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Tamarindo Night Turtle Nesting Tour: Witness Olive Ridley, Green Pacific Sea Turtles in Action
4.2
218 Ratings
Tamarindo
Experience the magic of witnessing Olive Ridley and Green Pacific sea turtles laying their eggs on the Tamarindo Night Turtle Nesting Tour. Don’t miss the chance to see baby turtles hatching and embarking on their journey to the sea!
Experience the magic of witnessing Olive Ridley and Green Pacific sea turtles laying their eggs on the Tamarindo Night Turtle Nesting Tour. Don’t miss the chance to see baby turtles hatching and embarking on their journey to the sea!
Duration:
4 hours
Cancellation:
24 hours
Highlights
- Native’s Way - Departing just after sunset, participants will gather at our office, and the guide will lead them to a protected beach approximately 30 minutes away.
- Playa Mina - Participants will have the opportunity to witness Olive Ridley and Green Pacific sea turtles laying their eggs on a series of secluded beaches near Playa Grande….
- Native’s Way - Departing just after sunset, participants will gather at our office, and the guide will lead them to a protected beach approximately 30 minutes away.
- Playa Mina - Participants will have the opportunity to witness Olive Ridley and Green Pacific sea turtles laying their eggs on a series of secluded beaches near Playa Grande. While sightings of Leatherback turtles are possible, they are uncommon.
Due to the delicate nature of this naturalist tour, local guides do not allow the use of flashlights or camera flashes, though photography is permitted. The guide will provide a special red light that does not disturb the turtles.
Turtles can be observed throughout the year, with the peak nesting season occurring from November to April.
- Playa Tamarindo - Pick-up and drop-off service is available for a $20 fee per booking. Included in Private Tour.
- Playa Langosta - Pick-up and drop-off service is available for a $20 fee per booking. Included in Private Tour.
- Playa Conchal - Pick-up service available for Private Tour.
- Playa Flamingo - Pick-up service available for Private Tour.
- Playa Grande - Pick-up service available for Private Tour.
What's Included
- Private Tour: Pickup from various locations including Pinilla, JW Marriott, Tamarindo, Langosta, Conchal, Flamingo, Grande
- Bottled water included
- Driver/guide provided
- Local taxes included
- Shared Tour: Pickup and drop-off from Native’s Way Office
- Private Tour: Pickup from various locations including Pinilla, JW Marriott, Tamarindo, Langosta, Conchal, Flamingo, Grande
- Bottled water included
- Driver/guide provided
- Local taxes included
- Shared Tour: Pickup and drop-off from Native’s Way Office
What's Not Included
- Gratuities
- Hotel pickup (Shared Tour)
- Shared Tour: Pick up from Tamarindo/Langosta Hotels and Private Residences ($20 fee per booking)
- Gratuities
- Hotel pickup (Shared Tour)
- Shared Tour: Pick up from Tamarindo/Langosta Hotels and Private Residences ($20 fee per booking)
Additional Information
On this Tamarindo Turtle Nesting tour, you will have the rare chance to see Olive Ridley and Green Pacific sea turtles, dig their nests, lay their eggs, and sometimes even see the babies hatching and making their way out to sea! The professional tour guide will take you walking along some remote beaches just North of Playa Grande in search of the…
On this Tamarindo Turtle Nesting tour, you will have the rare chance to see Olive Ridley and Green Pacific sea turtles, dig their nests, lay their eggs, and sometimes even see the babies hatching and making their way out to sea! The professional tour guide will take you walking along some remote beaches just North of Playa Grande in search of the turtles as they arrive and dig their nests in the sand!
Due to the sensitive nature of this naturalist tour, we prohibit the use of flashlights or flash on your cameras, but you may take pictures. A special red light will be provided by the guide that does not disturb the turtles.
Turtles can be seen year round, but November to April is the peak season for turtle nesting.
- Children under 5 years old are not permitted to attend this tour. We need to remain very quiet and often there are extended periods of simply waiting and observing
- There is not a long hike, however there are times where we move from one beach or viewing point to another. Standing around patiently is normal for this tour.
- Please reconsider booking if you have mobility issues, difficulty seeing in the night, recently undergone surgery, or have current physical injury
- The turtle season generally extends from Mid-November to Mid-April, however since this is a natural phenomenon, the season can start, slow or end without specific reason.
- A minimum of 6 people are required to operate. If we have not reached the minimum we will contact you 1 or 2 days before your tour to offer other options.
- Not permitted for children under 5 years old
Location
Native's Way Costa Rica - Tours and Transfers
Cancellation Policy
For a full refund, cancel at least 24 hours before the scheduled departure time.
For a full refund, cancel at least 24 hours before the scheduled departure time.
Customer Ratings
4.2
(218 Ratings)
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Tara
Mar 16, 2026
Bucket list nature experiences - Natives Way did this tour and our guide Ivan was amazing -he was very knowledgeable and had an eagle eye to spot the turtles and ensure we had the best experience-we were lucky to see about a dozen turtles overall and one nest and lay eggs.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Jonathantb1678lt
Mar 10, 2026
Sensational night of Turtles! - What a moving experience! We watched as two green sea turtles dragged themselves up the beach from the ocean. One of them started to dig in the sand, but then moved on to another location just a few feet away. The second turtle did not end up nesting, but we did watch as she made her way a flipper at time back into the surf. While the first turtle was excavating away, with sand flying, in another hole nearby we saw about a dozen little turtles making their way from their eggs to the top of the hole. Wow! Then back with the first Momma turtle, she had finished digging we formed a circle and watched her lay her eggs. What an experience!
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Gorettitoronto
Mar 5, 2026
Exceeded Expectations!! - Would definitely recommend. Ivan was our guide and he was awesome!! We initially went to a relatively easy area of a beach and our guide found 2 baby turtles that we saw come up from the area they had hatched and make their way all the way to the surf. Very inspiring. We also saw a large green turtle in the same area but she decided that tonight was not the night and made her way back to sea. But then our guide got the call that a sea turtle was in the process of digging her hole to lay eggs on an adjacent beach. This was going to entail going back in the bus for a short ride and a 20 minute walk to get there. We were all in. After trekking through a trail lit by a full moon, stars and some bats we witnessed an amazing site - an enormous green turtle digging out a large hole with her back flippers and then laying her ping pong sized eggs. Truly awesome.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Claudia
Mar 4, 2026
Beautiful experience - We have seen 3 large and one small turtles. During our tour, care was taken to be quiet and only take photos without flash to avoid disturbing the turtles.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Timothy_m
Feb 27, 2026
Turtles are hit and miss - Our tour guide, Ivan was very informative and really worked hard going up and down the beach to locate turtles. We only saw one female travel up to the shore, but she ended up returning to the sea without laying any eggs.
That’s Mother Nature., you never know what will happen..
Review provided by Viator
Benjamin_r
Feb 22, 2026
Very cool to see the sea turtles - We enjoyed this excursion, where you got to be very close to giant green sea turtles on the beach. We took our kids ages 6 and 8 and they did okay but definitely would be better for older kids 10+. There was about an hour drive from Tamarindo to the beach (second half on dirt road, but driver was good) and once you arrive at the beach there’s a fair bit of waiting and patience for the turtles to arrive. We saw 2 turtles start the nesting process but they were in a rocky location so they didn’t lay eggs by the time we left the beach at 8:30pm, and we saw another turtle climbing the beach on our way back — it seems like you’d have to get pretty lucky to see a turtle lay eggs so early in the night. Our guide Antony was knowledgeable and respectful of the turtles — he was even policing others in the beach to make sure they weren’t shining lights that would interrupt the nesting process. We saw one other Group on the beach but we were mostly alone with our group of about 15 people and the guide. It was fun seeing the turtles and the beach at night was beautiful. We arrived back in Tamarindo at 9:30pm
Review provided by Viator
Pioneer158512
Feb 22, 2026
Amazing experience - What an absolutely incredible experience! We were fortunate enough to see multiple mama turtles as well as multiple baby turtles!
It’s a little bit of a hike to reach the beach, but it is definitely worth it!
Jesus was our guide and he was wonderful! He was well informed and very personable.
Definitely a highlight of trip to Costa Rica!
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Doug_l
Feb 19, 2026
Great to see the baby... - Great to see the baby turtles. It was an experience to see the turtles come to lay eggs and watch them dig their holes.
Review provided by Viator
Brianexeternh
Feb 14, 2026
Laying Eggs and Baby Turtles - We enjoyed the night Turtle Nesting Tour from Tamarindo. We saw 2 separate adult Turtles hauling themselves back down the beach into the sea after laying their eggs. Then we saw some tiny baby Turtles scurrying from the nest to the sea after hatching. Lastly we saw a female Turtles laying her eggs. Overall we were very satisfied.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Y960fzsues
Feb 15, 2026
Turtle nesting was interesting- use a different company - We went on the turtle nesting tour. Once we got to the beach, our guide disappeared for about 40 minutes. Other groups had their guides with them. Our guide might have been looking for the turtles, but who knew? We did see some turtles going for the sea, which was great, but only because other groups had their guides red lights and let the people use them. We also saw a turtle trying to nest, but again, very little explanation and most of the time the guide was turning away from the group.
The write up said to wear dark clothing and closed toe shoes. Tevas would have been much better, we were on the sand the whole time. The write up said to bring a reusable water bottle, but then handed us a single use plastic bottle at the end.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
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