As in every place of interest, you will find a multitude of guides offering tours in different parts of the National Park not only in Tortuguero but also all along your way to the village - at the bus station in San José and Cariari and at the boat dock in La Pavona. Especially the guides working independently on the street often offer prices below those offered by official suppliers. In order to receive a good quality service, we strongly recommend paying attention to the person who you are buying the tour from, to realize your tours with official suppliers and to insure yourself that they are certified local guides. That way you will have a person at your side who really knows the place and you also help the community.
In Tortuguero we have no bank or ATM and there are still places where you cannot pay by credit card, that´s why we recommand to take enough cash with you, US dollar work as fine as colones.
Tortuguero is a very safe village but it’s still better to always take some precautions :
- Although theft does not happen very often, we recommend not to carry too much money with you, especially when you go into the park or for a drink at night. If you’re staying in lodgings that do not offer safes, try to hide your personal belongings and your money in places that cannot easily be discovered.
- To loose the travel documents or the identity papers is very annoying so please pay always special attention to the safeguard of such papers.
- Tortuguero’s restaurants and bars invite you to spend a pleasant evening and the inhabitants usually do not represent any danger for the visitors of the area. Nevertheless, we recommend not to walk around alone at night, especially when you’re staying in hotels outside the center of the village.
Important: For animal welfare, the entrance to the beach without guide is forbidden from 06.00 pm to 06.00 am during the turtle season.