Manatus Hotel

A nice small hotel for Tortuguero, they only have 12 rooms. Staff are great, it’s all very clean. Tours are included and pretty good. The highlight was seeing baby turtles hatch on the beach, which was amazing. We didn’t see a lot on the canal tours and almost nothing on the night walk round the property - but it’s nature and you can’t guarantee anything (and the baby turtles rushing to the sea was worth everything), on our last morning I did spot some toucans in the grounds. The showers are amazing, easily the stand out point of the rooms. Food is decent and fine for a couple of days (the menu is the same for lunch and dinner) but if you stayed longer it might get a bit dull. The barman’s cocktails are really good! Have one of the ones with Guaro! A few minor *******: 1) the amount of light in the room at night - all from the aircon unit. Its display really lights the room up, you can almost read by it!! I finally managed to turn that off but it has a bright light behind it. In the end I stood on a chair and covered it up 2) the waste situation is annoying - if you have non recyclable waste there is literally nowhere to put it in the entire property, so you end up putting it in the toilet paper wastebin. If you have recyclable waste then you have to take it down to the dock - it’s not far at all but from the furthest room it’s a few minutes, this is also the only place to get drinking water 3) coffee. Most people stay 2 nights, some stay 3. You get a coffee maker in your room with one single use sachet of coffee. This does not get replaced. So you get coffee in your room for one day only. Finally - let them do the transfers. We organised a private transfer there from Cahuita and it wasn’t great. We should’ve spent the extra and got them to do it. Pre communication with Jenny was excellent as well

I really liked this hotel, honestly. The rooms are very comfortable with air conditioning set to around 17 degrees Celsius, I believe. The beds and bathroom are beautifully decorated, and the meals are incredibly tasty. I think October was low season, so the experience was lovely and not very crowded. The tours were amazing and seeing the turtles was exhilarating. If we ever return to Tortuguero, this will be the place!!

Manatus Lodge was a wonderful place to stop, Accessed by boat as are most places in Tortuguero, although found out later you can fly in, not that we had been told this. Everything was spotlessly clean. The rooms being large bungalows, with wonderful bathrooms. All had air con, a necessity as it was so hot & humid. The pool was lovely, and refreshing as it was so humid. The staff were amazing and looked after all your needs. Food was wonderful, limited choice, but enough for our 3 night stop. Plenty to do, mainly centered around boats on the canals. And then the best part the wildlife. Birds everywhere, Toucans and Parrots, Monkeys and Sloths

If your Costa Rican vacation includes a stop in Tortuguero, don't worry about where to stay. Book yourself one of the bungalows at the Manatus Hotel. You will be treated like royalty. Our package included all meals and the staff takes pride in getting to know you and your preferences. Our waiter Jhon and the bartender Lecson were wonderful people and bent over backwards to help make our stay memorable. The girls who cleaned our room made the cutest little animals out of the fresh towels. And if you stay here, you get both a mornings and an afternoon boat tour of the National Park with a qualified guide. Luis was one of the best we had on our entire Costa Rican vacation. Be sure to take the optional twilight tour and if you are there during turtle nesting season, you have to take the additional nesting tour. It was an extra $40 extra but to see a mama turtle laying her eggs in the sand and then covering them up was an experience I'll never forget. Can't say enough good things about the Manatus. Stay here and find out on your own why this is THE place to stay in Tortuguero.

We loved it here. It was especially hot and humid, so we were very grateful for the excellent air-conditioning! The rooms were good; large and well equipped (including a very good fridge). The bathrooms were very basic - but you're in the middle of the rainforest! Our porch faced the water, which was nice. The hotel is perfectly located, sandwiched between the water and the rainforest - lots of wildlife comes into the beautifully maintained grounds. We spent lots of time wandering freely around the grounds. We really enjoyed the boat trips: the guides were excellent, and being in small groups was great. We found the food to be excellent; we stayed two nights but could happily have eaten off the menu for longer as there was lots to choose from. One of the best things about Manatus is the staff, who were incredibly friendly and helpful - it is such a welcoming place. They worked hard, but always had time to show us the wildlife in the grounds. One word of warning: the mozzies are vicious at night! Take some repellent and trousers/long sleeved clothes for the restaurant, but don't expect it to completely solve the problem!

We stayed for 2 nights in this very special hotel. Our room was a cabin, large, clean and really comfortable.the trips on the river were wonderful but it is not called the rain forest for nothing. Open boat wildlife tour on the river in power shower rain but plastic capes kept us reasonably dry, very good, knowledgeable guides. All the staff were charming but a special thanks to Jonathon and Ricardo who cared for us so well when our transfer company nearly left us abandoned with no phone signal at Pavona Pier, they sorted things out and Ricardo stayed with us until we were picked up and he knew that we were ok, thank you guys, you are great.

A lovely, peaceful place to spend a couple of days exploring the waterways in Tortuguero and spotting wildlife. It is accessible only by boat and this is part of its charm. The rooms are, well, roomy and well appointed if a little on the dark side for my taste. Try to get one that fronts onto the waterway because some, including the one we had (number 5) are next to the pathway and somewhat public. The service was exemplary, food very good and cocktails brilliant. The pool area is delightful and a great place to while away the hours not spent staring at the river bank. Highly recommend this place.

We spent three nights here and really liked our beautiful air condition room, #12. All the rooms are the same but half of them face the water while the other half face back into the gardens. We loved having the water view! Because there is no way to get around except by boat, you get all your meals at the hotel. The menu is dry small and does not change, so your choices are very limited, especially if you are there a few days. The lunch and dinner menus are identical, so we were often ordering the same meal. One helpful hint…I asked if I could mix and match breakfast items to create a customized meal and that was no problem. The same at dinner and lunch, so be aware that they will adjust the menu items to suit your preferences. Make sure you put on mosquito repellent when you go to the restaurant at night…it’s an open air restaurant and we found that the mosquitos were biting in the evenings. The staff were very friendly and helpful. All your tours in Tortuguero are booked through the hotel. We went on a morning and afternoon boat tour through the canals and our guides spotted lots of wildlife…sloths, caimans, scarlet macaws, green viper, many colourful birds, iguanas, lizards, bats…it was really great! We also did the afternoon tour in Tortuguero Village but it wasn’t that great. The shops are all the same and very touristy, so we just went to the beach for a walk until it was time to leave. We loved the beautiful pool area and spotted iguanas and herons in the gardens surrounding it. It was very hot when we were there and we appreciated the air conditioning in our room. Not all hotels in Tortuguero have AC so this is a real plus!

Fantastic two night stay at the Manatus. Everything was perfect, they picked us up from our hotel in San Jose and the guide on the journey to the hotel was brilliant. After the bus ride a boat trip to the hotel which took around an hour and a half. Rooms spotlessly cleaned and the bathrooms superb - looked like they had been refurbished recently to a very high standard. Lovely pool area and great seating areas over looking the water. Staff were great, particularly the younger waiter. I think his name was Gerald. Nothing was too much trouble and he went out of his way to ensure everyone in our group was happy and had everything we needed. If you are planning on visiting Tortugero this hotel is highly recommended