The Ecocentro Danuas night walk provides a window of opportunity to observe nocturnal wildlife in a natural habitat. The majority of animals that live in the rainforest are more active at night, so grab a flashlight and see the jungle in a new light!
The Ecocentro Danuas is located a few minutes outside of La Fortuna. It is a privately owned ecological reserve which has been awarded the prestigious Blue Flag Award for clean and protected natural areas. The focus of the reserve is to preserve and protect the natural biodiversity of the plants, trees and wildlife within their reserve.
The tour starts off when you are picked up from your La Fortuna area hotel. You will be brought to the Ecocentro Danuas and paired with a guide. Your guide will provide a flashlight and will lead you through the designated trails in search of wildlife.
Frogs, snakes, lizards, sloths, opossums and sleeping birds are all commonly spotted on the tour. Red eyed green leaf frogs are often the stars of the show! These little guys have earned celebrity status in Costa Rica due to their brilliant colors which have landed them on top of many advertisement campaigns. Not to be overlooked, blue jeans dart frogs take a close second with their gorgeous colorings. It is not uncommon to see an opossum or a sloth. Opossums are more active and usually looking for food in the evening while sloths on the other hand are often taking it easy at night.
The night walk lasts about two hours and in total, the tour lasts around three hours including round trip transfers. Of course, this is subject to change. In addition to transportation, the tour also includes reserve entrance fees, flashlight, and a guide.
The Night Walk at Ecocentro Danaus is available from Arenal, Arenal Zone 2, and Arenal Zone 3
2 and up
Latitude: N 10° 28' 56.73"
Longitude: W 84° 37' 4.62"
06/29/2023
Great sights! Great information!
03/11/2023
Great tour in a small nature preserve but that was packed full of nightlife. Got to see many frogs, toads, lizards, butterflies (sleeping), sloth (mom & baby both sleeping) and a caiman in the water. Guide was awesome and could find life under almost any leaf. We wanted to see the signature red-eyed tree frog and we got to see many!
Guided group was small (6) so intimate experience with everyone having flashlights.
12/09/2022
Excellent guide. saw many animals. Sloth close to trail.
10/24/2022
The guide here, Melvin, was extraordinary. I have never known anyone with so much knowledge about all animals and the biology of the region. We all learned so much this night. Melvin would take our phones & zoom in on animals & insects. The photos we have from this night hike are amazing. Highly recommend. Group size was 7, so plenty of personal interaction, and extremely informative and interesting.
06/23/2022
It rained a lot during this tour which meant we did not see as much and get as close to wildlife as I was hoping/expecting. The guide was knowledgeable if a little less warm than the others we had on our trip. It was not the most enjoyable or memorable activity we did and that may be more about the weather/luck, but I am still happy we did it.
05/21/2022
The guide was informed, passionate and knowledgeable.
01/26/2020
This tour was a favourite of our excursions. Knowledgeable, interesting guides, saw lots of wildlife.
12/24/2019
Very interesting tour, 7 species of frogs, toad, millipede, sleeping birds and sloth, basilisk lizard
12/22/2019
The tour guide Paz was not very engaging
12/03/2019
Naturalist knowledgeable and friendly. Lots of frogs and a few other creatures.
12/01/2019
It was so cool to experience the nightlife wildlife with this tour. Our guide was so informative and we enjoyed looking for all of the animals we could find.
11/12/2019
The park that hosts the night walk is much smaller than anticipated. The guide was very knowledgeable about animals but very serious. He did not seem to appreciated our jokes as much as other guides. It is a slow moving nature tour that might be perfect for some groups but was a bit too slow for ours.
04/23/2019
small area, short tour.
04/17/2019
Guide was great, but there just weren't many animals around that particular night.
10/28/2018
got longer tour due to only 2 of us. saw lots of animals
08/09/2017
Our tour guide was so knowledgeable, personable, and friendly. We saw two sloths, a caiman, frogs, butterflies, spiders, etc.
07/24/2017
Did not expect such an highly knowledgeable guide. Really great
06/23/2017
The guide was very knowledgeable. Made the experience come to life. Showed us things we never would have seen on our own.
03/13/2017
Lots to see and lots to learn. Our guide was wonderful and we saw many animals. It was a new experience walking through the very dark forest with flashlights.
02/04/2017
Elias our guide was great!!
02/03/2017
Not too excited by the overall experience. Did not see a whole lot.
11/26/2016
We saw frogs!!! Great to see animals at night. The only drawback was the flashlights were hit or miss. Some of the batteries were running low.
08/07/2016
This was very fun. We saw plenty of frogs and insects. Our guide was good, filled with good information
07/26/2016
The tour leader was very knowledgeable and showed a passion for conservation. We were able to see tiny creatures during the night walk. The park was very well kept and lush. It was very enjoyable for our family. I would highly recommend to my clients, family and friends.
02/09/2016
There was supposed to be a snack with the excursion and nobody knew anything about it. It was at diner time so we were starving ! The pick up had forgotten about us so the guide had to call, then the driver did not know where Ecocentro Danaus was !! We had to wait a very long time in the dark and pouring rain !!
07/05/2015
Paz was a great guide. He was really informative and answered all my questions and made sure we saw as many animals as possible. I imagined the park to be bigger than it was but once it got dark the park seemed to go on forever.
03/09/2015
A great tour. An improvement would be for the facility to provide good flashlights to the tourists. His flashlight was excellent. The ones he gave us were poor.
01/21/2015
Thought it would be in a big jungle