Turtle-Watching Tours

ACOTAM. ACOTAM, a local conservation association, conducts turtle-viewing tours in Las Baulas National Marine Park in Playa Grande with local guides for $35, including park entrance fee. The group picks you up at your hotel and briefs you at their headquarters on the estuary that separates Tamarindo and Playa Grande. An open boat then takes you across the estuary, where you wait at the park station until a turtle has been spotted. With so few leatherback turtles nesting, you are more likely to see green sea turtles instead. The leatherback nesting season is from mid-October to mid-February. You can see the green sea turtles through April. They also offer covered-boat mangrove tours along the Tamarindo River year-round for $25 per person (minimum two people). Tamarindo, Guanacaste. 2653–1687. From $25.