The Gandoca-Manzanillo Wildlife Refuge is a protected area of rainforest, beaches, coral reef and wetland at the southern end of Costa Rica’s Caribbean coast, running from the mouth of the Cocles river to the Sixaola river on the Panama border. Its gateway is Manzanillo, in Limón province, the village where the coast road from Puerto Viejo de Talamanca ends, about 12 km away. Entry is free, daily from 8 am to 4 pm.
From Manzanillo you can walk the refuge trail, reach roadless Punta Mona by boat or on foot, look for dolphins offshore and snorkel a reef that stretches for kilometers.
What is the Gandoca-Manzanillo refuge?
A national wildlife refuge created in 1985, whose boundaries were fixed by Law 9223 in 2014. It is managed by SINAC’s La Amistad Caribe conservation area and is a mixed refuge, meaning it includes private as well as public land. In total it covers 10,452 hectares: 5,092 on land and 5,360 at sea.
The numbers SINAC records are remarkable: 1,209 species of vascular plants, 1,231 species of butterflies and moths, 377 bird species and 38 mammal species. Manatees, crocodiles, caimans and tapirs live here, along with the only natural mangrove-oyster bank SINAC records in the country, and nurseries for tarpon. Offshore, the refuge protects about 5 km² of reef off Punta Uva, Manzanillo and Punta Mona.
How do you get to Manzanillo from Puerto Viejo?
- By car: 12.1 km from our gate, about 18 minutes in free-flowing traffic.
- By bike: about 52 minutes on a mostly flat road. It’s a long ride in the heat, so start early and carry water.
- By bus: MEPE’s Limón–Manzanillo line ends in Manzanillo, via Cocles, Playa Chiquita and Punta Uva. It isn’t especially frequent, so check times the day before.
- By taxi or tuk-tuk: agree the fare before you set off.
For details on each, see our getting-around guide.
Can you hike the trail on your own?
Entry is free and the trailhead is in Manzanillo village, so you can set off on foot during opening hours. For the full walk to Punta Mona, a half-day round trip on foot, a local guide is strongly recommended: the trail is long, the beaches are remote, and a guide will show you wildlife you’d otherwise miss. Stay on the trail, don’t take shells or coral, and don’t swim where signs say it’s dangerous.
Our Punta Mona hike covers 6 to 7 km with a guide, stopping at each beach and at three ocean viewpoints, and returns by boat.
Punta Mona: hike or boat?
Punta Mona has no road, so you either walk in or arrive by sea. Both tours below are as listed in September 2026.
| By boat | On foot | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | US$90 | US$90 |
| Duration | 4 hours | 5 hours |
| The trip | A 20- to 30-minute ride from Manzanillo along the refuge coast, past hidden beaches | A 6–7 km guided hike with stops at each beach and three viewpoints; return by boat |
| Includes | Round-trip boat, local guide, tropical fruit, insurance, life jacket | Guide, refuge entrance, boat return, fruit, first-aid kit |
| Best for | Couples, families, less walking | Hikers and wildlife watchers |
| Book | Punta Mona by boat | Punta Mona hike |
Where do you see dolphins?
Off Manzanillo. Our dolphin-watching tour leaves from the village, follows the coast toward Punta Mona and then heads into open water to look for dolphins in their natural habitat, finishing with time to swim and relax on Punta Mona beach. It lasts 4 hours and is listed at US$95, including the boat, tropical fruit and coconut water, insurance and a life jacket.
Dolphins are wild animals, so sightings are never guaranteed. Calm seas, most often in September and October, make the ride more comfortable.
Can you snorkel at Manzanillo?
Yes, on calm days. The water in front of the village is calm when the sea is flat, and the reef off Manzanillo stretches for kilometers. As everywhere on this coast, ask about rip currents before you swim, never stand on coral, and leave shells and coral where they are. The calmest, clearest water usually comes in September and October.
Conga tip: Pair Manzanillo with Punta Uva on the way back. It’s usually the calmest swim on the coast, and most of it lies inside the same refuge.
When is turtle nesting season?
Leatherback turtles nest on Gandoca beach, in the refuge’s separate Gandoca sector further southeast, from February or March to July, with the peak in April and May. Monitoring in the 1990s averaged 534 nests a season. SINAC also lists green, hawksbill and loggerhead turtles as nesting in the refuge, though their exact months at Gandoca are less well documented.
Night access to the nesting beaches is controlled. Go only with certified guides, keep your distance, and use red light only: no white light, no flash.
What else is there to see?
- Great green macaws at Ara Manzanillo, a reintroduction project with guided visits by reservation, daily 3 to 4 pm (US$20 donation for adults; under-12s free). The signed turn is about 12 km from Puerto Viejo on Route 256; the last kilometer is hilly, so cyclists walk it.
- Birds, lots of them: 377 species have been recorded in the refuge.
- Sloths, monkeys and toucans along the forest trail. Our sloth guide explains how to spot them.
Is Manzanillo, Limón the same as Manzanillo in Mexico?
No. This Manzanillo is a small village in Limón province, Costa Rica, at the end of the Caribbean coast road near the Panama border. Mexico’s Manzanillo is a different city entirely, on the Pacific. When you search, book or set your GPS, add “Limón, Costa Rica”.