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Finca Bellavista

A Treehouse Community Unlike Any Other

You take an international flight into San José, Costa Rica. From there, you take another flight, on a smaller, dodgier plane to Golfito, a port town in Southern Costa Rica near the Panamanian border. Golfito is not a tourist town… no English is spoken, and in your halting Spanish, you get a man to agree to take you into the rainforest on his mud-splattered 4×4. An hour and a bumpy ride later, the winding uphill road into the rainforest opens into a clearing, and a small thatch of neatly built wood buildings appear. the wooden sign at the entrance says “Finca Bellavista. Population: 19”. You’ve arrived.

Well… you’ve arrived at basecamp, anyway. You’re probably still a short jungle hike from your treehouse. If all of that seems overwhelming, stop at the Community Rancho and refresh yourself with a sugarcane cocktail and meet the Finca’s founders Erica and Mateo before making your final trek to the treehouse. As you walk towards your treehouse, you might look back and see Erika changing the wood numbers on the Finca’s population sign to include its newest inhabitants.

Did I mention that you’re going to carry your bags when you hike to that treehouse? But don’t worry, it’ll be worth it.

What Should I Expect From Finca Bellavista?

The first thing to understand about Finca Bellavista is that it’s not a luxury hotel in a tropical location… it’s a treehouse community built in the middle of the actual jungle. While there are plenty of opportunities for swinging in hammocks and staring at the jungle’s lush greenery from your treetop deck, you’re also going to do a lot of walking and a monkey might steal your food. Those who visit with a sense of adventure and the expectation of an active vacation will be happiest here.

Each treehouse offers different traits and amenities, so it’s important to choose the right lodging for your needs. Some have electricity and some don’t. Some are located at basecamp while others are 40 minute uphill hikes into the jungle. Some have swinging drawbridges between rooms. Mine had an outdoor shower (and while there were no strangers able to view me, those monkeys sure do like to watch!) Living in the jungle comes with both benefits and limitations.

Speaking of limitations, there is no phone service, and WiFi is available at base camp only. Give yourself the gift of a week off the grid. If your treehouse does not have electricity (mine didn’t) you can charge your peripherals at base camp before heading back to civilization.

Respect for nature is top priority here, so jungle trails are not paved or lit. Read the Finca’s guidelines for what to bring and follow them: when they tell you to bring a headlamp and avoid rolling suitcases, it’s because they don’t want you tromping around in the pitch black dragging your Samsonite up a rocky hill.

A toilet note, since this falls under “expectations” as far as I’m concerned: you don’t flush toilet paper on the Finca. Each home has a biodigestor (similiar to a septic tank) and these units process waste, not paper. Practically, this means that your restroom will have a little bucket of pee paper in it.

You should also expect to encounter wild animals, and there is a chance you will encounter them in your house. I found a giant brown beetle noshing a fruit I’d carelessly left out, and a jungle rat made a midnight visit to my friend’s room. It’s best to be philosophical about this: you are sleeping in their tree, and the jungle is theirs, not yours, anyway.

If you can get the hand of that last idea (that the jungle is not yours, and that you are a guest who must treat your hosts with the honor they deserve), you’ll enjoy life of the Finca.

That said, the Finca is not for everyone. Those with a sense of adventure, a love for animals and a willingness to hike everywhere will do best here.

“Our treehouse bridge”

“Quick stop at a gorgeous waterfall”

Typical Costs When Visiting Finca Bellavista

Accommodation – Because the Finca is a community with vacation home rentals (rather than a hotel), prices vary depending on which treehouse you’d like to stay in, whether you’re visiting in the high or low season, and how many people will be staying at the house. Most treehouses range from $125-$225USD, and hiking distances from base camp vary, with some cabinas located at base camp and others a 45m walk uphill into the jungle.

Hiking is required. You will carry your own bags. No cleanup. If you are iffy on throwing your toilet paper into a garbage can instead of the toilet, this is not the trip for you: Fince homeowners are required to provide biodigesters. No electricity in some places.

Food – The Finca aims to be self-sustaining, which means that the food the community eats comes primarily from the farm’s garden. You can purchase a bag of groceries harvested from the garden when you arrive and cook in your treehouse (make sure your treehouse has cooking capabilities -most do but one or two dont!), or you can visit base camp for meals, which are served during specific hours, camp-style, and charged to an account you will pay when you check out. The Finca lifetyle is mostly plant-based, though eggs are available and meat is served every few days during base camp meals.

Transportation – Getting to the Finca is part of the fun. You’ll want to fly into San Jose, and then take a regional flight (probably via Costa Rican airline Sansa) to the southern city of Golfito. From there, connect with a driver who has a 4×4 vehicle, and get him to take you to the Finca’s basecamp. Leave yourself lots of time to make it back to San Jose… when I flew in, I experienced no problems, but a rainstorm delayed my outbound flight from Golfito to San Jose, and I almost missed my return to New York.

Don’t Miss This: Take A Jungle Night Hike

If you visit Finca Bellavista, you’ll notice that even though the population is small, it’s mightily well-organized. Assorted tours and activities are scheduled each week, and I almost skipped the night hike, figuring that staying in a treehouse would probably give me all the access to wildlife I could ever want. I was wrong*!

I have never seen more snaked and giant frogs in my life than I have when I went on a guided tour of the jungle after dusk one evening. The local guides know where animals like to hang out, and we saw a huge variety of monkeys, frogs, insects and even a sloth.

*I was wrong, in that my treehouse experiences with animals were less fun than stumbling upon a giant bullfrog on the night hike. This is not to say that there were no animals in my treehouse: a monkey tried to steal my food, I found a giant jungle bug nestled between two chayote in my grocery bag, and my roommate woke up with an enormous jungle rat at the foot of her bed one day (they’re cuter than normal rats, but it was still alarming.)