Beautiful rain forest zoo and waterfall in the mountains. Wear a rain coat, and hat. Several hundred steps down to the waterfalls.
Laz Paz Waterfall Gardens is ideal for a getaway and full of wonderful birds, plants and animals. Rooms have a jungle settings, really unique. They have plenty of hummingbird feeders and the birds will even land on your hand. Ideal even for just a day trip. Excellent food and customer service.
We spent our first day in Costa Rica here. It is like a little zoo with rescued animals. I loved the hummingbird gardens and the aviary. We also walked and saw all the waterfalls which were very beautiful. There is a shuttle to take you back up. We had the buffet lunch and it was really good. It was a good way to pass a few hours.
My girlfriend and I did a tour from San Jose Costa Rica to La Paz on 1 March (for $90/person) and it was great! The driver and logistics were all great.The scenery at La Paz itself was incredible! There's a mini-esque zoo there with butterflies, toucans (and other birds), frogs, snakes, animals of the feline variety, and other cool species of things that don't exist in the NE USA. As you walk from place to place you are surrounded by jungle fauna and it makes you feel you are on set at Jurassic Park or something. Just so unbelievable to see that type of greenery and see all sorts of cool animals walking along trails that seem part of nature itself. The food served at La Paz is OK and is served buffet style. Nothing exceptional, nothing bad... good enough. The only bad thing about La Paz was our tour group had a pretty large group and our tour guide pretty much was non-existent as he would just talk to a few people, say a few things, and that was it. Pretty useless as a tour guide but there's enough signage that you can manage on your own. Either way, if in San Jose area - do this.. it's an amazing trip. Pura vida
The waterfalls were incredible and I must say, this was by far the best part of the tour. Buffet is ok, and there were nice animals all along the tour. There was missing something to make it a better place, maybe some animation
If you want to hold a tucan that's the place. The first part is to see the animals from Costa Rica, there are different sections such as birds, butterflies, snakes... Then you can walk in the forest and see wonderful waterfalls. You can spend the whole day on the site.
It is $40 each to enter the Waterfall Gardens so we planned on spending the day there. We got there early before the crowds and walked the waterfall trail - pretty views and a shuttle at the end to bring us back to reception. The hummingbird garden was busy with hummingbirds and visitors. The other attractions were interesting - the aviary, frogs, snakes, monkeys and felines. The staff were knowledgeable about the animals; however, we were sad to see the pumas being teased at feeding time by the staff - when we commented to them they said the animals "had to work for their food" We do not believe this is acceptable behavior in a small 'zoo" situation. We left the gardens with quite a negative feeling about the attraction and would not go again.
Costa Rica is known for its birds, butterflies and orchids. I wanted to see them all. All the "residents" of this garden are rescue creatures that cannot be released back into the wild. They have a wonderful life in the gardens and, in some cases, this sanctuary ensures that threatened species won't be totally wiped out.You get to stand in the middle of the aviary and look for the birds. They are everywhere if you look carefully. You can even have a toucan sit on your arm.In the butterfly exhibit, we were in their space with them. We sat next to them; they settled on our clothes; they dined on fermenting fruit. We even saw rows of chrysalis and watched as butterflies fought their way out.The habitats for the jungle cats were extremely well done. The best I have ever seen.The orchid exhibit was a little skimpy but that may have been because it was nearing the end of the orchid season.There is a decent restaurant with an all you can eat buffet. And a very nice gift shop.If you cannot walk great lengths of do hills, they have golf carts that will take you down and up the hill.It was an extremely satisfying outing and I recommend you take a day for the visit.
We have a home in Costa Rica but I have never been able to see some of these animals up close or have butterflies land on me. Here is your only chance to see a Margay! All of the animals and birds here are in theory "rescued" so it is a better life than they would have had. The grounds are beautiful and the waterfalls spectacular. The drive to La Paz is very pretty. Try to go early before the crowd / tour buses from San Jose. You can also stay on premises and have early morning / late afternoon activities.
La Paz Waterfall GardensOutstanding day trip from San Jose Costa Rica. We did this while waiting to join a group the next day. Started with a lunch at the trout bar and grill. Great food and the setting was rain forest beautiful. Daniel's outstanding service topped it off. Best dining experience of whole trip. The wildlife displays are very well done, wife loved the butterfly garden, one of the assistance, John, actually took time to put some butterflies on my wife for some great photo ops. The water falls are post card and the trail to view them is excellent. It rained the entire time, we put on our rain jackets and it was a non event (it is a rain forest). At end of touring the grounds we changed and enjoyed the hot pool by one of the swimming pools in the rain and Daniel served us a cocktail. It was $40USD a person, we arrived at 1100am and left at 4pm, plenty of time to enjoy the place. Had personal driver for the day, it was 85.00, about 1.5hrs each way from our hotel in San Jose.