How to Take a Day Tour to Sirena Station in Corcovado National Park: Visiting Costa Rica’s Biodiversity Hotspot!
Located on the remote Osa Peninsula, Corcovado National Park is a biodiversity hotspot not just of Costa Rica, but of the world. Protecting over 160 square miles of pristine rainforest, a visit to Corcovado is a must-do for any nature enthusiast. It takes a bit of effort to get here, but you’ll be rewarded with an authentic jungle trekking experience and a glimpse at some exotic and possibly rare Costa Rican wildlife.
You can visit Corcovado on both day and overnight tours. A day tour to Corcovado is by far the most popular way to visit the park. It’s easier on the wallet and takes less time out of your Costa Rica itinerary, but a day is still plenty of time to explore the trails inside Corcovado and spot some pretty awesome wildlife.
There are a few different areas you can visit in Corcovado on a day tour, but the Sirena Ranger Station is the best place to go. It’s located in the heart of the park and has a lot of trails that are great for spotting wildlife.
Our day tour to Sirena Station in Corcovado was definitely a highlight of our trip to Costa Rica. Here, we go over everything you need to know about taking a day tour to the Sirena Ranger Station in Corcovado National Park!
Article Contents
Why take a day tour to Corcovado?
How to get to the Sirena Ranger Station in Corcovado
How much does a day tour to Corcovado cost?
How long is a day tour to Corcovado?
Day tour of the Sirena Ranger Station in Corcovado: Our experience
What kind of wildlife will you see in Corcovado?
What to pack for a day tour to the Sirena Ranger Station
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Why Take a Day Tour to Sirena Station in Corcovado?
Corcovado National Park has been dubbed by National Geographic as one of the most biodiverse places on the planet! And if you want to get a good taste of that diversity, the Sirena Ranger Station is a great place to go. The largest and most visited station in the park, the Sirena Ranger Station is the best place for spotting wildlife in Corcovado, so much so that this station actually serves as the park’s headquarters and attracts scientists from all over the world.
The Sirena Ranger Station lies just inland from the beach and is surrounded by a series of well-maintained trails that allows visitors to explore a large portion of the rainforest between two rivers, the Rio Clara and the Rio Sirena. So, hiking here gives you the chance to observe a few different ecosystems in your search for elusive wildlife.
You can visit Sirena Ranger Station on both day and overnight tours. A day tour to Sirena Ranger Station is a great option for those who are short on time in Costa Rica and don’t want to devote two or more full days to a single activity. It’s also great for those who have a smaller budget, as day tours cost about a third of the price as an overnight tour of Corcovado. Finally, an overnight stay at Sirena Ranger Station does involve some degree of “roughing it”, depending on what you’re used to of course. A night at the station means either tent camping or dorm-style bunks with shared bathroom and cold water. So if that’s not really your thing, you might not enjoy a night in the jungle here, and a day tour to Sirena would allow you to still get the jungle experience without the overnight stay.
There are definitely pros to taking an overnight tour to the Sirena Ranger Station, of course! It allows you to really experience the park. The nighttime is when a lot of the jungle comes to life, and you’ll be there to experience it! Guides will take you on early dawn and late night walks to spot more active wildlife without the crowds of day tours along the trails. And you’ll get to experience falling asleep to the buzzing and chirping of the rainforest around you. How cool is that?
How to Get to the Sirena Ranger Station in Corcovado
The only way to take a day tour to the Sirena Ranger Station in Corcovado is from Drake Bay. Drake Bay is a small village located along the Osa Peninsula, right at the doorstep of Corcovado National Park. It’s a remote location with dirt roads, little infrastructure, beautiful beaches, and a great way to get that off-the-grid feel in a small piece of tropical paradise.
Drake Bay’s remote location means that it can be a little complicated to get to. But don’t worry, we got you covered! The main way to get to Drake Bay is by boat taxi from Sierpe, located along the south Pacific coast. We have a post that covers everything you need to know about how to get to Drake Bay, so be sure to give that a read if you’re planning a day trip to the Sirena Ranger Station!
Once you’re in Drake Bay, you still need to get to Corcovado National Park. The only way to explore Corcovado is via a guided tour. You cannot visit Corcovado on your own, and this is for the best…it preserves the rainforest and keeps you safe…this is a wild and untamed environment afterall!
From Drake Bay, your guided tour will arrive at Corcovado by boat. The ride to the Sirena Station is about an hour and 15 minutes long along the Osa Peninsula’s beautiful coastline.
The boat will dock just offshore, meaning this is a wet landing. You’ll have to get off the boat and walk through knee-deep water to get onto the beach. Make sure to wear appropriate shoes for the boat ride (i.e. not your hiking shoes!) and wear pants that can be rolled up past the knee.
How to choose a day tour to the Sirena Ranger Station
A quick google search will show you that there are lots of tour companies offering day tours to the Sirena Ranger Station. Most have very similar prices, although if you search deep enough and do some comparison shopping then you may be able to save $10 or so per person. We did just that by going with Corcovado Info Center. We loved our experience with them.
Make sure the company you choose uses professional naturalists as the tour guides so that you can have the best experience possible. We could tell that our guide was truly passionate about the rainforest and educating us about all the flora and fauna we came across.
Many lodges and hostels in Drake Bay also offer their own tour packages or offer to arrange a tour for you with a local company, so be sure to inquire about this when you’re booking your accommodations.
How much does a day tour to the Sirena Ranger Station cost?
A day tour to Sirena Station will cost anywhere between $95-$105 per person. This price includes a tour guide, boat transportation between Drake Bay and Corcovado, lunch, and about 5 hours of guided hiking on the trails around the Sirena Ranger Station.
How long is a day tour to the Sirena Ranger Station?
A day tour to Sirena Station is about a half day. A typical day tour to the Sirena Ranger Station will begin around 6 or 6:15 am…bright and early! The boat ride is about an hour to an hour and 15 minutes each way. You’ll have 4-5 hours to hike along the trails before returning. Most tours arrive back in Drake Bay by 1-2 pm. So the tour runs for about 7-8 hours, but you still have an entire afternoon to relax or explore more of Drake Bay.
Day Tour to the Sirena Ranger Station in Corcovado: Our Experience
We chose a day tour to Sirena Station because we were limited on both time and budget, but we loved every second of it. We want to share our experience with you so you know what to expect and to help you decide if a day tour to Corcovado is the right option for you.
Getting to Corcovado
Like we said above, a typical day tour to Sirena Station in Corcovado will begin around 6 am. You will be asked to meet up with your tour guide around this time on Drake Bay’s main public beach (the same place where you most likely were dropped off if you came by boat from Sierpe).
When you get to the beach, there will be a crowd of people trying to figure out where to go, as a bunch of different tour groups will be heading out at this time and several boats will be coming in and out. Don’t be afraid to ask everyone in sight which tour company they are with until you find yours! Once your group is all together, your guide will go over the itinerary for the day and hand out your lunches. Then, it’s off to the boat!
The boat stays just off shore, so you’ll have to wade through the water to get to it. Having water shoes or sandals here is key!
The boat ride lasts about an hour and 15 minutes, but you’ll be cruising by gorgeous coastlines. The guides say that if any whales are spotted, they will stop for people to see, but we weren’t so lucky on our trip. Note that the boats are small and the ocean can be rough, so expect a bumpy ride. If you get sea sick, make sure to bring any medicine that helps!
You’ll have another wet landing when you get to Corcovado, so once again, expect to wade through knee-deep water to get to the shore. Once on the beach, you’ll have time to wash your feet off at a foot washing station, change into your hiking shoes, and meet up again with your tour guide and group.
A tour group will typically be about 8-10 people. We thought this was a bit big. If you’re stuck at the back of the pack as you walk along the trail, you’ll be a long way from your guide and not be able to hear some of the useful information they might be sharing during the hike. Also, once wildlife is spotted, it takes a while for everyone to take a glimpse through the scope.
Hiking around the Sirena Ranger Station
Once everyone in your group is accounted for and ready to go, your hike begins! You’ll have anywhere between 4-5 hours to explore the trails around Sirena Station. There are several loops through mostly secondary rainforest that run along the beach, the Rio Claro and Rio Sirena, and deeper into the rainforest, so you’ll get to experience a few different ecosystems in just a single day here.
While Corcovado is a rugged remote place, the trails around Sirena Station are surprisingly well maintained, easy, and mostly flat. Where you go is really up to your group. We hiked around the trails near the beach and Rio Claro for a bit, and when our guide asked if we wanted to stop for a lunch break by the station or skip lunch and continue onto the less traveled trails behind it, our group thankfully was in full support of more hiking! You’re only there for a short time, so might as well take advantage of it! So we were able to hike out to the Rio Sirena and do some trails behind the station. The trails behind the station are a bit more rugged and muddy, with thinner paths, dense forest, and may require small stream crossings. These trails typically aren’t visited by day tours because it’s made up of mostly primary forest so there is a smaller chance of spotting wildlife here, but you really get that feeling of being in the middle of the jungle out here, which is a cool experience in and of itself.
With all the tour groups that go to the Sirena Station each day, you would think that the trails might become crowded. We were certainly worried about this as all the tour boats unloaded at the park entrance and we saw just how many people came to Sirena for the day. We were nervous that the authenticity of the experience would be somewhat compromised because of trail crowding. But honestly, this was not the case at all. We surprisingly very rarely ran into another group. Everyone seems to spread themselves out. And when we did, it was to our advantage because usually we would run into them because they were stopped to watch some type of wildlife that we could then check out as well.
Which brings me to my next point…
Our biggest tip for hiking in Corcovado? Well, we have two. The first is… temper your expectations. This is not by any means a controlled environment where animals are waiting for your arrival. You’re hiking through the true rainforest, and spotting wildlife, particularly the more rare and elusive, involves luck and being in the right place at the right time. You likely won’t spot everything you came here hoping to see, but that’s ok! It’s still an amazing experience.
The second? Be patient! The wildlife that is around will often be distant and hard to find, but that’s why you have your guide. They have a trained eye and can spot things that you would likely otherwise miss on your own. You might not cover miles and miles of ground, but instead you’ll be going slowly, stopping often, and looking around for signs of wildlife or to learn about all the cool elements of the rainforest from your guide. Sometimes your guide might even go off trail a bit in search of animals that they know were spotted earlier in the day or week, but never follow him. Always stay on the trail and try not to touch anything yourself…you never what’s there!
For instance, this well-camouflaged spider!
What was cool to see was that all the guides, despite working at competing tour companies, all seemed to work together to find and point out wildlife…they are just so excited and passionate about sharing their experiences! At one point, there were three different groups trying to find a pack of peccaries that one guide spotted earlier. Apparently, these wild pigs travel in huge packs but are hard to find. Our guide said he hadn’t seen any in about a year. We never did find them, but the effort was admirable!
When your guide does spot wildlife, he will have a scope to look through, and our guide was super nice and took pictures for us through the scope using our cell phones. Having a nice camera with a good zoom comes in super handy here so that you can get clearer crisper pictures. It also helps you observe the wildlife for a bit longer…you only get a quick glimpse through the scope and then have to wait for the rest of the group to take a peek, too. So having another way to zoom in on the wildlife is a great way to observe them a little bit more.
Before you know it, it will be time to head back to your boat. Trust us, you’ll be so busy searching for wildlife that the time will fly!
At the end of our hike, we had a quick 10- minute break for lunch before we headed back to the boat at around 12:30 pm. For lunch, we just kind of sat along the trails and quickly gobbled down our food. Your group might have a bit more time to eat, and might stop at the ranger station to do so, but our group opted for more hiking and time and less lunch time, so this is just how it worked out for us (and we weren’t upset about it!). The lunch given by the tour was actually pretty substantial and really filling. We each got a hefty burrito, a piece of fruit, some cookies, and a juice box.
Heading back to Drake Bay
To get back to the boat, we took a shortcut from Sirena Station back to the beach, and hiked along the coastline for a bit back to the boat. Once you get back to the park entrance, you can change back into your water shoes, as you will be wading back through the water to get back on the boat and return to Drake Bay.
Even though it’s only a half day tour, trust us, you’ll be exhausted by the end of it. The humidity and heat out on the trails will really sneak up on you. And that walk back to the boat along the beach was pretty intense under the strong sun. Make sure you bring a lot of water with you, as the guides don’t provide any water for the group other than the drink that’s provided with lunch.
The boat ride back will be another hour and 15 minutes or so back around Corcovado’s beautiful tropical coastline. You’ll have one more wet landing and wade your way back to Drake Bay’s public beach.
What type of wildlife did we see around Sirena Station in Corcovado?
Overall, we saw a good amount of wildlife on our day tour to the Sirena Ranger Station! As soon as we arrived on the beach at Corcovado, we heard squawking and looked up just in time to see a pair of macaws fly overhead, and saw a wild turkey roaming through the trees just at the jungle’s edge.
As we hiked through Corcovado, one of the coolest things in our opinion was just the sound of the jungle. There was a constant, and very loud, buzzing noise all around us from the constant calls of the cicadas, and in the distance we could hear the roaring of howler monkeys. It was an eerie sound that made us feel like we were trekking through the jungle in some sort of horror movie! Just this experience alone was worth a trip to this jungle.
But, we were also lucky enough to see a ton of cool wildlife. Things like a three-toed sloth, several coatis, iguanas, bats, a toucan, spider monkeys, a bunch of insects and lizards, agoutis, a tapir (!), and tons of different birds. All in a day’s work! It’s pretty incredible how much you can see in just a short period of time.
Here is a snippet of some of the cool wildlife and foliage we saw during our day tour of the Sirena Ranger Station in Corcovado!
What to Pack for a Day Tour of Sirena Station in Corcovado
Hiking shoes – wear a comfortable pair of closed toed hiking shoes. You might be walking through mud and light streams. You’ll be packing these in your pack, since you need to wear different shoes for the boat ride.
Boat shoes – on the boat to and from Corcovado, wear a pair of sandals or water shoes that can get wet since you will have wet landings each time you have to get off the boat.
Small towel – this is handy to have because once you arrive at Corcovado, you can wash your feet off after walking across the beach to get to the park’s entrance. It’s helpful to be able to dry your feet off before putting on your hiking socks and boots.
Hiking clothes – wear appropriate moisture- wicking hiking clothes…you’ll be sweating a lot! Make sure to also wear long pants to protect your legs.
Sunscreen and hat – it’s hot out there and the sun is intense!
Bug spray – we actually didn’t have a very buggy experience, but we packed it just in case.
Lots of water and snacks – the guides don’t provide a water supply for the group, so pack a few liters.
Rain gear and a dry bag – just in case it rains.
Binoculars and good camera – for being able to view the wildlife and get awesome pictures!
A small day pack – make sure you have a comfortable day hiking pack that can fit all of the above.
Our day tour to the Sirena Ranger Station in Corcovado National Park was an experience we will never forget, and we hope you get a chance to put this bucketlist destination on your Costa Rica itinerary. Drop us a comment below with any questions. If you’ve been, do you have any other tips you would share?