If there was one animal we were dying to see on our trip to Costa Rica, it was a sloth. Consensus online was that if you don’t have a guide, you have basically no chance of seeing one in the wild. However, having already spent hundreds of dollars in La Fortuna on hiking trails and waterfalls, we first wanted to see if we could spot one without a guide.
We opted to do the Bogarin Trail solo and it turned out to be a good decision. We later found a great completely free spot too, which you can read about here, but for now back to the Bogarin Trail.
5 tips for visiting the Bogarin Trail
To guide or not to guide
First things first, unless you are a really good spotter, then there is no substitute for a good guide. You are almost always likely to see more sloths, and more wildlife in general, with a guide.
But that doesn’t mean you can’t spot them alone, and we saw three along the Bogarin Trail. We also saw several toucans and many other amazing birds and butterflies.
We had two reasons for preferring to go without a guide, the first is of course that everything is incredibly expensive in La Fortuna and we were hoping to save a little by going it alone.
The second is that the guided tours move incredibly slowly - this stands to reason when you’re looking for well camouflaged animals. However, much as I love wildlife, it’s a bit slow for me. You spend quite a bit of time standing around before walking very slowly. We prefer to do things at our own pace.
You get two shots
If you’re buying the self guided ticket for the trail, it lasts for 24 hours. This means you get more chances to look for sloths, as you can visit two days in a row. This makes it much more likely you’ll see at least one sloth.
We ended up seeing three on our first go, so we didn’t need to go in again, but we were happy to have it as a back up plan.
You can ask for tip offs
The staff want you to see a sloth, whether you’ve paid extra for a guided tour or not, so we started by asking where a sloth had last been sighted. As well as recent sightings, they also told us where they are most often seen.
The other thing to note is that you will see the guided tours as you go round - you’re all walking the same trail after all. Whilst I am not suggesting tagging on to a guided tour for the price of a self guided tour, I see no harm in stopping for a bit when you see a tour and everyone has their cameras pointing at a particular tree!
It’s natural that you stop when others stop, and we did this a couple of times, both with the guided tours and also with self guided people as well. Others also stopped when we spotted things.
If you do this, it’s unlikely you’ll walk the trail and not see a single sloth.
You’ll notice that in general all over Costa Rica guides are very friendly and will point something out to you whether you are with them or not. We had guides show us various different animals all over the country simply because they are passionate and want to share.
We’d walk past and they would immediately point us in the right direction to spot something. But as mentioned, you don’t need any specific help as such because you will see the odd group stop somewhere and no one minds if you stop too. And just to be clear, we never lingered and listened to the chat, I don’t want this to come across in the wrong way!
Sightings are often high in the tree tops
You may get lucky, but we’ve seen six sloths in the wild so far, three of which were on the Bogarin Trail, and all of which were high up in the trees. You can see them without binoculars, but photos are not the best without a zoom lens.
If you’ve seen really close up photos of wild sloths, they have often (but not always) been taken using a telescope. We saw guides get the sloth in focus on the telescope and then people would photograph the eye piece with their phones.
Taken with the full limit of my telephoto lens and cropping in! This sloth was about 10-15m overhead
Nothing wrong with that, but we wanted to manage expectations! It’s not to say you won’t get lucky, but it’s not often you get the privilege of seeing a sloth low to the ground.
The walk is easy
The Bogarin Trail is almost entirely flat and the trail conditions are excellent. We only encountered one tiny section of mud on the whole 2.4km trail. We were visiting in dry season though, so it may be slightly different in the rainy season.
Although the forest isn’t that large, as it does have some farmland surrounding it, it’s still a gorgeous walk and the tall trees provide lots of shade.
As well as being easy, it’s also a beautiful walk through rainforest. You’ll see plenty of birdlife - we saw so many different species, including toucans, scarlet rumped tanagers, hummingbirds and lineated woodpeckers. On the subject of birds, they do have a little feeding area by reception where loads of birds congregate.
We’re not huge fans of this because we don’t really think wildlife should be fed. If you’re not keen either, you will still see plenty of birds as you make your way around. The ones listed above are all birds we saw in the forest, not by the feeding platform.
So is the Bogarin Trail worth it?
We enjoyed the trail and were really happy with the sloth sightings. However, if you are travelling on a strict budget, I do think it’s worth checking out the areas where you might see sloths for free first. At the end of the day, the Bogarin Trail is nice, but it is all about the sloths, so if you see them free elsewhere, it’s not a must do.
If you don’t get lucky in the free areas, then you are highly likely to see sloths on the Bogarin Trail if you follow the pointers above, so I’d say it’s worth it for that reason.
Facilities at the Bogarin Trail
The Bogarin Trail is well kitted out and you have a cafe and toilets onsite. There are even cabins you can stay at, which looked like they’d be very peaceful. I expect you’d get some of the wildlife, particularly birds, in the grounds of the cabins as they’re right by the trail.
Bogarin Trail opening hours and entry fees
The trail is open between 7am and 5pm daily, however we were told we could stay until 5.45pm, basically we just had to leave before sunset, so the close time is quite loose.
At time of writing the Bogarin Trail is cash only, so make sure you have some colones with you!
The self guided trail costs 10,000 colones (approx USD $18) for adults and children over 3. Under 3’s go free.
Day time guided tours are 27,000 colones (approx USD $48) for adults, 20,000 colones (approx USD $36) for children and infants go free.
You can also take a night tour, which costs 36,000 colones (pprox USD $64).
At time of writing there are four day tours and one night tour each day.
Getting to the Bogarin Trail
The Bogarin Trail is located just a few minutes drive from the centre of La Fortuna town, you could easily walk if you don’t have a car. It’s 160km and roughly a three hour drive from San Jose. There are buses that run from San Jose to La Fortuna.
Where to stay in La Fortuna
Arenal Observatory Lodge
The Arenal Observatory is a pretty special place. The lodge has incredible views of the iconic Mount Arenal - even from the rooms!
The rooms are clean, comfortable and well away from the hustle and bustle of La Fortuna town.
It’s surrounded by nearly 900 acres of privately managed rainforest, there are walking trails and even a bird sanctuary on site.
Check the latest prices & availability on:
Apartamento Equipados RyA del Volcan
For those looking for a comfortable stay in a central location, this apartment is a great choice.
Apartamento Equipados RyA del Volcan is a short walk from the centre of La Fortuna, so you don’t have to worry about finding parking or paying for a taxi every time you go out for a meal.
The rooms are stylishly furnished, clean and have a small living area and kitchen for the times you don’t fancy eating out.
Check the latest prices & availability on:
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