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Review Highlights
Best Coffee Experience

The coffee tasting was absolutely amazing! Chris is a coffee wizard and the experience was very... read more

Reviewed 21 January 2024
Brenna K
A must if you love nature walks and birds!

We went on the nature hike, which was a beautiful, leisurely, long walk. Our guide, Marvin, was... read more

Reviewed 22 June 2023
dara p
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Reviews (151)
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All reviews yellow trail coffee tour the reserve his mother authentic coffee coffee experience love nature costa rica beautiful birds christopher lemonade coatis hike monteverde paths reserves sightings
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Reviewed 3 February 2018

Best attention from guides of all the parks and reserves that we have visited in Costa Rica and that is saying a lot because the others were also very good. Christopher loves nature and his work as shown by his knowledge and commitment to communicating what he knows to visitors. He is a fount of information, patient, and friendly as was his brother. It is a family-operated sanctuary and their passion for what they do comes though.

Relatively easy trails lead through a variety of vegetation (e.g. large ficus trees, banana bushes, flowers, etc.) inhabited by numerous animals, such as white-faced capuchin monkeys, numerous birds and other small critters, including some that are rarely seen).

Christopher's enthusiasm extends to the wonderful coffee and arabica fruit tea that he grows and harvests himself in a true connoisseur's fashion.

Date of experience: February 2018
1  Thank U2320NXjamesw
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Santuario M, Director de Recepción at Ecological Sanctuary, responded to this reviewResponded 5 February 2018
Google Translation

Hola James,

Muchas gracias por su visita y comentario realmente nos motiva a seguir adelante. El aporte que se hace por medio de la entrada nos ayuda a conservar estas 48h de hermoso bosque.

Saludos,
Familia Salazar

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Reviewed 27 January 2018 via mobile

This private area is managed by a family that offers overnight accommodation on airbnb. This place is very far from town. The bathroom and toilets are confined in a very small room, which is very dirty. They also offer meals for $ 10 per person, which is a lot of money to eat rice and a piece of meat. The restaurant "Sabor Ticos" in town offers real local meals for less than $ 10. We woke up with a snake in our bed the 2nd day of our stay. Moreover, you are unlikely to see anything but a few birds, reptiles and amphibians during their night tours. We do not recommend this place

Date of experience: December 2017
Thank JLD2AA
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Santuario M, Director de Recepción at Ecological Sanctuary, responded to this reviewResponded 28 January 2018

$10 for a baked loin stuffed with vegetables and bacon, covered with tomato sauce and cheese, accompanied by rice, salad and a natural drink. You also served more because at the time you thought it was very good.

We are very sorry for not having fulfilled your expectations.

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Reviewed 17 January 2018 via mobile

If you don’t have time or energy for a 3-hour tour through the Monteverde Cloud Forest - which is amazing & important to do your first visit - this is a superb alternative for subsequent visits at an attractive price. You can buy a field guide on site, or you can download one to your mobile device, for about $10 - bringing the total cost for a couple to about $40, v $65 at the larger attraction. In either case take or rent binoculars, too - there are several shops in Santa Elena to find them. Take some time here also to chat first with Félix or his brother, Chris - both super-friendly with excellent English & happy to share their vast knowledge of the flora & fauna abounding in their family’s mountaintop. They’ll point out the best places to spot various plants & animals. You may well have the place largely to yourself, too!

Date of experience: January 2018
1  Thank JPhoebus
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Santuario M, Director de Recepción at Ecological Sanctuary, responded to this reviewResponded 19 January 2018
Google Translation

Nos alegra mucho que hayan disfrutado del Santuario Ecológico, muchas gracias por recomendarnos.
Nos encanta compartir con nuestros visitantes de la naturaleza, cultura y gastronomía, ademas con su visita usted nos ayuda a conservar estas 48 hectáreas de bosque.
Saludos Familia Salazar

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Reviewed 5 January 2018

You need to walk this sanctuary it is must see not only for the animals but also the scenery’, it is peaceful and beautiful

Date of experience: December 2017
Thank Stuart M
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
SantuarioEcologico, Director de Recepción at Ecological Sanctuary, responded to this reviewResponded 8 January 2018

We are super that glad you enjoy our property, with your entry you help us to the maintenance and conservation of this forest.
Regards,
Familia Salazar

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Reviewed 5 December 2017 via mobile

We arrived on foot to the entrance of the Ecological Sanctuary and just before entering into the reception we were distracted by a group of monkeys hanging on low tree branches. We stopped to watch them and from the reception a kid went out and started to throw rocks to the monkeys. In the meanwhile the woman inside the reception completely ignored it. We came back to our steps very disappointed.

Date of experience: December 2017
Thank nobilearte
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
SantuarioEcologico, Director de Recepción at Ecological Sanctuary, responded to this reviewResponded 6 December 2017

Thank you very much for your review we will take into account to improve.
Ecological Sanctuary is a place open to the public, it is likely that the child you who saw at the entrance, was with one of our customers.
We are very sorry that you had this impression.

Familia Salazar
Santuario Ecológico

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