Isla Tortuga From Santa Teresa: the Ride to the Boat Is Not Included
A seven hour day that leaves at 9 a.m., what the price covers, and the add-on families forget.
Marta DavíThe Isla Tortuga day sold out of Santa Teresa is a seven hour boat trip that leaves at 9 a.m., daily, with a bilingual guide, lunch, drinks and snorkel gear. What it does not include is the ride to the boat. Santa Teresa faces the open Pacific, and Isla Tortuga sits in the Gulf of Nicoya on the sheltered inside of the same peninsula, so the morning starts with a drive over the hills. Settle that ride when you book the tour, not the night before.
What the day includes
| Tortuga Island Tour from Santa Teresa | Detail |
|---|---|
| Length | 7 hours |
| Start | 9:00 a.m., every day |
| Group size | up to 12 people |
| Price | from $85 per person |
| Included | bilingual guide, lunch, tropical fruit, three beers or soft drinks, snorkel equipment |
| Not included | transport to the departure dock (can be arranged for a fee), towel, sunscreen, hat |
| Cancellation | full refund up to 48 hours before the start time |
Those details come from our own booking system, checked on 22 October 2026. Children book at a lower rate than adults, which you will see once you pick a date on the tour page.
Why the dock decides your morning
Santa Teresa has no harbor, and the surf that fills the town is the reason. Boats for Isla Tortuga work out of the calm water on the gulf side of the Nicoya peninsula, near the Curú wildlife refuge, whose entrance the Costa Rica Tourism Board puts 30 minutes from Paquera (visitcostarica.com, read 22 October 2026).
That is why the price covers the boat and not the car. Transport can be arranged for an additional fee, and it is the line most people skim past when they book online at midnight. Ask us which dock your departure uses and we will quote the ride with it.
If you have not worked out how you are reaching Santa Teresa in the first place, the ferry hour decides more than people expect: How to Get to Santa Teresa: Work Backwards From the 3 p.m. Ferry.
Is it worth a whole day with children?
It is worth it when your children are happy in the water and on it. Seven hours buys the crossing, snorkeling over reef, beach time on the island and lunch, and the gulf stays calmer than the beach break they have been watching all week. The ones who struggle are toddlers who still nap at midday.
Water clarity over the reef moves with rain and swell. If your date falls in the green season, ask what the last couple of weeks have actually looked like before you commit the whole family to a boat.
Pack a towel and sunscreen yourselves. Neither is in the tour, and there is no shop on the island.
Add Curú, and it stops being only a beach day
Curú lies on the same stretch of coast as the island, and it is the cheapest upgrade to this day. The Costa Rica Tourism Board lists 1,496 hectares of forest, mangrove and coastal grassland, 17 trails, 232 recorded bird species and 78 mammals, with day visitors admitted from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. and entry at $13 for foreign visitors or ₡2,500 for Costa Ricans (visitcostarica.com, read 22 October 2026). The refuge has held protected status since 1981 and is still run privately.
White-tailed deer and iguanas are common there, and three kinds of monkey live in the canopy: capuchin, spider and howler. Guides who work the refuge know which trail is producing birds that week.
Not every Tortuga boat stops at Curú. If a guided walk matters more to your family than a second hour on the sand, say so before you book, because it changes which departure we put you on.
If seven hours on a boat is not your family's day
| Instead | Length | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Private nature tour in the Cabo Blanco reserve | 3 hours | from $140 per person |
| Canopy Mal País, ziplines above the forest behind town | 2.5 hours | from $65 per person |
| Bioluminescence kayak on the gulf after dark | 3 hours | from $45 per person |
Cabo Blanco closes on Mondays and Tuesdays, which is the trap we wrote about in Santa Teresa Without a Surfboard. The glow tour sails only on moonless nights, so it goes in the calendar before anything else: In Santa Teresa, Book the Moonless Night First. If someone in the family would rather stand up on a board, start with Your First Surf Lesson in Santa Teresa.
Where you sleep changes how easy any of this is to reach, and that is a separate decision: Where to Stay in Santa Teresa. The rest of our Santa Teresa writing sits under #Santa Teresa.
How to book it, and what to tell us
Send us your dates, how many adults and children, where you are sleeping in Santa Teresa or Mal País, and whether you want the Curú walk. We come back with the departure that fits, a quote for the ride to the dock, and the total for your group so nobody is adding up child rates at the breakfast table.
Cancelling is free up to 48 hours before the start time, so holding a date early does not lock you in. Ask us, and we will tell you the hour your pickup has to leave.
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