Costa Rican eco-lodge specialist Pacuare Lodge Group has doubled in size after acquiring two wildlife lodges from Costa Rica Expeditions.

Monteverde Lodge & Gardens and Tortuga Lodge & Gardens, located in Monteverde and Totuguero National Park respectively, bring the group’s portfolio to four, joining original wilderness hotel Pacuare Lodge and sister lodge Lapa Rios.

The family-run business said both properties would be refurbished to bring them “fully in line with a new era of environmentally and socially conscious travel”.

Created in 1995, Pacuare Lodge has been recognised by the World Tourism Organisation for good practice in sustainably and eco-tourism. It also holds the highest rating, Elite Level, from the Costa Rica government’s Sustainable Tourism Certification system. 

Lapa Rios, which was purchased from its original creators in 2019, and Pacuare Lodge are both members of Nat Geo Unique Lodges of the World and nature-based tourism organisation, The Long Run. 

“It’s an honour to continue the legacy of a Costa Rican tourism pioneer such as Michael Kaye and his wife Yolanda of Costa Rica Expeditions who built these two lodges,” said Roberto Fernández, co-owner and founder of Pacuare Lodge.

“Just like Lapa Rios Lodge, which was built in the early 1990s, Monteverde and Tortuga represent an early era of eco-tourism in my country, when the first lodges were founded by foreign travellers who came to Costa Rica, fell in love with the beauty and nature and saw tourism as a way to preserve these unique environments for future generations.”