Turtle Nesting night Tour in Tortuguero
Tortuguero, Costa Rica
- 1 to 2 hours (approx.)
- Mobile ticket
- Offered in: English
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Overview
Witness the miracles of nature during this unforgettable turtle nesting experience in Tortuguero National Park. You’ll meet your bilingual guide and venture into an assigned sector of the beach. Learn all about the history and lifestyle of sea turtles as you wait for turtles to arrive. When they do, you’ll observe the egg spawning, the compaction of eggs, camouflaging of the nest, and watch them return to the ocean.
- Slip on comfortable shoes for your walk into Tortuguero National Park
- Use flashlights provided to safely navigate the park
- Observe the sea turtle nesting process in an assigned sector
- Learn about the sea turtle life cycle from your bilingual guide
What's Included
- Flashlight
- Hikking boots
- Optional pick-up transfer ranges $10-$20 per person depending on the amount of passengers.
Meeting and Pickup
Meeting point
- Leonardo Tours45 Metros Sur del Muelle El Almendro, Limón, Tortuguero, 70206, Costa Rica
Our office is located diagonal to Mi Niño restaurant 45 meters south from El Almendro Harbor (Tortuguero village main harbor)
End point
This activity ends back at the meeting point.Arranged start time
Confirm time with the local provider in advance of your experience.
- 07/01/2026 - 10/31/2026
Itinerary
1
Tortuguero National Park
2 hours • Admission Ticket Included
Additional Info
- Confirmation will be received at time of booking
- Near public transportation
- Most travelers can participate
- Not wheelchair accessible
- This tour/activity will have a maximum of 10 travelers
Supplied by
Cancellation Policy
This experience is non-refundable and cannot be changed for any reason. If you cancel or ask for an amendment, the amount you paid will not be refunded.
Traveler Photos
Featured review
Beth_W
We were fortunate to see 2 turtles nesting AND baby turtles emerging all in one evening. But making the experience even better was our guide, Manuel, who explained everything with knowledge and enthusiasm.
Reviews
4.4
based on 71 reviews
Beth_W, Sep 2024
We were fortunate to see 2 turtles nesting AND baby turtles emerging all in one evening. But making the experience even better was our guide, Manuel, who explained everything with knowledge and enthusiasm.
Response from Host, Dec 2024
Hi you were blessed by nature, positive vibes
Riley_K, Aug 2024
We luncked out and found a turtle. She wasn't scared away so we got to watch the while process. It was amazing!
Cody_S, Aug 2024
Amazing experience! Luis was an exceptional tour guide. Very friendly and knowledgeable about the area. Helped us to see everything we could want and more, with a turtle nesting and two others coming from the water. Even helped us find a water taxi home afterwards. Thanks for a great time, Luis!
ALEXANDRA_C, Aug 2024
Never book this tour as it is a con. The advert does not tell you that you have to book a private boat to take you to the meeting point. We drove over 4 hours there through dangerous roads to the location and when we got near were told that we should take a boat and the tour could not be done.
This is a misleading tour operator only wanting to get payment for never delivering a service but was rude saying that I should be a' responsible tourist'.
I would request a complete refund for this tour
Response from Host, Aug 2024
Hi everyone, we so sad to see this malicious comment
1st You do not need to book a private boat to get here, there is a lot of information on the internet where it is advised the public boat schedules from La Pavona to Tortuguero village from 6am till 4:30pm last boat to return from 5am till 3pm, the problem is that you never checked for this information or either contacted us, that is what makes a trip dangerous.
2nd Costa Rica roads are a bit crazy but not dangerous at all, you must check other countries to have a more experienced view.
3rd We are not a misleading company that is a serious and inappropriate way to refer about our company, since There are many witnesses here in our favor who can attest that we are responsible and always deliver what we promise.
4th You can contact customer viator services they will help you about your refund request, but remember this, viator always advice of the 24 hours cancelation policy and you are trying to get a refund with a cancelation on the same day just few hours before and here is something important to mention, to enter on the beach to do this tour we must pay in advance before the tour happen, this money goes to the turtles conservation and can not be refunded, as well the tour guides can not be canceled at last minute.
may be this help more information
As per our policy, customers have a 24-hour window prior to the activity to cancel their reservation for a full refund. In this case, the cancellation request was received after this window had closed.
Additionally, to secure the excursion, we made the required payment for the beach access permit at 1:01 PM on the day of the booking. Furthermore, our guide was also confirmed several hours prior to the scheduled activity. As this is our peak season, canceling at the last minute is not feasible, as it would compromise the guide’s scheduled work, which we are legally bound to honor under Costa Rican labor laws.
thank you all readers.
rattrayclaire, Jul 2024
Great to see a turtle nesting up close. However our guide Leonardo was late to turn up, did not welcome the group or say anything when he arrived and immediately told me that I had booked the incorrect number of people. When he checked his booking and realised there was no error he didn’t say anything. He even told a father and daughter to hurry up while walking on the tour. Compared to the other tour guides we’ve had in Costa Rica who were kind and courteous. This was not the same experience.
Response from Host, Aug 2024
Hello, we are so sorry for been a few minutes late, we are so sorry for the attitude of Leonardo, we apologize for all inconveniences, we have already taken actions to correct the situation.
thanks a lot for your comment to help us to improve.
leila_k, Jul 2024
We lucked out and were able to see a green turtle laying eggs. It was a super cool experience. There is some waiting, but the guide used the time to educate us about the turtles. Better than National Geographic!
Aileen_D, Oct 2023
We saw a turtle while laying eggs. That was amazing! Unfortunately we saw only one, but it‘s hard to spot more in the given amount of time.
Response from Host, Oct 2023
Hello Aileen, thanks for your comments, as explained before the tour we look for in all the way as possible to reduce the stress of the turtles, the only way to make this possible is to use only one turtle to develop the tour, of course there are sometimes that we have more turtles and different situations that permit us to watch more than one turtle, unfortunately for you that night we had only one turtle, but, you seen all the permitted process, so you must consider your self very lucky.
Best regards
Lisa_P, Oct 2023
We had a really nice experience with the turtles. The setting is magical and it's very interesting to see how the turtles come to the beach and lay their eggs.
Response from Host, Oct 2023
Hello, Lisa_P, we appreciate a lot your review thank you.
Andy_D, Aug 2023
Great evening in Tortuguero with Leonardo in early August. He is quite simply a character!! Made it fun and informative. We got to see a turtle laying eggs, covering the eggs and camouflaging. Remember to wear dark coloured clothes. On the beach it is no phones / lights / cameras for fear of disturbing the turtles. A truly memorable and remarkable sight to witness
Response from Host, Aug 2023
Hello Andy, truly it was a great evening and great customers.
Thank you for sharing your experience with all of us.
Emma_B, Jul 2023
We saw a nesting turtle which was incredible, but the organisation and guide didn’t seem very conservation conscious. There were quite a lot of people in the group and the guide held the turtle’s flipper so we could see better and spoke quite loudly, all of which, to me, seemed to risk disturbing the turtle.
Response from Host, Jul 2023
Hello, thanks a lot for your feed back, we will make changes.
Evelina_P, Oct 2022
Actual experience seeing turtle nesting was incredible but the tour could have been organised better. If we ought to do it again, we would ask for Verny to guide this tour as he was incredible in canal tour.
Response from Host, Oct 2022
Hi, thank you for the feed back, we will take notes.
Thuy_P, Jul 2022
The tour was great. We saw turtles, had alot of information explained to us. The guide is friendly and helpful
Response from Host, Jul 2022
Hi thanks a lot for taking your time and making this review.
Best regards
Laurens_d, Aug 2024
- Het natuurfenomeen is geweldig om te aanschouwen
- De activiteit vonden wij zeer toeristisch (in een cirkelvariant doorlopen om afwisselend te kijken bij de schildpadden)
Response from Host, Aug 2024
Hello we are so sorry the tour was not similar to you expectations.
But what you experienced is the reality and it is approved by the national park, in order to reduce the stress for other turtles
We prefer to take one turtle and use it as for the tour, instead of use seval turtles and bother all of them, that is not conservation.
Of course the activity is turistic, that is what we do for living.
Claudia_K, Aug 2024
Ich bewerte hier ausdrücklich nur die Tour (nicht das Erlebnis mit den Schildkröten) - die Tour war chaotisch organisiert, keine Infos über die Tiere oder Tortuguero während des Weges zum Strand. Am Strand bei den Schildkröten fängt der Guide laut an zu reden über sein Business und stört damit mMn die Turtles. Kommunikation war total unklar und chaotisch. 30min vor meinem Termin wurde per whatsapp abgesagt, dann wieder zugesagt, was mich sehr gestresst hat. Schildkröten ja, aber nicht mit Leonardo Tours!
Response from Host, Aug 2024
We are so sorry about your point of view.
It is not possible to provide information of animals or about Tortuguero while we go walking to reach the turtle meeting spot, we can not stop to see other wildlife since it is not a night walk, so you may be needed to book to a night walk and not for a turtle tour.
Talking loud is not a fact of matter since we were not with the turtle at the moment.
About the cancelation and the reprogram we accept it may not be nice, but believe us we were doing the best to accommodate you and finally we succeed, so you must be glad we did not cancelled the activity and you could live the experience.
Thanks for your review
natalia_b, Aug 2024
Tuvimos la gran suerte de ver el desove de las tortugas!. Está todo muy bien organizado para no molestar a las tortugas. Muy recomendando!
Response from Host, Dec 2024
Hola correcto esta diseñado para preservar
Muchas gracias por su comentario
Javier_C, Jul 2024
No es culpa de los guías y claramente la naturaleza determina si las tortugas aparecen o no. Pero en general faltó mucha información previa sobre esa posibilidad y también sobre las reglas. Recién el mismo día, y antes mis mensajes, nos enteramos que había que vestir de negro y otras normas que no son explícitas en los anuncios. Los operadores no son responsables de que aparezcan las tortugas, pero si son responsables de informar a sus clientes sobre las normas con la debida anticipación.
Response from Host, Jul 2024
Hola Javier, lamento mucho su frustración, hay ciertas informaciones que no enviamos hasta el mismo dia para no saturar de información a los clientes, agradecemos sus sugerencias y tomaremos en cuenta para hacer los cambios necesarios.
Saludos cordiales
Ins_S, Oct 2023
Finalmente no hicimos la ruta de las tortugas, si no la de animales nocturnos, porque se estaba acabando la época del desove, y no había ya muchas tortugas.
El tour fue genial, vinos ranas, iguanas, monos, perezoso, serpientes...y lo pasamos muy bien con nuestro guía. Muy recomendable!!
Response from Host, Nov 2023
Hola, agradezco mucho su comentario y aceptar la oferta de cambio de tour , para nosotros es mejor ser sinceros y dejar claro que la posibilidad de ver tortugas en esas fechas era poca por motivos que la temporada inicio mes antes provocando que las tortugas se fueran antes de lo previsto.
gracias por las recomendación de nuestra empresa.
Saludos cordiales
manfred_z, Jul 2023
Leonardo is een gedreven gids, vermakelijk gewoon! Enorm gelachen om zijn uitleg met een soort toneelstuk erbij. Maar hoogtepunt is dat we alle stadia van de schildpadden die aan land komen om eieren te leggen, hebben gezien. Het was fanatastisch! Werkelijk bijzonder om het mee te maken.
Response from Host, Sep 2023
Hallo, vielen Dank für Ihre hervorragende Bewertung und für die Zeit, die Sie sich genommen haben, um Ihre Erfahrungen zu schreiben. Wir freuen uns sehr, Ihnen erneut bestätigen zu können, dass unsere Erfahrungen von guter Qualität sind.
Danke, wir sehen uns bald
Javier_C, Jul 2023
No se permite hacer fotos a las tortugas. Una experiencia muy bonita de ver pero lamentablemente no se puede guardar en el recuerdo con una simple foto.
Response from Host, Jul 2023
Hola gracias por tomar de su tiempo para y escribir su pensamiento se respeta pero antes de hacer el tour se repitió varias veces los términos y condiciones a los que se estaba sujeto y usted accedió igualmente dices que fue una experiencia muy bonita es un poco contradictorio el texto y ka calificación.
Gracias
JULIE_M, Oct 2022
Nous avons pris ce tour dans l'espoir d'assister au merveilleux phénomène de ponte des tortues marines et nous avons été ravis. Nous avons pu voir une tortue en train de pondre et une autre qui retournait à l'eau.
Notre guide, qui parlait français, a été très efficace et très pédagogue (nous avons appris pleins de choses sur les tortues).
La visite est très bien organisée et l'intimité des tortues bien respectée.
Je recommande vivement cette magnifique expérience de la nature.
Response from Host, Oct 2022
Merci beaucoup pour vos gentils commentaires. Ce fut un plaisir d'être votre guide. À la prochaine.
From $37.00
per person-You will not receive a refund if you cancel.
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