Hotel El Bosque Monteverde

Hotel El Bosque Monteverde (also known as El Bosque Trails and Eco-Lodge and previously known as El Bosque Lodge) is a small eco-lodge nestled in a lush green forest right on the edge of the Children’s Eternal Rainforest, the largest private reserve, located in Monteverde Costa Rica.

The cabins are simple (no frills) but the setting is extremely beautiful, quiet and peaceful.

You will discover that we do not sale rooms, we sale the experience of living in the forest, so you can get a unique experience of what it’s like to live completely surrounded by nature.

You will have lots of beautiful gardens to photograph, a private nature preserve with many trails for you to get lost on, abundant wildlife (especially birds), and on-site nature tours onsite (additional fees apply). 

At Hotel El Bosque Monteverde, you will feel as though you are camping in the cloud forest but with all the basic lodging amenities (no frills) at your fingertips:

• Hot shower
• Small Fridge
• In-Room WiFi
• Private Bathroom
• Comfortable Beds
• Beautiful Views to Gardens

If you are a simple traveler, who prefers nature over luxury, this place is for you.

Spot many birds without walking too much. Simply wake up early, grab your binoculars, and take an easy walk around the property and you will spot more birds here than anywhere else in Monteverde (guaranteed or your money back).

El Bosque is a perfect blend of young (secondary) forest and old (primary) forest, and it is right at the heart of the Bellbird Biological Corridor (right on the edge of the Children’s Eternal Rainforest) which makes the location a hot spot for birdwatching, so if you are a birder, this place is for you.

Enjoy a beautiful on-site nature park with 23 Acres of Private Forest and more than 2 miles (5km) of hiking trails at your doorstep.

Story behind Hotel El Bosque

Once a farm that produced milk for the Monteverde Cheese Factory, El Bosque Lodge was one of the first lodges and conservation areas established in Monteverde.

The story of Monteverde begins in the 1950s when a group of Quaker families from the United States left their country in search of peace and tranquility, refusing to join the US Army as the Korean War waged. They travelled many places throughout Central America until they found Monteverde, a safe haven far from the fears of enlistment or imprisonment. And so, they settled for a simple, peaceful life surrounded by nature.

Soon later, in 1953, the Quakers established the first business in the area: The Monteverde Cheese Factory, which employed most of the adult population back then. Monteverde locals were either employees of the factory, or farmers who produced supplies for it. Don Marcos and Doña Irma (founders of El Bosque Lodge) were among these farmers, and little did they know, that the land where they used to have cattle, would 20 years later become one of the first lodges for eco-tourism.

In the early 1970s, the Quakers joined forces with resident scientists to make the case for the first private nature preserve in Costa Rica. With approximately 330 hectares, they successfully established the Monteverde Cloud Forest Biological Preserve.

In the years that followed, tourism began to grow in Monteverde from small numbers of scientists to thousands of tourists who were initially camping in the lands of locals until the first lodges were established. El Bosque was one of those first establishments, the bus from San Jose (pretty much the only way for tourists to get here back then…) used to stop right in front of the current entrance which naturally drove many tourists to ask Don Marcos and Doña Irma to let them either sleep in one of the rooms of their house or to let them camp in their private forest.

In the 1990s, Don Marcos and Doña Irma made a decision to start building the lodge which began with only a few rooms, slowly growing to the 25 rooms that it has today, and 25 years later, they decided that it was time to retire and pass on the business to a new generation.

Don Marcos and Doña Irma then left the property and handed over the business to Daniel, who took ownership in August 2016, with no experience in tourism but a strong business management skillset and a wealth of customer service experience, from a corporate world to a nature paradise.

Nowadays, even though, Monteverde has changed a lot and many other lodges have been established since eco-tourism was first introduced, El Bosque is one of very few that keeps its essence: a simple lodge, in a beautiful setting, with gardens, a private forest set aside for conservation, many trails to get lost on, and now a birdwatching tour and a night walk onsite available to its clients and open to the public for those who are not staying at the lodge.

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