When we first moved to Costa Rica I met a French woman named Elodie. She invited me over to her apartment for coffee and I was so excited to have a friend. I was still adjusting to living far away from all of my people and I was excited to have a friend.
Beckham was also still adjusting our first few weeks here. While we chatted, Beckham ran around her home trying to rip leaves off of plants and stand on furniture.
I was so anxious during our time together that I couldn’t really concentrate on anything.
One thing I remembered, however, was that she said we should go to San Gerardo de Dota.
FYI Elodie and I are still friends (she forgave me for ruining her house) and she ended up introducing me to her son’s teacher who is one of my best friends here in Costa Rica!
If I could use 1 word to describe San Gerardo de Dota, it would be “cozy”. There are no supermarkets, gas stations or banks. Just a few restaurants and a handful of cabins and lodges.
It is one of the only places in Costa Rica I have been able to use my comfy clothes 🙂
San Gerardo is a sleepy little town in the San Jose province, just a few hours southeast of the capital San Jose.
It is mostly known for Quetzal National Park, which is home to the Quetzal Bird.
What to Do in San Gerardo de Dota:
- Quetzal National Park
- Look for Quetzals early in the morning
- Hike Rio Savegre: Very family friendly, beautiful, and free!
- Walk around town
- Batsu Gardens: $25 (supposedly this is a good place to bird watch but we found it too pricey and Lauracea’s Garden was amazing and free)!
- Lauracea’s Garden: Free garden with incredible plant life and amazing little trails.
- Latin American Artisians Gallery: Small shop with local handicrafts from Costa Rica, Columbia and Peru
- Stay in a cozy cabin. Some of them have fireplaces! 🙂 Take in the view from your porch early in the morning.
- Eat at a trucha farm. You can fish for your own trout and eat it right there! There are several in the area. Just look for the signs.
Where to Stay
- Trogon Lodge: This is the most popular place to stay, probably. The rooms are about $140 a night but it has amazing grounds and looks like it is out of a fairy tale.
- Hotel Savegre: Another upper tier hotel that is very well known. It has an awesome restaurant, spa and everything. Definitely a splurge option!
- Tami Lodge: Canvas bunk tents for $70 a night. Breakfast is included and it’s a really cool experience because you get to sleep up in the treetops!!
- Cabinas San Gerardo: AMAZING budget option. Super clean, incredible breakfast included, amazing view from your front porch.
- Quetzal Valle Cabin: Another good budget option with an amazing lookout!
Where to Eat
- Soda Dona Marlen: Typical Soda
- Mariam’s Restaurant: Mid-price food. Incredible! The owners are the best, too. Awesome view in the morning from the back porch where there are tons and tons of birds!
- Cafe Pizzeria Joannes: Amazing pizza
- Cafe Kahawa: One of the most popular cafes in town
- Hotel Savegre: $25 incredible buffet
Important Info (Quetzal National Park)
- Province: San Jose
- How Far From San Jose: 2 hours southeast (80 km/50 miles)
- Cost: 1,000 CRC adults and 500 CRC kids 6-12 (residents), $10 adults and $5 children (non-residents)
- Hours: Daily, 7:30 AM-3:30 PM
- Age: All ages
- Time Needed: 2 hours
- Best Time of Year to Go: End of March/Early May because it is nesting season for the Quetzal birds!
- What to Bring: Binoculars, warm clothes, hiking shoes, sunscreen, sunglasses, hat, bug spray, water
- Other things in the Area: San Gerardo de Rivas (home to CHIRRIPO!)
- Pro tip(s): It can get really cool here so bring warm clothing! Also if you are wanting a chance to see the Quetzal bird, go in March and go very early in the morning! Also, there is pretty much no wifi/cell service here! We struggled meeting up with some friends because of this but ended up using a restaurant’s land line. Just keep this in mind before coming!
One of my favorite parts about San Gerardo de Dota is the ride to get there! It is important to go during daylight because not only is it a beautiful drive through part of the Cartago province, but the roads become vary narrow toward the end and it is a lot safer to drive in daylight. You don’t need a 4×4 but sometimes the road is closed during rainy season!
We pulled up just as the sun had set and I couldn’t believe how much cooler it was! We went in April, which is one of the peak seasons, and it felt like an abandoned town! I loved it!!!
There is pretty much one road that runs through the town and it is filled with little restaurants and cozy accommodations. Outside of the national park, there really isn’t that much to do!
This was one of THE cleanest accomodations I have ever stayed in!!!!! I felt like we were staying in a brand new room. And then the view from our room in the morning. Just incredible. I would totally 10/10 recommend Cabinas San Gerardo.
The only thing to keep in mind is that it really does get cold at night here. We wore warm clothes and used all of the extra blankets and I was still chilly!
A huge perk of Cabinas San Gerardo is that breakfast is included. It is an amazing breakfast and it is located at the restaurant right next to the cabins.
Click on this link to book an incredible night of accomodations https://www.booking.com/hotel/cr/cabinas-san-gerardo.html?label=opensearch-plugin;sid=b769ba514a07bb48071a59efa106c085;dest_id=900052668;dest_type=city;dist=0;hapos=1;hpos=1;room1=A%2CA;sb_price_type=total;sr_order=popularity;srepoch=1557858757;srpvid=1552826263c902df;type=total;ucfs=1!
As I mentioned earlier, your stay at Cabinas San Gerardo comes with a breakfast at Mariam’s Cafe, which is one of the highest recommended restaurants in the area!
The food is delicious, the owners are amazing people, and you can watch birds zip around and sing while you enjoy your food. It was an amazing morning!
Tips for Finding Quetzals:
- Go at the end of March or very begining of April. This is their only next time!
- You don’t NEED to hire a guide, but it is very helpful.
- If you don’t hire a guide you can ask the owners of Mariam’s Cafe where the birds have nested while you are there. I linked on the Google Maps above where the birds were nesting when we went in April 2019.
- Go early in the morning to either the park or the location the locals/your guide tells you to!
- Bring binoculars!
- Be patient. We didn’t see one the whole morning we were bird watching. It wasn’t until our afternoon hike that we saw one.
After walking around looking for Quetzals and having a nice breakfast, we met up with our friends Jenny and John and Beckham’s bestie Saul. We decided to do the Rio Savegre hike.
You see the crystal Savegre River the whole time you are in San Gerardo de Dota, as it flows through the little town. The trailhead is extremely easy to find and is just off the side of the road on your left. If you pass the Surgia Lodge you have gone too far.
The trail is family friendly and Beckham/Saul hiked a large part of it on their own. It took us about 50 minutes to arrive to the waterfall.
After the hike we decided to head to Lauraceas Gardens to treat ourselves to some homemade avacado ice cream and some incredible gardens. Lauraceas is a fancy restaurant attached to some free gardens, which are some of the best I have ever been to! HIDDEN GEM IN SAN GERARDO!
We walked around for a while and ended up at the lookout at the top. We spent about 90 minutes at the garden. It could have been a lot shorter but the kids wanted to walk so we followed them.
Around 5 PM we decided to head home (then turned back around because we realized that we left one of Beckham’s toy planes on the grass).
I think two days would have been perfect here. I could have used another day to take it all in. I’m sure most people would be fine with one day.
