Her Wild Life: Costa Rica
Trip Overview
From a lush botanical garden in San José to the wildlife-dense rainforest of the southern Pacific coast and the cool, high-elevation cloud forest of San Gerardo de Dota, this seven-day trip is built for women who want their travel to mean something — for themselves, for each other, and for the place they’re visiting.
You’ll spend your days looking for scarlet macaws, sloths, and monkeys in the lowlands, then trade the coastal climate for high-elevation quiet as you ascend into quetzal country. This trip is led throughout by Arlet Quirós Calvo, a Costa Rican biologist and naturalist and for groups of 8–10, joined by Carly Crow.
What sets our guides apart isn’t just their knowledge of this landscape. It’s knowing when to share it and when to simply let the moment land. It’s the difference between a guide who can answer your questions and one who knows which ones you didn’t think to ask.
Along the way, you’ll meet the women who shape this country as much as its wildlife does. Artisans keeping centuries-old traditions alive, cooks who’ll teach you the difference between good gallo pinto and excellent gallo pinto, and a trailblazing chef building her own reputation in a small mountain town. This isn’t incidental to the trip; it’s the point. Every Her Wild Life expedition is built to put real revenue and real recognition behind the women-led businesses we visit, because we believe that showing up for local women is as much a part of wildlife travel as showing up for the wildlife itself.
Whether you’re arriving solo or with a friend, this is a week built around community: the community you’ll build with the women in your group, and the community of Costa Rican women you’ll meet, learn from, and support along the way.
Itinerary
Day 1 | Arrival to San José
Welcome to Costa Rica! You’ll be met at the airport and transferred to our hotel, tucked inside a 10-acre botanical garden that’s home to more birds than you’ll be able to name by the end of the week. This first evening is for settling in, meeting your fellow travelers, and meeting Arlet, whose knowledge and love for her home country will shape everything that follows.
Suggested arrival time to Juan Santamaria Airport (SJO): 7 pm or earlier
Accommodations: Hotel Bougainvillea
Meals: None
Day 2 | San José to Dominical
Before breakfast, step outside and let the hotel gardens start introductions to the tropics. This is one of the best birding spots in the city, and a gentle way to start noticing how much life is packed into every corner of this country. After breakfast, we head west toward the Pacific, stopping at Carara National Park, home to one of Costa Rica’s largest populations of scarlet macaws and a true conservation success story. A walk through the coastal rainforest may turn up parrots, hummingbirds, trogons, monkeys, iguanas, and more. By late afternoon, we’ll settle into Dominical, a laid-back coastal town that’s home base for the next three nights.
Accommodations: Villas Río Mar
Meals: Breakfast, lunch, and dinner
Day 3 | Manuel Antonio National Park
Today we explore Manuel Antonio, one of Costa Rica’s most celebrated parks for good reason. The mix of rainforest and coastline here concentrates wildlife in a way that feels almost surreal. Keep an eye out for two- and three-toed sloths, all four monkey species found in Costa Rica, toucans, and more. Arlet’s field experience means she’s reading this landscape in real time — the rustle that’s just wind, and the one that isn’t. We’ll return to Dominical for a relaxed dinner and time to share highlights from the day’s best sightings.
Accommodations: Villas Río Mar
Meals: Breakfast, lunch, and dinner
Day 4 | Hacienda Barú, By Day and By Night
We spend the morning at Hacienda Barú, a former cattle ranch that’s transformed into a thriving, diverse wildlife refuge. Here, a well-maintained trail system allows for up-close, unhurried wildlife-watching.
After some downtime back at the hotel and an early dinner, we return to Hacienda Barú after dark for a guided night walk. Get ready for a completely different rainforest experience once the sun goes down. Tomorrow, we head for the mountains.
Accommodations: Villas Río Mar
Meals: Breakfast, lunch, and dinner
Day 5 | Dominical to San Gerardo de Dota
It’s time to trade coastline for cloud forest. As we ascend into the Talamanca Mountains, the humidity holds but the temperature drops. Pack an extra layer, you’ll want it. A homestyle lunch will break up the drive and by evening, we’ll be settled into our cloud forest lodge immersed in a landscape that feels like an entirely different country from where we started the week.
Accommodations: Paraíso Quetzal Lodge
Meals: Breakfast, lunch, and dinner
Day 6 | Quetzals, Cuisine, and a Cloud Forest Farewell
Grab your binoculars! Today is for the resplendent quetzal, and a gentle walk through high-elevation forest provides our best shot at finding one. We’ll take in plenty of other highland specialties along the way. Our morning in the clouds continues with a special coffee experience before time at leisure back at the lodge.
In the evening, we’ll gather for a farewell dinner prepared by a female chef from the local community, closing out a week built around women’s expertise.
Accommodations: Paraíso Quetzal Lodge
Meals: Breakfast, lunch, and dinner
Day 7 | Back to San José
After breakfast, we head back to San José to connect with afternoon flights home.
It’s never long enough, but you’re sure to leave with new friends and a deeper appreciation for this wild, warm-hearted country.
Meals: Breakfast
Plan your departure flight from SJO airport for 1pm or later.
About Your Expedition Leaders
Arlet Quirós Calvo
Arlet is a biologist and naturalist with a deep, career-long relationship to Costa Rica’s wild places. Born and raised in Los Santos and now based on the Osa Peninsula, Arlet has spent years guiding across the country’s most biodiverse regions, building a base of regional knowledge that few guides can match. She holds a master’s degree in natural resources management focused on biodiversity and blends hard science with storytelling and genuine human connection in the way she leads a group. When asked about her most memorable wildlife encounter, Arlet recalls watching a puma stalk a white-faced capuchin monkey — an experience that taught her the value of patience, a principle she applies both in the field and in life. Off the trail, she’s often running, biking, or cooking something delicious.
Carly Crow (joins groups of 8–10)
Carly brings a naturalist’s eye and a genuine love of sharing wild places with others. Originally from Georgia and now based in Denver, Colorado, she holds a bachelor’s in ecology and a master’s in biology focused on ecology and evolution. Her years as a field ornithologist have taken her around the world, including extensive time in Costa Rica, and she now brings that field experience to Her Wild Life Expeditions groups. Ask her to name a favorite bird or mammal, though, and she’ll tell you that’s a forbidden question — like asking a parent to pick a favorite child.
Details
Price: $4850* per person, private room included with no single-supplement fee. A discount of $715* per person is available for travelers sharing a room.
What’s Included: Lodging for 6 nights as listed; 1–2 expert naturalist guides: Arlet Quirós Calvo, joined by Carly Crow for groups of 8–10; 6 breakfasts, 5 lunches, and 5 dinners, including coffee, tea, and purified water at meals; airport transfers on arrival and departure days; private ground transportation with air conditioning; activities and entrance fees as listed, at local, women-owned partners wherever possible; a conservation donation made on behalf of every traveler to the Central American Oncilla Project.
What’s Not Included: International flights; passport/visa fees; travel insurance (quotes available); dinner on arrival day; alcohol; optional activities; pre- or post-trip hotels; room upgrades; gratuities; personal expenses.
*Reflects payment by ACH. Credit card fees assessed based type of card used at time of payment.
Group Size: 5-10 women
Every Her Wild Life expedition is built for women who want full, active days and authentic wildlife encounters — which sometimes means being out early and moving when the wildlife is most active. We put you in the right place at the right time, while acknowledging that the best encounters take a mix of guide expertise and genuine luck.
This Costa Rica expedition involves:
- Road transfers of up to 2–3 hours at a time, including a climb into the mountains on curvy roads.
- Scheduled during Costa Rica’s green season, in our opinion the best time to visit, which means trails may be muddy or slippery at times. Rain is part of the experience.
- Time in the cloud forest at elevations up to 8,000–10,000 feet.
- Early starts on most days, generally by 6 a.m., with darkness falling around 6 p.m.
- Pack your sense of adventure, wonder, and humor.
Conservation Impact
The Central American Oncilla Project is a science-based research and conservation initiative dedicated to studying and protecting the oncilla, a small, little-known wild cat native to the forests of Costa Rica and Panama. Using noninvasive genetic sampling and camera trapping, the project is working to understand the oncilla’s distribution, habitat, and diet — filling a critical research gap for a species that remains largely a mystery, even to biologists. A conservation donation to support the Central American Oncilla Project’s efforts will be made on behalf of all trip participants.
