if you don't see a turtle, well, it's not the end of the world.

Since 1999, the Lachenman family from the U.S. state of Indiana has owned and operated Turtle Beach Lodge, giving it something along the lines of an extreme makeover. Construction has been “basically constant” from the start, says Jesse Lachenman, 27, who runs the hotel while his parents are in the United States. The pool was built in 1999, the bar and restaurant renovated two and a half years ago, and new blocks of rooms have been added each year. Currently, a new boat dock is in the works.

For now, the lodge features 55 rooms, which Lachenman says “are all basically the same.” The few original rooms are smaller singles, while most others are doubles with at least two beds. The rooms are simple yet comfortable, and the bathroom showers are hot and powerful, a welcome surprise considering the lodge's relative isolation.

On our visit, my companion and I shared a corner room that had two queen-size beds as well as a couch that could double as a third bed. Towels folded in the shape of turtles awaited us on the beds. The rooms come with ceiling fans and are essentially half open-air with expansive, screened windows. Our corner room received a pleasant breeze to offset the jungle heat.

While Lachenman says Turtle Beach receives almost all its business straight from tour companies, packages can be booked on the lodge's Web site for itineraries of two, three and four days. Custom packages are also available.

“We can set up any kind of stay you want,” he says.

For most visitors to Turtle Beach, the journey begins in San José. The hotel picks visitors up early in the morning and transports them over to the Caribbean, with stops for breakfast and tours of Braulio Carrillo National Park and a banana plantation. Then, the voyage hits the water for the two-hour boat ride up the canals to Turtle Beach.