The Curi-Cancha Reserve is a birdwatching paradise for those interested in highland and cloud forest species! Located near the world-famous Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve, this independently owned reserve is quite similar but is not as well known. This means fewer people and more animals! Birdwatchers will be delighted as over 200 species of birds have been observed within the reserve! Resplendent Quetzals, Blue Crowned Mot Mots, Three Wattled Bellbirds, Orange Bellied Trogons, and Emerald Toucanettes are among the many species that pass through here at various times of the year. Many mammals call the reserve home or pass through occasionally, such as Two-Toed Sloths, Kinkajous, Armadillo, Agouti, Pizote, and even three species of monkeys; Howlers, Capuchins, and rare Spider Monkeys. With a little luck and cooperation from Mother Nature, your bilingual naturalist guide will help you spot some of these amazing animals.
The day starts off when you are picked up from your Monteverde area hotel. After picking up some other tourists in the air-conditioned tour van, you'll be brought to the Curi-Cancha Reserve. This impressive reserve is home to both primary and secondary cloud forest, with groomed trails winding throughout the 205 acres of protected reserve. Towering trees are covered with beautiful bromeliads, vines, and plant life, creating mini-ecosystems in each tree!
As you make your way through the reserve, your guide will educate you about the cloud forest and its relationship with the local people and animals. Using a spotting scope, your guide will find, identify, and show you colorful birds and possibly exotic animals. There are seven kilometers of trails within the reserve that vary in altitude from 1,450 - 1,615 meters but you will not pass through all of them. Your guide will preselect the trails based on recent sightings and preferred habitat by the wildlife at that time of the year.
An average day at the Curi-Cancha Reserve will yield the ability to observe approximately 30 - 40 species of birds. Of course, some days are better than others and a lot of it has to do with the time of year you are traveling. With that said, this is one of the best places in Costa Rica for cloud forest birdwatching and often a trip highlight for nature lovers and birdwatchers!
This half-day morning trip usually lasts around 3 - 4 hours, including transportation from area hotels. The tour includes a naturalist guide, entrance fees, and transportation. We suggest that you bring appropriate rain gear and keep in mind that it is often rainy, windy, and cool in Monteverde. You should also bring hiking shoes, binoculars, and a camera. We recommend that you bring a dry bag to protect your camera and for anything else that you would like to keep dry.
The Curi Cancha Reserve Guided Hike is available from Monteverde
All Ages
Latitude: N 10° 18' 22.83"
Longitude: W 84° 48' 29.67"
11/11/2023
Great tour with excellent guide, but could have been longer!
08/06/2023
We loved Walter, the guide. Intelligent, friendly, well-mannered, was great with our son. Please thank him again and say hi to him. We saw a lot here. We love Monteverde and will return here for sure. Beautiful town, air, nature!
07/20/2023
The tour and the guide were both good, but we didn’t see much in the way of birds or wildlife. Luck of the draw - we can’t blame the guide for that.
07/06/2023
The guide was excellent. We saw a lot of birds. Maybe the right expectations need to be set here. You're not going to see as many monkeys or sloths. We were coming from Manuel Antonio so maybe its not fair.
06/25/2023
Probably would have need to been an early morning tour to see birds. A beautiful reserve but mostly a walk vs bird watching.
06/17/2023
This tour was one of our favorites! The reserve is just beautiful, and we were able to see so much wildlife. Our guide was phenomenal! He was extremally knowledgeable and was able to spot many different animals.
06/05/2023
It was ok. The guide was quick to get out his scope and use my camera to take pictures of what he saw; but, it was sometimes more difficult to actually see what he said he was seeing.
05/29/2023
This was the best part of our trip! Very good guide, only a small group allowed in the reserve. Our tour had only 1 other person. Lots of birds and wildlife….a great tour!
05/05/2023
Was shorter than I expected and saw almost no animals. Saw no birds of note, for example.
04/14/2023
Great guide, wonderful place. We recommended this tour to other people we met along the way
03/06/2023
This tour was 10 out of 10. We were lucky enough to have the guide to ourselves. He was a young man who's name is sadly escaping me right now. He had a great sense of humour, a very calm disposition and was super knowledgeable. We were lucky enough to see multiple quetzal's as well as hummingbirds and a variety of other birds and monkeys. Overall, this was a must-do activity in Monteverde.
02/15/2023
Loved the hike and birds
01/31/2023
Our guide, Javier, was extremely knowledgeable about the flora and fauna. He was very patient and ensured everyone got excellent views and pictures of the wildlife. Excellent experience. Tour group size was limited to six, which was really the perfect size.
01/30/2023
Had hoped to spot more wildlife and were it not for the telescopes we may not have seen many of the birds.
01/07/2023
We had a fantastic guide, saw and learned a lot on the tour.
12/30/2022
Again, the splendour of Costa Rican nature was on full display! Our guide (Javier) was informative, patient, and really took his time (and his excellent scope) to find and capture (on camera, of course!) the wildlife of the area. We were paired with a lovely family from New Mexico who appreciated the bird and animal watching as much as we did. Incredible to hear the story of the cloud forest. And to see a Resplendent Quetzal!
12/22/2022
A little more crowded because it was the holiday week, but great tour guide and loved the reserve.
12/16/2022
Had a fantastic tour with guide Javier. Courteous, knowledgeable, clearly interested in Nature.
07/28/2022
We saw the quetzal (beautiful!) and bell birds, as well as many other birds and morpho butterflies. Our guide was knowledgable and told us a lot about the flora and fauna of the park. This park has quite an open canopy relative to Santa Elena reserve, making it ideal for spotting birds. However, I would recommend also going to Santa Elena or Monteverde reserve for a true cloud forest experience.
06/15/2022
We used the same guide to take us on a night tour. He was great.
05/27/2022
Depending on time of year and what you want to see Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve might be a better option. We ended up doing both to see all of the birds we wanted to see. The Quetzal was not in Curi Cancha during nesting season.
05/20/2022
Kevin was really good.He knew all the birds and could call them directly
03/19/2022
Knowledgeable guide who helped with lots of good photos and bird ID, wonderful bird watching experience and comfortable hike
01/24/2022
It was nice, well organized but we did not see many animals compared to other parks and areas. Very sad we couldn't see any quetzal. They told us it's not the best time for it and, probably, if we had known, we'd have picked a different time
12/26/2021
Guide was very knowledgeable.
11/25/2021
It was fairly boring. But our guide was fantastic. I would not recommend unless you are really really into birds.
08/19/2021
This tour was so cool. Exceeded all of our expectations for what we would get to see. I think it does really help that the reserve limits the number of visitors each day so more animals come out.
08/15/2021
We lucked out, it rained before our tour and after. Our guide dropped us in town afterwards, so we could spend some time there. Saw lots of birds, one very rare even the guide had not seen before. Pretty exciting.
08/14/2021
Loved this Tour and the Guide Bernie was Awesome! He went out of his way to point out so many different types of wildlife and helped us take some great photos along the way. He also sent us additional wildlife photos after the fact. Highly recommended to others!
07/22/2021
Guide was amazing!
05/30/2021
My tour guide was exceptional. He patiently explained and taught me things about the history of the reserve, agriculture and birds. Great experience and I definitely recommend this activity. I’m just sorry I forgot my guides name. He was great!!!!
04/27/2021
Again, thought we would see more monkeys, but saw way more interesting birds than expected. Guide knows his birds and was interesting to talk with.
03/25/2021
Our guide was fabulaous would have giving him a 20 star not a 10 star. Of all of my tours all over the world he was the most knowledgeable and passionate about his job
03/20/2021
This tour was perfect! The guide set a comfortable pace for my age and mobility. He asked me what birds I wanted him to find and then he found them. This was our favorite tour of the week.
03/08/2021
We were lucky enough to see 5 quetzals in a tree !
02/24/2021
Another over the top experience, for sure.
03/08/2020
Great tour guide, abundant wildlife. LOVED!
02/17/2020
Excellent guide. Good English, well spoken. We went back later in the day on our own and they let us through without difficulties.
02/15/2020
Great guide!
02/13/2020
Very good tour...saw birds, lots of hummingbirds. Great hike.
01/11/2020
I loved this tour and am glad PTW highly recommended it as an alternative to Monteverde Reserve - we didnt need a guide for that but for C Cancha it was super helpful. Curi Cancha was beautiful and am so glad we did this. Guide was good although not too chatty and rather new at the job, however he was knowledgeable and we did get to see many things we would not have on our own.
01/10/2020
We didn't see as much as we'd expected, although high winds during our visit made it more difficult. Still a great experience, and the hummingbird garden was incredible.
12/04/2019
Fantastic guide who quickly tuned into our interest in wildlife. He was very informative, really interesting and fantastic at spotting different types of wildlife. An amazing park.
11/25/2019
A very nice tour if wild birds are the main attraction. Our preference was to see other wildlife but understand they may not always be easy to spot.
11/13/2019
We learned a lot on this guided tour because our guide was very knowledgeable! We saw so many things that we would have missed had we not gone with a guide. because the reserve is right near the Monteverde cheese factory, we ended the tour with a milkshake which was the best milkshake ever! Carlos took photos through his scope and shared them with us. He was awesome!