Duration: Full Day · Price: From $100 USD per person · Difficulty: Easy
About this tour
Guayabo is the largest and most important pre-Columbian archaeological site in Costa Rica — an entire town, occupied from roughly 1000 BC until it was abandoned around 1400 AD, set in premontane rainforest on the slopes of the Turrialba Volcano. What survives is remarkable: the circular stone foundations of dozens of conical houses, paved causeways radiating from open plazas, stairways and tombs, petroglyphs carved with jaguars and spirals, and an aqueduct system so well engineered that its channels still carry spring water today — earning Guayabo a World Heritage of Civil Engineering designation. We arrive in the morning, when the site is quietest and before the afternoon rain, and your guide turns a field of stones into a city: the layout, the engineering and the open question of why it was abandoned.
From Turrialba we cross into the Orosi Valley, the heartland of colonial Costa Rica. On the shore of Lake Cachí stand the ruins of the Ujarrás church, built in the late 1600s and left behind in 1833 when floods drove the town out of the valley — today a roofless stone shell in a quiet garden, with the reservoir and the Talamanca foothills behind it.
Lunch is at a local soda in Orosi — a home-style Costa Rican meal in the kind of family-run place where locals eat. Afterwards we visit the whitewashed adobe church of San José de Orosi, built in the mid-1700s and the oldest church in Costa Rica still in use, having outlasted the earthquakes that leveled much around it. The return runs through the coffee farms of Paraíso and Cartago, back in San José by late afternoon.
This is a full private day: your vehicle and bilingual guide are yours from morning pickup in the San José area to drop-off, and the Guayabo entrance fee and lunch are included. Pricing is per person and drops as your group grows — $225 for one traveler, $150 each for two, $117 each for three and $100 each for four.
What's included
- Private round-trip transport from the San José area
- Bilingual guide for the day
- Guayabo National Monument entrance fee
- Lunch at a local soda in Orosi
- Bottled water
Not included
- Drinks with lunch beyond water
- Gratuities
- Personal travel insurance
Good to know
- Route: Guayabo National Monument → Lake Cachí and the Ujarrás ruins → lunch at a local soda in Orosi → Orosi colonial church → return via Paraíso and Cartago
- A full day of about 9–10 hours door to door, with roughly 4.5 hours of driving on mountain roads
- Guayabo entrance and lunch are included in the price
- Wear closed walking shoes; Guayabo’s stone paths can be slick after rain
- Turrialba is one of the rainiest parts of the country — bring a light rain layer any time of year
- The Orosi church is an active parish — please dress respectfully inside
- We schedule around Guayabo’s opening hours (confirmed at booking)
- Groups of 5+ and children’s rates: ask us
- Free cancellation 48 hours prior