Tiskita-lodge.co.cr. Packages: 2 nights cost $655, 3 nights $750, 4 nights $840 per person (based on 2 people sharing) including flights from San Jose. Closed Sept 10-Oct 31

Southern Caribbean: The Iguana Verde Treehouse

There’s a sandy lane that runs south to Panama between mountains and forest and the Caribbean sea, flanked by hibiscus hedges, palms and hatch-front pulperias selling cold beer. Cycle along and all you hear is birdsong, crickets and reggae. The lane peters out in the steamy wilderness of the Gandoca-Manzanillo wildlife refuge, a place best explored by dugout canoe in the company of indigenous guides. The treehouse is one of four beautifully quirky properties inside the refuge of a 10-acre beachfront property owned by the Green Iguana Foundation.

It’s ridiculously comfortable for a tree, with two-storeys, two bedrooms and a kitchen and shower room built from salvaged hardwoods dragged from the forest by oxen into the buttress roots of a Sangrillo, and ideally designed for lying in a hammock and watching the abundant wildlife including large iguanas. For excursions into the forest – you can even (theoretically) cross the continent on a 6-day trek through La Amistad – contact the Talamancan Association for Ecotourism and Conservation (ATEC) at their office in nearby Puerto Viejo, or by phone (506) 750 0398.

Costaricatreehouse.com; tel (506) 750-0706. Rates: Two people $225 / night; $1350 / week – 6 people $385 / night; $2310 / week

Caribbean: Selva Bananito

The Stein family made a moral decision to leave 850 hectares of their family farm untouched, and to build a lodge (predominantly out of wood discarded by loggers) as alternative source of income. They demonstrate how environmentally-sound ecotourism can and should be done, restricting the number of guests, eschewing electricity, harnessing solar energy to heat water, using bio-degradable soaps, composting, recycling glass and plastics, and purifying water using bacteria, enzymes, and water lilies.

They established Fundación Cuencas de Limón, to boot, a nonprofit organization dedicated to watershed protection and educational programs, and offset carbon emissions produced by your air travel by planting trees. Just as importantly, with its trails, rivers, cabins in stilts and views across to the Cerro Muchilla and Amistad Biosphere Reserve, the Steins have created in Selva Bananito, a place sufficiently sublime as to convert even a casual visitor into a fervent ecologist. There is much here to keep twitchers happy, but it is best enjoyed by those with a spirit of adventure. Not only are 8-hour jungle hikes involving 60 river crossings and rappelling down an 80-ft waterfall, galloping horse rides and tree climbing on the activities menu, but the journey from San Jose, particularly during the rainy season can be a little, ahem, challenging.

www.selvabananito.com. 3 days / 2 nights packages includes transfers from San José, 3 meals, introductory tree-climbing, waterfall tour and horseback ride at $355-$375 pp (valid until Nov 30 2007. Self-drive deduct $45 pp)

Central Highlands: Bosque de Paz

Few know the steep, deep, forested valley high on the borders of the Juan Blanco National Park, let alone the lodge, wedged at the bottom of it beside a burbling stream – in fact there’s so little traffic round this way that the resident guide has spotted ocelots stretched out on the warm tarmac when returning late at night – but those who do know it return again and again. It’s a blissful place, thick with dripping trees weighed down by epiphytes, famed for its bustling bird life as well as the plentiful orchids that are collected, catalogued, propagated and researched.

Costa Rican owners, Federico González-Pinto and his wife Vanessa, bought the land twenty years ago and have dedicated themselves to conservation and education as well as top hospitality. Thirteen circular trails meander along rivers and to waterfalls on the 700 hectare reserve although spectacular views, comfortable beds, hearty meals and a well-stocked library make being lazy an easy option. With pizotes ambling along the river bank and 25 of the 28 local hummingbird species buzzing like kamikazes around the flowers and feeders, there’s really no need to move at all to enjoy la naturaleza at its finest.

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